I need something for the road. I can't sit and listen to the humming of the tires on the road, that would drive me crazy. And it doesn't really distract me from thinking. If I am listening to a song that I enjoy and I've heard it many times before, I tend to regard it as pleasant background noise... so, I still get a lot of thinking done. I mean, really. The only electronics I am taking are my hand-held GPS unit, MP3 player, and my cell phone. I'm refusing to take my laptop EVEN though I have things to do on it like look for new work, do my resume, etc. I just can't bring it with me because I'll spend more time then I would like to just surfing the web. When I went to Myrtle Beach I took my laptop. The whole week I was there, I probably spent less than 2 hours total on it... and i only went online when the sun was down or it was lightening crazy. And I was with family... so they kept me distracted, as well. This trip there will be too much downtime that I'd rather spend thinking about my life and how I want to live it. I'm 25 and have, in my opinion, 75 years of productive life ahead of me. Yes, that's right. I live my day to day on the assumption I will live to be 100. So, I got to figure out who I am or what kind of person I can create. I hope to do that one day. Too bad I don't own a bike Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Yes, very true. My current theme song: CKY (Camp Kill Yourself) - Suddenly Tragic That song rings a lot of truth with me... I have problems will maintaining momentum because I allow nay-sayers to kill it. This trip is helping me to get around that. I got people saying do it and others saying "you're dumb" and "how about you do something more productive." I like the feeling of saying "fuck off" - though, maybe not just that way.
For me it would just get boring. I don't have enough thoughts to keep me preoccupied. I've done quite a bit of soul-searching and introspection recently. A big part of who "I" am is the aspect of me which relates to other people. I don't care too much about material possessions, but human interaction is an important part of me that I don't think I could do without it for that long. That's exactly the assumption I live by. I plan to die exactly on my hundredth birthday. It seems to be working so far.
You are so right. I am very extraverted, yet I can go out for days at a time and bicycle tour. I like to be around people, but I also like to be alone. My wife is the same way.
That's a shame. I generally take outside stimulation and use it to get lost in my mind with thoughts. I'm very hypersensitive to my environment and my mind seems to always be on overdrive. I think a better motto would be something like this: Live forever, but know that tomorrow is your day of death. The thing about extroverts is that they crave stimulation... like they aren't very sensitive to dopamine. Introverts, on the other hand, are sensitive to dopamine. Hence, they tire easily after a stimulating event. Introverts like to take things slow why extroverts like things fast, and in large quantities. If you really are an extrovert, I wouldn't surprised if while you're biking alone that you tend to bike fast or push somethinga little close to the edge just to make up for not being stimulated in other ways. I was born an extrovert but I generally don't find my stimulation with people. But, I feel like I lost that extroverted fire I once had as a little kid. I was the kid that lead other kids. I was the kid that claimed land to build "forts" of my own design. I hired other kids to help me run my window cleaning business. I was the one with all the ideas on how to spend time. I had the best magic show in the neighborhood. Now I'm 25 and in some ways, I just don't care anymore. I feel like I have been numbed some how. Internet? TV? Video Games? I don't know the cause. I feel the fire sometimes, so I know it isn't dead. I hope this trip does something for me. Late nights, looking up at the stars, figuring out what's been up my ass lately.
bike = bicycle. not motorcycle. Not fancy bicycle. just regular kind of bicycle. Not expensive. cheaper than a car.
Well, I wouldn't know... I wasn't working at the time and my mother had been working on various projects at Hospira for years almost constantly, so after her last one ended she took some time off. I wasn't going to school at the time so I didn't have that to worry about either, so I went as well. We had to go to towns at various points for toiletries and food and at the time I left, I actually had long hair... which is a serious thorn in one's side to keep clean, so that got cut relatively quickly. ... Hmm. Well, in the months before I left things had been changing so rapidly for me I got the sensation of being stuck in some sort of lost momentum that was sweeping me along, and it was affecting me in less than positive ways. I'd become bitter, and had been in quarelling with the only person who I've ever really loved and it all felt so... stifling. I needed air. My trip gave me that. Before I came home I had a long talk one evening with John [a friend I'd made along the way who was traveling with us] about changes and how I felt like I'd been trying to outrun my emotions for some time, but that I'd turned and met and made as much peace as was and is possible, and now I was about to go home, back to the center of it all, and would it stick. He told me, "When you go back home, it'll be interesting for you. You'll be different and everyone else will be just the same... doing the same things as they were before." At the time I didn't think too much of it, but it was true. And that actually led to some splitting of friendships that weren't necessarily the best of. For a few weeks I was afraid of my life slipping back to the way it was, but it didn't. Things evened out, Ellery is back after a long absence, I'm enjoying a new school, friendships are renewed and others discarded. My mind is certainly less cluttered. My hiatus on progress is over.
