Question What's your dream?

[Section8]

Money, logistics, legalities and ... any other constraints aside, what's you dream? Where or what you do if you could do anything?

I'll go first. Living out of sailboat. The first time I laid eyes on the ocean, was during a hitchhiking trip 6 years ago that this website inspired. But damn, that first time seeing the ocean on the East coast, I just sat on a bench for hours, admiring the serenity of it.

Now I'm sure most of you here have watched it, but Hold Fast inspired me like no other documentary. I've always looked at drifting in terms of van dwelling, cycling or hitchhiking. It never crossed my mind to do it in a sailboat. You have true freedom on the ocean. You can move yourself the largest possible distance away from society in a sailboat. It can be just you and mother nature out there.

What's your dream?

 

[superphoenix]

Dreamt of biking down the West Coast. Did it.

Then dreamt of train hopping from city to city, playing songs on my guitar as I went.
Did that too.

Then dreamt of hitching across the U.S. starting with $0. Did that as well.

Now just looking to complete the handful of other challenges I have for myself (kayaking down a whole river, riding trains through all the states etc)

Homie asked me what I’d be doing differently if I had just a month to live and I told him

Honestly?

Wouldn’t do anything different

 

[ali]

To me i think a dream is something i would like to do in theory, but in reality would fucking suck.

Which owning a boat and sailing off into the sunset is one of those things. I love the idea of living on a boat, but actually having to maintain a piece of machinery every day, having to scrub the decks and scrape the hull and sew sails and oil engines sounds like a pain in the motherfucking ass. I am 100% sure i would hate it in real life. But the notion of living alone on the ocean will remain a dream of mine, because the idea is romantic.

Sometimes i wonder if riding trains will remain a dream of mine too. I am a railfan, i know several people who ride freight, and i love the idea of occupying what otherwise is just unused space on a vehicle that by all accounts could and should provide at least a basic passenger service. But do i really want to risk getting in trouble with the law? No, not really, not when that would immediately make it more difficult for me to get jobs and/or visas to live overseas. I don't want to hide or sneak or be a "ninja", i want to sit idly in an open boxcar and look out at America rolling by, nodding at folks working in the fields, free and unafraid. But that shit doesn't happen any more. Maybe it never did.

I dream of going to the Middle East, of traveling through the desert, seeing some of the most ancient places in the world, ruins of civilizations that crumbled thousands of years ago. But do i want to deal with all the hoopla that comes with being outwardly identified as a woman in many of those countries today? Eh, probably not.

Perhaps my biggest dream is the one that is utterly unattainable. I want to travel to space! I wish i could live in the era where humankind escaped the Earth's gravity well, where visiting the Moon, or Mars, or leaving our solar system was a viable option. Traveling through space seems even more enticing to me than traveling on the sea. Just going way out there, becoming a tiny insignificant speck in the wide open universe. It'd be incredible. Doubt it'll happen for me or any ordinary person in my lifetime. Oh well. I have books and computer games and TV shows and movies to get me there in spirit.

Other "dreams" like riding a bicycle across Canada and the US, or taking a boat to China, or bumming around Europe on trains and ferries, that stuff is things i always wanted to do - and did do - and i'm glad i did. Maybe once upon a time they were dreams, but now they're just stuff i did.

Perhaps a dream only counts as a dream during the period when you still believe it isn't possible?

Once you believe it's possible, it just becomes another thing you plan to do, and eventually you do do.

Heh heh.

Doo-doo.

 

[Glass Roads]

A cheap homebase and travelling the states to start. I got a trailer Im fixing up. Gonna make that a home and small glass shop. Then try to get a small trailer shop and a truck big enough to pull it. Go town to town and work small labor gigs and blow glass. Then on to the next one when that gets boring.
Really wanna work on getting better at getting small labor gigs and traveling the northwest to start.
Hoppig a train at some point is also on the bucket list.
Maybe a hitchhiking race too.

 

[iamwhatiam]

The dream is to start sailing around the world. I've been getting experience out on the water in my smaller sailboat these past few years.

