Taking the Plunge: Why We Journey?

I’m at all times stunned on the quantity of consideration my well-used and abused BMW F800GS attracts wherever I’m going. Although the bike stands out with its tall stance, ample battle scars and world traveler look, it’s not the bike that really pursuits others—it’s the concept this machine can carry a rider to locations they’ve solely dreamt of.

Everywhere I cease I’m requested the place I’m going and the place I’ve been. Luckily, my job permits ample journey on many various kinds of bikes, but it surely’s curious that I don’t get the identical response when using a Harley, Ducati or a sport touring rig… it’s the large journey bikes that encourage desires of journey. They’re the vessels that elicit visions of journeys past the borders of countries and past the place the asphalt ends.

But one thing modified just lately that appears to draw a wholly new set of questions than when my bike was a younger steed with contemporary paint and low miles. When the bike was new the questions had been typically about it, not my travels. But my steed is now at a stage the place irrespective of how a lot I scrub it, it by no means fairly appears to be like clear and can’t disguise its plain patina of journey.

I’ve additionally been residing in a close to homeless situation for nearly a yr. Most of the time I’m on the highway for work and when “home” I stick with pals, household, in low-cost accommodations and even camp. I work at reducing each doable nook to purge private debt and save sufficient funds for an prolonged journey by South America. Because of this, my bike is in fixed “travel” mode and though I keep clean-shaven and well-groomed, there’s one thing that screams the unmistakable look of “traveler.”

I first observed this shift in questioning about six months in the past when an area tollbooth attendant requested me the place I used to be from and the place I used to be heading, anticipating a solution to incorporate worldwide borders, not merely a go to to my physician. Since then it’s been occurring with growing frequency: Middle-aged males driving minivans and sensible commuters ask the place I’ve been; outdated males discuss how they used to experience and the locations they dreamed of touring; and {couples} share their desires of neighborhood journey.

“It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness I have in mind… for we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not we are homesick most for the places we have never known.”—Carson McCullers

It’s virtually a convention amongst ADV overlanders to adorn their journey bikes with stickers defining all over the place they’ve been. But some paint their bikes in stickers and adventurized elements, not in preparation for a deliberate journey however quite to emulate the look of an adventurer. I see this because the signature of those that dream of journey. The actuality is that almost all of us are sure by life’s extra home duties, so we are likely to “escape” by watching tv, studying books, residing by the adventures of others—and if fortunate, a two-week journey yearly. I spend my days motivating and arming ADV riders with the abilities wanted for journey, whether or not home or worldwide, whether or not they’re planning for weekends or years on the highway. In flip, many return with tales of grand adventures that depart me with new desires of journey to faraway locations.

Life typically presents alternatives that may solely be realized if we’re prepared to take motion and seize maintain of them. For me, this occurred when a sudden change in life unburdened youngsters, marriage and property, solely my job remained. Rather than eager for the previous, I reached to the longer term. No longer do I select to stay by the adventures of others. I do not know what the longer term will current, however at 43 years outdated I’m younger sufficient to nonetheless sort out the challenges of what lies forward. I’ve at all times recognized that desires solely come true if we take motion—there’ll by no means be an ideal time to make the transfer, and there’ll at all times be unfinished enterprise left behind.