Explanation of The Journey

After my freshman year at ISU, I took a short trip to backpack around Europe. I became hooked on the backpacker/hobo lifestyle but did not like particular aspects of how I went about my trip and developed my own philosophy of travel. These aspects are what have shaped the travel style and the type of trip I am embarking on.

"Around the world by heading west, without planes and on a shoestring budget."

Around the World…

The greatest distance for any type of journey. What a colossal accomplishment to actually make it all the way around. One of the best perks to setting this stipulation is that I would never pass the same place twice, never turn around, only go straight until I suddenly come back to where I started, which brings me to a spatial enigma. If I go straight, away from a place and keep going until I come back to, what would seem to be, the same place… can it really be the same place, or would the place be the same and I be the spatial paradox? (Physics majors are not allowed to answer this)

…By Heading West…

Really there were only two logical decisions when it came to picking a direction; I want to avoid the polar icecaps so that left east or west. I chose west because of all of the great immigrations, and the small ones, that have affected my life were all westward movements. The first American settlers came from the east and then expanded west across the continent. The Great Potato Famine brought my Irish ancestors and the Bolshevik Revolution brought my Russian great grandparents. They settled with Native American women, one of which gave birth to my grandfather, who eventually hitchhiked from Arkansas to California. Let’s just say that I come from a long line or westward traveling, lonely men.

Besides the historical reasons for heading west there is one more very large factor affecting my decision to head west over east: time travel. That’s right, I said time travel. By heading west I gain an hour each time I enter a new time zone. This means that if I go all the way around the world and, according to you I was gone 300 days, to me I would have only experienced being gone for 299 days. If taking some time off after college to experiment with time travel isn’t a good use of time, I don’t know what is. Hopefully future employers will see it my way.

There is one last reason why I like heading west. It's a bit corny. Over the duration of this trip I will be following the sun's path, ending each day by heading into the sunset. This is the reason for the photo at the top of the page. I like it, I think it sets up a nice ambiance.

…Without Planes...

The use of planes is great for when you are in a rush but, I am not in a rush. When I flew to Europe I hated how I got on a plane, fell asleep and woke up halfway around the world. I missed all the transition areas between cultures and places. While cruising at 500 miles an hour at 35,000 feet, think about how much I missed. Most importantly, I had no feel for how far away I was and, because of that disconnect with the distance, never got an appreciation for being far away. On this trip I want to feel like I am on the other side of the planet, like I’ve covered a lot of distance. These are the reasons why I want to stay away from planes.

*** Although this philosophy is still very important to me. As of September 19th I boarded a plan to start making my way to Hawiia and then on to Asia. I had exauhsted all other means of travel. Please read the corresponding entry for more of an explanation ***

…On a Shoestring Budget…

I didn’t get to choose my budget, I got to choose when to take the trip. Time allows for now but my wallet happens to be very thin. Even if I did have a lot of money I still think I would travel cheaply just because I tend to get to know a country better that way. Who would you rather meet on a train in India: The westernized businessperson in first class or the culturally traditional person riding coach with their chickens? I love chicken… I’m hungry. I’ll be saving money wherever I can by sleeping under the stars or eating canned food from grocery stores instead of at restaurants. I’ll try to pick up odd jobs wherever I can along the way. For the amount of distance I want to travel I am going to need to stretch a dollar pretty far.

Failure

I try not to talk about this too much but I feel that I have to. In all seriousness my money could run out much quicker than I estimate. To make this trip a success, I'm going to need a lot of luck and I may not get it. I know I will at LEAST, at bare minimum luck, ride my motorcycle across the U.S. and to the west coast, seeing much family and beauty on the way. I'll be happy with a failure like that.