Travelling Forever

[London Ben]

Is anyone out there travelling indefinitely, having no home to fall back on, no family to greet them back?

How do you deal with it?

 

[dharma bum]

i thought i was doing that (indefinite traveling) but things change everyday. when you live day-to-day that's kind of how it goes... no huge plans for the future (at least not for a lot of us). since i was a little kid i remember wanting to be a hermit or someone that lives out there and off of the land. that's still my main goal, just a little differently now. i'd like to find a piece of land next to a river with a freshwater spring, dig my own well, have my goats, chicken, maybe some other animals... but that's to come later.

i stopped traveling full time when i came back to my hometown and found an old friend that i'd been in love with since the moment we met. she was a piercer (still is) and we'd met about 8 yrs ago. soon after she moved to fl, atl, all around cali to pierce, and soon after that i was on the road. i mainly hitched, but rode a few trains with people... enough to get a ccg by doing it alone), but i hate going to jail so i mainly stuck to hitchin.
coming back to my hometown (macon, ga) and meeting that same girl a month after she just moved back messed with my mind a little.
i stuck around.
i eventually got a job making pizza while we were still hooking up and getting to know one another again, and then an efficiency apt, and then we got a place together.
we just got married on 11-11-11 after 2 1/2 yrs. together. i'm in school now for aircraft sheetmetal and i'm 28. i'm going to school for free (actually getting paid to), and my body is tired of the road. i feel like i'm 40 sometimes!

there's not always something to fall back on, family or not, but you have to make something happen to fall back on. either that or wait to become a homebum. you can't travel forever (in my opinion), your body and health won't let you after a certain time of mistreating it. i have terrible knee and back problems that will only get worse from here.

but that's just my story. end the end, you make what you want to happen, happen. put on your nikes and just do it

 

[barefootinbabylon]

You got married on 11/11/11... That's pretty darn spectacular. Anddd that is all. Nice post, though, fo' sho'.

 

[menu]

i have a similar story to dharma. ya just never know. I traveled "indefinately" for almost 11 years. taking some time off due to getting locked up and a few vacas from the road. I honestly was one who lived and thought I would die by the road. still possible so who knows.

 

[Cosmic Rob]

i find that in the end, you're the only one who you can REALLY rely on. (but keep an eye out for brothers and sisters) family either seem get stupid or bridges get burned and some or some "friends" can leave you out cold and steal your shit, but that doesn't mean good people don't exist.
its important to stay strong when you're on your own. i find a good way to deal with being alone/independent is learning to be your own doctor on a lot of levels.
-go learn how to blow glass or pick up a trade when you're on the road, its fun to do + you get a source of income and a cool way to meet like minded people
-if you take a basic med class, you can take better care of yourself and you can become more valuable as a team member no matter where you go.
-primitive building is cool, it makes you tougher and you learn how much freedom you REALLY have.
-kung fu is always cool AND its useful AND you can teach others if you have the $kills
if you ever find that you're bored, know that its just because of a lack of creativity and that you should stop to think. you're not even on the grid, we (the bad asses) have the ability to travel from n.y.c. to san fran on less than $100. if that isnt freedom, i dont know what is. this is earth and im a human; anything beyond that is my choice to achieve or fail at.

you cant blame things for the way they are, you can only use them to your advantage.
alot of things take money to do, but if you have a silver tongue and get a little self confidence, anything can be free.

 

[The Cack]

Dealing with indefinite traveling?

Depends on what you want to do.

For me, I hit the road as a journeyman busker-type. And I think the natural progression for most musicians who goes this route is the need to do more and more. I started in almost every college town and large city busking, then getting frustrated by the "sameness" of it all. That sameness certainly needed a coping mechanism, and I think that's what kills most travelers. Then, I tried being a band on tour (which is basically rubber tramping with a quasi-tour schedule). That, too, became kind of bland (and the money less than busking!). After that, it was a "busking tour", which combined the both ideas and made infinitely more cash.