In a few days, I start a 2 year long marine maintenance tech program at a college in this region that covers everything from repairing diesel/outboard engines, to electrical systems onboard, plumbing/sanitation, rigging, composites, drivetrains, advanced systems on board, you name it! I'll learn all the skills to fix shit that will inevitably break down on my own boat and my hope is maybe to eventually earn a little side income picking up gigs at whatever ports I come in to along the way to help fund my travels.

Sometime within the next couple years, I'll buy the bigger boat and once I finish school and finish any outfitting of the boat to make it proper bluewater material......I'm casting off the lines. I'm thinking first goal will be to sail down to Chile and explore the waterways of Patagonia.

 

[iamwhatiam]

I love the idea of living on a boat, but actually having to maintain a piece of machinery every day, having to scrub the decks and scrape the hull and sew sails and oil engines sounds like a pain in the motherfucking ass.

I've heard it said that sailing around the world is just "fixing your boat in exotic locations"

 

[Jimmy Beans]

i know several people who ride freight, and i love the idea but do i really want to risk getting in trouble with the law? No, not really, not when that would immediately make it more difficult for me to get jobs and/or visas to live overseas. I don't want to hide or sneak or be a "ninja", i want to sit idly in an open boxcar and look out at America rolling by, nodding at folks working in the fields, free and unafraid. But that shit doesn't happen any more. Maybe it never did.

Just wanted to chime in here real quick to say- Usually you're not getting thrown in jail your first time caught on a train. Usually you're just having your picture taken and if your info doesn't show up in their system as having been caught on RxR property before they're very likely just telling you to not do it again, gtfo railroad property and that's about it. Get caught again, that's another story. But yeah in general you're probably gonna be ok the first time caught. I've never been in legal trouble from train riding. I don't do it as much as many other people here but I've done it plenty of times and it hasn't caused me any legal issues that have gotten in my way of getting a job.

Also, sometimes I sit with my feet dangling out the side of a boxcar enjoying a nice beer watching the sun set. If I happen to roll over an old country road crossing and there's a car sitting there, I'm already seen, so why not give em a nod? Those things still happen. It might mot be the smartest way to ride but it certainly happens here and there.

 

[superphoenix]

Just wanted to chime in here real quick to say- Usually you're not getting thrown in jail your first time caught on a train. Usually you're just having your picture taken and if your info doesn't show up in their system as having been caught on RxR property before they're very likely just telling you to not do it again, gtfo railroad property and that's about it. Get caught again, that's another story. But yeah in general you're probably gonna be ok the first time caught. I've never been in legal trouble from train riding. I don't do it as much as many other people here but I've done it plenty of times and it hasn't caused me any legal issues that have gotten in my way of getting a job.

Also, sometimes I sit with my feet dangling out the side of a boxcar enjoying a nice beer watching the sun set. If I happen to roll over an old country road crossing and there's a car sitting there, I'm already seen, so why not give em a nod? Those things still happen. It might mot be the smartest way to ride but it certainly happens here and there.

While I agree that you mostly won’t get in too much trouble, also depends on the location. If I get caught in some spots in Alabama, I know I might expect jail time, for instance.

 

[Jimmy Beans]

Yeah true. There's definitely those outliers. I just didn't want to see someone let their dreams remain dreams from that one fear alone. In my opinion it isn't a rational fear. If the standard procedure was lock em up throw away the key on sight first offense then yeah.. that's a rational fear but it just isn't that way most anywhere first time.

 

[Shirma]

Great plan man exactly the same here in May Im starting boat building course, and will finish it in two years time, hope to have enough money by then to finaly buy my own boat, since in a way is true what they say about sailing that is just fixing boats in awesome places, one way or another it does get you to those places and keeps you occupied. What kind of boat do you have?

 

[The Toecutter]

Eventually, I want to tour the U.S. with an electric assist velomobile that I designed and built. I'm preparing the vehicle for this task, and it will be capable of travelling at car speeds. In most states I will have to limit the electric assist to 750W/28 mph for my unlicensed, unregistered, no tags/plates ass to be "legal" as a "bicycle", but in states where this isn't an issue or when I'm out in the country with no one to witness me, I'll be able to electronically remove the limit and move like a car because this thing will be capable of triple-digit top speeds, have 10 kW of power on tap to out-accelerate most cars, and will be able to corner like a race car. Plus for brief periods, with the motor disabled, the slippery aerodynamics of this vehicle will still allow me to pedal it to like 40+ mph on flat ground in a sprint even when fully loaded with 100 lbs of gear, and go much faster down hills. It's really a sports car pretending to be a "bicycle", and is very cheap to operate, going tens of miles per penny worth of electricity. IMO, the ideal vessel for someone who wants to get around as inexpensively as possible with their gear, and doesn't want to commit to all of the risk and inconvenience of train hopping.

