Why do you travel?

[Desperado Deluxe]

I know this seems like a silly question. Maybe its even been posted before but I wasn't able to find it. So well.. why do y'all travel? I'm sure everyone here who has travelled has been asked this question before. It seems to be a conversation starter for people who are unfimiliar with this lifestyle. I was even asked this question this evening although its been rolling around in my head for a long time.
Well here goes...

I like to travel because of the freedom
I like the ability to say fuck this and walk away.

I like not giving a fuck about the kardashians and escaping the other silly social situations that ensnare people.

The feeling when falling asleep beat and tired knowing all I have to do the next day is put one foot in front of the other and make a few more miles up the road.
I like the feeling of walking into a strange town beat, haggard, and dirty with a smile on my face.

Being alone on a dark starry night.

I like the feeling of the rain beating down on me. A cool wind on a hot day. The smell of the plants, the water, the earth.

I like the wonder of the places I go and people I meet.
I like the feeling of knowing that anything can happen.

I like the smell and sound of the trains.
The feeling of knowing I'm going to be in another town far away the next day.
I like being on the fringe of society knowing that I am part of that something else.
The wisdom that it gives me and the things I learn.

I guess a lot of it also has to with not agreeing with many aspects of society and finding my own happiness and peace in the world.

 

[Tude]

Cause I'm rather in a homebound situation, was going to say stuck but it's rather a choice situation with my 3 cats, a bf and need for health insurance etc so I embrace the being able to get out for 3 days here or 5 days there to enjoy the scenery, what's to do, the traveling - by bicycle, hiking or flying or busing somewhere and taking off from there.

I have some potential trips coming up and am researching all places around them - urban exploration, the weird stuff and other fun things, that I am good at. The planning is part of it. As to just picking up and going as many of our members are on the road for, I cannot now. Did years ago for a bit, much to Mom's unhappiness, but it is not part of the plan now. Just pieces of traveling which prove awesome.

Cool question/topic btw as well as your response

 

[kokomojoe]

You summed it up well. The freedom and just knowing I'm doing something other than wasting time. I was at an apartment and am now at my parents and being home just makes me feel worthless. Definitely a better feeling on the road knowing I'm going places.

 

[Sip]

Because when you're on the road, the next adventure is just one hopped train or one out-stuck thumb away, and new adventures are what make life worth living.

 

[landpirate]

I travel because I actually really want to settle down somewhere. I just haven't found the right place yet. I go to different places in my van, hang out there for a while and see how the land lies decide if I want to get involved in that community and then if not, I move on. The place I've spent most of this last year in may actually become my forever home, when I say place, I don't mean house. I just mean geographical area. I'm trying to get some land to live on!

I also go on what I call "holidays" where I just go off somewhere for fun as opposed a fact finding mission, but basically I travel in the hope to find somewhere to create a base camp.

 

[Deleted member 13433]

I'm not going to lie, eventually I'll be traveling way up north to get away from all other people and this so called great American way of life....

 

[psychofoamer]

I started traveling because I was fascinated by trains and just wanted to see where they would take me. Then all at once...my roommates moved out of our house and I was unable to keep the place on my own, so I moved in with my girlfriend who dumped me soon after, then I lost my job. I said fuck it and hit the road.

I thought it was gonna be a summer thing, but it turned into several years of cross crossing the country. It really got to a point to where I didn't really know what to do with myself besides hop out to the next town and repeat.

After a few winters outside hard traveling you kind of get over that shit. Now I'm working towards saving for a sailboat and traveling in that fashion...

After years of tramping. Conforming to the mainstream idea of success just seems dumb. I still want to be mobile, but I want the stability of a sleeping place. I'm getting older now. And rubber tramping is not something that really interests me. Rubber tramping is t tramping it's just driving around.

Well ya, it's also natural for humans to be nomadic. So I think I am just living in a natural way. Everyone else just lives in a zoo, trapped in their boxes, weather it be a car, or a house/apartment, work place etc. they live in boxes, I live on the earth. Well right now I'm in a box, but it's only temporary so I can achieve my goal of having a boat and being a sea tramp.

 

[psychofoamer]

To quote a 2nd St. Ragstompers song, "Some folks leave for work and others leave for fun, others run away from the barrel of a gun..." -13 Times.

