The Year of Living Frugally – Prologue

New year’s Day. New Year’s Resolutions. Too much darkness, not enough sunlight. Too much fatty, sugary food. All these things can bump one into a more introspective mood. Especially those of us with mild Seasonal Affect Disorder – whose holiday plans fell through (which was driving south for more than a week of sunny SoCal and Baja 70-degree-and-Santa-Ana weather). Instead, I spent the last week in the gloomy, chilly rain of far northern California.

During the summer and fall, I can’t think of a place I’d rather be. I love it here. However, sometimes I really hate the damp dark rainy Pacific Northwest winter climate. Once the darkness sets in, and the rain starts, and the average local buoy reading is 20-foot plus and sideways rain blowing onshore – there’s no clean surf for months. There are the rare days, when the winds die and the ocean calms – like this New Year’s Day (although the surf was too flat) – but that was the exception rather than the rule. The average surf go-out during these times means looking for waves wrapping around the protective headlands and hoping it filters the chop from 12 feet to a more manageable 5.

To survive, many of the long-time locals take this time to vacation in warmer climes. A co-worker told me I should plan next year’s winter vacation now to make sure it happens.

So on a warm sunny day, feeling the happiness, I let myself think of the ideal winter vacation (instead of the usual driving south to couch-surf with friends-and-family for a week over the last week of December).

Why not go around the world?

My ideal trip would be to drive the Pacific coast from California to Chile, then catch a round-the-world flight stopping in Brazil, Spain (with a side trip to Morocco), South Africa, Sri Lanka, Bali, Western Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, and a Pacific Island stop or two before returning to Los Angeles (broke and jobless).

Specifically, that would be crossing the USA-Mex border shortly after Christmas 2008, catching El Salvador in late April 2009, Spain and the fall surf in October 2009, South Africa in December 2009 (their summer), southern hemisphere late-summer/fall in Sri Lanka and Bali (January 2010 through April or so), then finishing the trip in Los Angeles one year after the flight portion started, October 2010.

It’s nice to dream sometimes…

That return date would have me back home and looking for a job a few months into my 39th year. I suppose the 40’s are the new 30’s, and that would be a good time to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, no?

But… what if it is possible? What would it take to make it a reality? It seems that if one could make some money while traveling (or save up enough before starting), that it might work. I’ve also seen travelers with no money, continuing on sheer determination and the serendipitous encounters with others.

How long would you want to travel? What would you want to accomplish by traveling? How much would it cost? Would you still be employable upon return? Employable while traveling? What about my dog? How dangerous is the world these days? Could I ever give up my golden handcuffs (my job)?

A trip like this has always been an escape fantasy of mine. However, due to all the debt I accumulated in college, I’ve only been able to do a 3-month trip in Central America (back in 2000), plus some other weeks here and there. I was also on the never-ending college-graduate-school conveyor belt, which did not leave me time for extended travel (although many month-long trips were had). I finished attending college in early 2003 (after making it to 26th grade), and have been working ever since. Once you finish with whatever college experience you choose – then what? Is there a goal after that? Is a goal necessary?

Get a job, get married, have kids, work until the body and mind are wore out, retire. I see people at work trying their hardest to make every day (and every year) as similar as possible so the time passes without too much difficulty until they can retire. Are they just doing the best job they can to make themselves comfortable until they die? Are we hard-wired to enjoy our routine?

The ever-present credit-card debt (which began 15 years ago) will finally disappear in a few months. The student loans have about 18 more years, but it’s locked in at a historically low rate and manageable. I will soon be in a position to seriously consider this path for myself (escaping, not the mind-numbing rut).

Over the year, I will share the results of my research to explore how feasible this type of travel can be. If it goes well, this will shift to a travelogue explaining the preparation for such a trip, then the trip itself.

I suppose I can just stay at my job and be happy with my 2 weeks of vacation a year. You know, plunk down the credit card and charge the yearly pre-packaged trip – but most of those trips are 8 countries in 10 days in the bus full of drunk tourists who cashed in on one-to-many drink vouchers. This potential travel will include spending more time in each place to learn about the world, to become fluent in Spanish, to see where I can take my surfing abilities before the long, slow decline of “old man disease” really sets in, to explore employment and living situations in other countries, and most of all – just living in the present and experiencing the world.

The time may be now or never.

(continue on to The Year of Living Frugally)