I want to ride around the "bad" areas of the U.S. metro areas and document the decay, as well as meet the homebum locals and dirty kids, give them food/booze/supplies if they need/want them, and hear of/document(with permission) their experiences. If they have bikes in need of any repairs, I'll fix them up for them with the tools/parts I carry on hand. I'd like to go from city to city doing this, and filming my rides around various neighborhoods. There's a lot of this giant strip mall of a country I haven't seen, even if I've already "seen it all" just by virtue of the cities I've already been in being so homogenous in appearance. And there will be no shortage of urbex opportunities along the way.

 

[sevedemanos]

spec ops was always mine. but i refuse to be vaccinated. (and now too old to join the service)

would like to write a screenplay. get it published.

 

[borek921]

Does it have to be realistic? If not, then seeing Queen perform with Freddy still kickin'.

 

[Marticus]

My dream would be to return to some of the medieval villages I visited in Spain over 20 years ago that were perched high on top of a mountain with ruins of castles and cathedrals overlooking a small plaza with a flowing fountain surrounded by a jumble of small stone houses with red clay tile roofs.

Usually there were just a few oldsters hanging out together in the doorways of the few houses that weren’t abandoned as the population had moved to the nearby coastal tourist towns where they could find jobs. Looking at the map now, I think some of the names of these places were Sant Mateu, Xert, Rossell, Enroig, Cervera del Maestre – tiny villages near the border of Catalunya and Valencia that were less than an hour car ride to the Mediterranean coast.

Back then I heard that the province of Castellon was offering young people free land and houses in some of these places to try to repopulate the countryside. I wanted to look into that, but instead I wound up moving back to the U.S. I’ve often wondered if it worked and if there are any old villages full of Spanish punks and hippies living off the grid in some of these places. If so, my dream would be to join them.

 

[sevedemanos]

its spain for myself too. i was inspired by orwell’s homage to catalonia. i guess theyd worked out a sort of grass roots communism there at that time, before europe was overtaken by fascists. and because my novel is going to be based around that i want to find a way to travel spain and learn more about it

 

[EJ1312]

Off grid homestead in Ottawa river valley.


Dogs

Farm animals

Veggies

And self sustainability

 

[virgo red]

being in a band is high high high on my bucket list and has been for a very long time.

doesnt even matter if anything happens with it. i just wanna be a frontwomen tbh and play in front of crowds and shit with good, with solid musicians beside me

would also like to see noel gallagher live at least once.

 

[Marticus]

its spain for myself too. i was inspired by orwell’s homage to catalonia. i guess theyd worked out a sort of grass roots communism there at that time, before europe was overtaken by fascists. and because my novel is going to be based around that i want to find a way to travel spain and learn more about it

Yeah, there's nothing like 50 years of living under a fascist dictator to teach people what freedom is really all about. I lived there 25 years after Franco died, and people still despised him. They lived soooo much freer than Americans, despite all our ostentatious talk about being the freest country on Earth.

I haven't been back in 20 years, but I really hope Spaniards' love of freedom and their tolerance of each other hasn't changed too much. Some day I'll find out for myself...

 

[sevedemanos]

spec ops was always mine. but i refuse to be vaccinated. (and now too old to join the service)

would like to write a screenplay. get it published.

after some googling i found that no i am not too old to enlist yet and they also did away with the vax mandate on military personnel.

i am debt free. all medical has been taken care of.. guess now the question is where the nearest recruiting office is.

just wanna get away from all the addicts and rich people that laugh at you for living outside when there was never any choice to begin with. will also look at it as an opportunity to be sober for awhile.

i liked job corps when i was 24. made a lot of friends. the dream awaits.

 

[wanderbusk]

To walk the perimeter of the US while street performing. I'm preparing now and will be starting at the end of this year or January of 2025.