Great tune

 

[Bizarre Odor]

I still don't really know why, and I may never find out. I find myself continually feeling dissatisfied with myself when I've rested for too long, and the same when I've traveled too long with no relief. Traveling doesn't answer any existential questions I have the same way straight jobs or straight pastimes and goals don't. Most of the people I meet traveling disgust me the same way most normie types do. As for now, traveling will probably never save me in the way I thought it could when I first started, but I don't see how I could ever stop or have never started.

 

[WanderLost Radical]

Born in a middle-class family, have my job, my place, etc. But I grew sick of it. It surrounds me with a culture made of capitalism, consumerism, politics and bullshit.

So I bought a backpack, a plane ticket and I'm leaving this october for Asia. Spending all my savings on traveling to try and find a lifestyle that suits me more. Kinda like @landpirate , I'm trying to find a place I can call home.

From fishermen villages in Asia to communes in North America, I want to learn cultures, try new things, flee from my comfort zone.

 

[psychofoamer]

I feel like a lot of people aren't running towards something but away from something.

Usually when shit gets thick I hit the railroad and go. It's not a mentally healthy decision by any means.

Someone said it in chat room last night: you start with a list of places you wanna go and after a while you have a list of places you never want to go to again, either because they suck or you can't cuz of warrants and citations you can't afford to pay..

 

[Art101]

I think everyone has hit on some aspect of it for me.Since I am stuck at the moment I definetly have an appreciation for the time I was able to freely travel.Also that anticipation of being able to it again are sometimes what keeps me going.

 

[MirandaLeigh]

9-5 has never been my thing, I don't like being around people enough to have a career in any of my interests. I like being in the middle of nowhere, with no schedule.
I have an anxiety disorder that makes appointments, deadlines, work days..all that too stressful. I need to not have anything set.

 

[hermitdan69]

To see new places, to be in comfortable weather, to make new friends, to learn new ways to survive and thrive, to find myself, to finish my bucket list, to live cheap, to avoid a pair of hit men hired by my ex.

 

[milkhauler]

I've been a wonderer all my life. Used to ride the city bus all hours of the night in LA at the age of 11. I get paid to travel now, but aftet 21 yrs I'm bowing out of the working stiff race. I never understood these people who are in a hurry to get tona job they hate, only to be in a hurry to gwt backm to a home and family they hate.

 

[wanderwhy]

because you'll never remember all those days you spent in the office or all the money you put in your bank account when you're on your death bed.

 

[milkhauler]

because you'll never remember all those days you spent in the office or all the money you put in your bank account when you're on your death bed.

Yeah. No one ever says on thier death bed,

"I wish I woulda made more money"

 

[Desperado Deluxe]

I guess when I was growing up I felt oppressed. I didn't agree with how my family operated and what they were trying to pressure me to be. All that's really a long story so ill leave it at that.

By the time I was 18 I was living in a punk crash pad, I Had a group of friends I did food not bombs with and other various activism and DIY type things. Eventually we all went different ways and travelled.
It just seemed like it was the thing to do. The town we grew up in had a lot of local travellers that would come and go during the seasons.

Eventually I just left all my things at that house and left. It seemed like a recurring theme there. That all the things left in the house were from people that just eventually up and travelled. That's pretty much how I got started in a nutshell. And in doing so I discovered a lot. My first trip was magical.

I had already learned a lot from being around my friends about dumpster diving, how to hitch hike, and survive in general. I met some old time hobos that showed me the ropes. It just seemed like it was part of my destiny. Like I was meant to do this.

The normal standard of life always seemed impractical. I remember being the kid in school that wanted a simple life even if living in a tent, while a lot of other kids wanted things that seemed unobtainable. I guess being oppressed in my youth discouraged me from wanting more physical things because I realised how much of a pain in the ass they were to achieve.

Kinda felt bad when my mom asked me if I lived my life the way I did because of how I grew up. That was a toughy. I just kinda shrugged it off. But now my family has pretty much accepted this as part of my lifestyle. They realise I can go pretty much anywhere and achieve most of what I put my mind to. It has been an enlightening experience for us all really. I can kinda see the great cosmic reason for it [emoji6].

So now after a bunch of ups and downs and back and fourths I'm just wondering where my next step is going to be.

 

[ben wejadd]

It's simple to meet new people