One of my most important lifelong goals is never to be in a place where the temperature is 110, so I can't verify that for you. Here in Maryland it sometimes gets into the high 90s so maybe the inside of my car is in the high 70s, but I would put it in the mid 70s. Perhaps a Mercedes air conditioner gives me 25 degrees instead of 20. In any case 90 degrees is bearable if unpleasant, whereas 110 degrees, at least to this Fraggle, is unbearable. I can't stay outside when it's that hot. I'm dead serious about being prepared for any possible emergency if you really intend to go to Death Valley. Death Valley Junction, NV, which is outside Clark County, has exactly one building, a business for which it is moderately well known. Eight gallons of drinking water would probably get you through a day stranded with a dead car. Assuming you have a AAA card (stop reading this post and go get one right now if you don't) they'll probably get to you within 3-4 hours at the very worst. Once you get in contact with someone responsible they'll probably even send a cop out at 90mph if all else fails. Remember you'll be soaking your bandana and long-sleeved shirt to cool your skin by evaporation, and one soak will evaporate quickly. Take something for shade that folds up small. You'll suffer heatstroke rather quickly under the desert sun and your car will be too hot to take refuge in. If I sound like a noodge it's because I lived in or near the Arizona and California deserts for 45 years and I treat them with the utmost respect. I do not regard them as fun, except in the winter on off-road motorcycles, when the problem is getting stranded at night and freezing to death. Hey I'm a musician. Music is definitely not crap! Talk radio, now that's crap. Extroversion means that you derive energy from human company, not that you can't stand being alone. Most introverts are fine in groups, but they need lots of solitude to recharge their batteries. Extroverts are just the opposite.
I'm the type that loves weather extremes. When I'll be there (mid October), the average hi is around 92. I only plan to camp in populated campgrounds. When I am driving through DV, I'll be constantly monitoring my truck's vital signs via my computer readout gauge. Thank you Fraggle.. I appreciate all your helpful advice. In fact, you almost scared me away from driving out there. But, hey... I love to scare myself shitless. Err... no. This is a solo trip. A trip to see new things and to dissect my mind. Can't do the latter when I have someone with me, can I? And that is something that also irritates me. Even before this trip, I am realizing things at a young age that most people don't figure out until middle age, or perhaps never. I see the large script that society wants me to play and I don't want to. Right now, I see friends and family following it blindly. Those around me I once thought were my friends or positive family role models are really just trying to push me to conform into something that isn't me. Pisses me off. I'm afraid that I'll learn something even deeper about myself and I won't know how to come back home and feel accepted. if not by friends then "oh well, Ill get new ones." But it's harder with family. I see everone in my family following the same exact script. And, at 25, I'm the odd ball on the male side of the family that hasn't started a "true" career (I guess moving up an organizational chart?) or that hasn't got married at 20 or right out of college. What if I come back realizing that it's time for me to trash everything I own and start a business in Nepal? Lol, I don't think I'd do that... but the idea is the same. I feel like doing that NOW, I just don't know how or what I want. Yea, I lost contact with all my party friends already. Actually, I'm losing contact with everyone because all of them were the wrong kinds of friends to begin with. That must be a great feeling. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Why don't you do you own trip? Collect $2000 and you could easily do the same thing.
I kinda just got fired, I have 2k but need it till I find another place to work Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Nope I moved remember Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I sure woulda done that but I got car payments so Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! + rent
And...?? How was it??? Cool pictures that you post in the album thread. Makes me want to do long solo road trip, too..! Please share your experience...!
Yea... I'll get around to it when I can... being gone for a month caused me to lose my addiction to computers. Instead, I fill my time reading.
