# So how did it all start??



## Backpack Overland (Mar 29, 2015)

So as the title says, how did everyone start doing what you you're doing, travelling i mean. 
I'd be really interested in hearing how everyone started out. 

For me it was an unexpected affair, i was on track to qualify in the job i'd been dreaming off for years then a few months from qualifying all shit breaks loose and everything just ends up going down hill from there. I quit the job i loved and became a recluse only going out for the essential. Depression had hit me hard even now i don't know what started it, all i know is in a strange way it probably helped me more than i initially realised. It allowed me to discover who i really was and not what some education system had wanted me to become. it also fuelled my love for being outdoors and travelling. 

Now a year later i've never looked back and am happy with myself. In time i may go back to it but for now i am happy and intend to keep it that way. 

So how did everyone else start? 

Sam @Backpack Overland


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## 1keg (Mar 29, 2015)

Just turned 18 ran to new mexico to get away from memorys took a greyhound back to Ohio to get my license got a DUI in a fuckin week lol started hitchhiking n hoppin trains n last year got a bike n trailer n pulled a husky Shepard round pa n md. Now I'm in cali bout to get back to Ohio to get my bike n go tour the great Allegheny passage again. Nothing better then the mountains fresh air fresh water set snares for squirrel. Catch trout in 5 mins with just a hook n line


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## Deleted member 11392 (Mar 29, 2015)

1keg said:


> lol started hitchhiking n hoppin trains n last year got a bike n trailer n pulled a husky Shepard round pa n md.




"Im in alamogordo right now* never hopped* I thumb it but have been trying to meet up with some cool folks to learn the train ropes hit me up"..... You posted that 3 weeks ago in another thread. Keep your lies straight buddy.


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## 1keg (Mar 29, 2015)

Iv been on like 2 trains like 7 miles I don't consider that a real learning experience iv done it but not anuf to figure it out. Iv never got a train cross country or out a state would be cool tho


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## 1keg (Mar 29, 2015)

CSX from Clinton oh to massilon alwase stops in massilon


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## briancray (Mar 29, 2015)

I just quit my first job out of college at a construction company after working my way up over a year and half to get into a desirable position. I got an offer from a geotechnical engineering firm, which was what I went to school for and I thought it would be my dream job. I worked my ass off putting in 50+ hours a week and clocking in a little over 40 to be within the budget. I stayed late, worked weekends when no one else would and sacrificed much of my life for 8 months. I walked in one day and asked to borrow the company truck to move my things to a new apartment in a cheaper area. I thought it was great that they let me borrow the vehicle. I came back to work and about a week later my boss brought me into his office. What I did not realize was my boss had known for 2 months already that they were going to lay me off. I just put in so much time working weekends when no one else would; the first weekend they did not have work; he fed me the news. I was pissed because I just signed a lease. Aside from that they gave me ten minutes to get off the premises like I was a criminal. It was that day I realized that I needed to make changes in my life. I spent so much time worrying about my job and I looked back on the past 3 years of my life with no experience other than work experience. I always told myself I would travel. I just didn't know when. I spent the next few months selling everything I owned, getting camping gear, some cheap bicycle touring gear and a map of the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail.

I never toured before let alone did anything remotely close to what I was about to do. I ended up biking 2 months from DE to CO wild camping the whole time and covering a distance of 2,600 miles. When I got to Colorado it was so cold and snowing I could not continue onward so I found a job at a ski shop working on tuning skis and they hooked me up with a person who needed a room filled on a six month lease. I stayed there for until April of 2014 and began to live a transient lifestyle after that. I hitched for a little bit out west for a few weeks, ended up rock climbing in Utah and Canon City, CO. Eventually found work in New York working at a skydiving company packing parachutes (The brother of an employee I worked with owns the company, he offered me a job over a few beers at a brewery) I lived there for the summer in bumble fuck packing chutes and earning enough to get my Basic A license. From there I connected with a Net friend from China who found me a ticket to Beijing for under $300 USD one-way. I sent in paperwork for a visa and ended up going to China in November of 2014. What I originally planned to do was work in China as an English teacher in Chengdu. After realizing how shitty the air was and that I did not really like city life I booked the cheapest ticket I could find to Kuala Lumpur. From there I hitched for a little over a month and met a friend in Thailand to rock climb for a few weeks. I continued hitching and ended up traveling through Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore until ending up in the Philippines where I've been chilling for the past few weeks. I'm headed back to Phoenix to connect with some old friends and found temporary work in North Dakota.

Many other people have more interesting stories, different circumstances and more experience, but I can honestly say I am not going back to my career. I have it to fall back on, but I'd rather live my life how I'm living it now. I wasted too much time worrying about money when you really don't need much to travel. If you keep in touch with people you meet whom you really connect with on a personal level and work any job in any location you can do whatever you want imo. That's a brief overview of the last two years of my life.


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## Jaguwar (Mar 30, 2015)

THAT. That is what I want. An interesting life.


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