Now, the next logical step is that my fiance and I are going to Europe and Asia to busk 'round the world. Is it indefinite? Sure. Look at most nationally-touring musicians--they're basically travelers with a sharper agenda and more resources.

Its hard for me to imagine what it must be like for a person who doesn't play music to travel. Most people who didn't play usually had some sort of angst-based anarcho platform to base their lives on. And I believe that kind of fades in the same proportion to youth. Others seemed kind of lost or only did it for a temporary stretch of their lives.

With no family, the government usually doles out programs for those to re-assimilate back into the system (ie free college, food stamps, Section 8). I've known TONS of ex-travelers who rock it this way, keeping a traveler's aesthetic ("traveling indefinitely") while being homebound, plotting the next adventure.

 

[Hillbilly Castro]

i find that in the end, you're the only one who you can REALLY rely on. (but keep an eye out for brothers and sisters) family either seem get stupid or bridges get burned and some or some "friends" can leave you out cold and steal your shit, but that doesn't mean good people don't exist.
its important to stay strong when you're on your own. i find a good way to deal with being alone/independent is learning to be your own doctor on a lot of levels.
-go learn how to blow glass or pick up a trade when you're on the road, its fun to do + you get a source of income and a cool way to meet like minded people
-if you take a basic med class, you can take better care of yourself and you can become more valuable as a team member no matter where you go.
-primitive building is cool, it makes you tougher and you learn how much freedom you REALLY have.
-kung fu is always cool AND its useful AND you can teach others if you have the $kills
if you ever find that you're bored, know that its just because of a lack of creativity and that you should stop to think. you're not even on the grid, we (the bad asses) have the ability to travel from n.y.c. to san fran on less than $100. if that isnt freedom, i dont know what is. this is earth and im a human; anything beyond that is my choice to achieve or fail at.

you cant blame things for the way they are, you can only use them to your advantage.
alot of things take money to do, but if you have a silver tongue and get a little self confidence, anything can be free.

fucking great post, I like everything you said.
I'm thinking once the semester starts up again at the state colleges I'm gonna start sitting in on emt/paramedic classes. The medical field is one of my weakest spots right now, although I've been studying herbal medicine like crazy. It's the fuckin truth though, you're your only ally some days living like that. It's mostly in your head. Once you start to think with logic and reasoning rather than emotions (and the media sure as hell trains us to be sensitive), you get past the days where you're lonely/hungry/cold and realize that every need you have, whether it's food shelter water sex transport whatever, is your responsibility to meet. If you can't meet it, you can't expect anyone to meet it for you when you're on the road. Not having a fallback makes shit real exhilarating, makes travel life badass, but it's alot of mental and physical stress. I don't know if I'll still be traveling after age 30-35, y'know. It's nice to have peaceful times, sometimes I take a break and work on farms until I've got a few hundred, then rent a dry cabin for a month or two and just kick it, taking it easy, drinking homebrew and writing poems. It's a great life I wouldn't trade for anything.

 

[Cosmic Rob]

cack and boffalo both have really good points. when you have a goal you are ALWAYS going to have *something* to do, even though it may be full of same-ness. but when youre going all ninja/survivor man, its more of a spiritual experience where you really find yourself or go mad depending on where and how long you go for. if you look at the obituary (no offences to the dead) alot of the people on our side of humanity die by their own hand or by things that could have been thought about before hand to ensure safty. when you travel in a group, its very important to make sure shit is sorted out and talk about whats cool and not cool, even if you seem lame. id rather play dad than dead. and when youre alone, (you know on the inside) its important to know that its okay for you to be alone. like, dont go to alaska and not read maps. thats how you end up as a memorial in a bus. balance is the key, but its not about balance. said man could do it on his own, no doubt. but if he had a buddy, they might have had better luck. make sure youre always on a path of growth too; never be bored. always do shit you're scared of. smoke more weed.