I LIKE MY STUFF

A NEW LEARNING
During the two months that I was in France I had an unnecessary but nagging sense of being cut off, isolated. Whereas Christine was delighted to be away from home and household chores, I was antsy toward the end of the time – wanting to return to my place and my things.

Part of the reason for my angst was my pre-trip decision not to take along my laptop. It’s a heavy Dell, and tourist info incessantly warned us about theft. I didn’t carry a cell phone either. It is interesting to me how the absence of these communicative devices affected me. (Sure there were internet cafés and pay phones).

In a Paris Boulangerie (Bakery/Café) one morning we met an Aussie couple our ages who wore back and front packs and had a tiny laptop and cell phone and were away for three months. They were more well adjusted to being away than I was.

I have a feeling that I am too attached to things, specially when I follow the ongoing travel news of Tim and Cindie Travis, a young couple who made the decision to travel via bicycle for the next twenty years minimum. All they have is what they can carry. http://downtheroad.org/

Since 2002 when they left their Arizona, USA home they have been on the road with no plans to stop. They saved their money, terminated their jobs, sold their possessions and set off to travel the world. Every 18 months they take a break. Their web site contains their ongoing travel blog, short videos and photo journal. They update their web site regularly, on location. And, smart thinking – they write and publish books about their travels (audio books and PDF download books as well).

Here is a list of sites of their saga:
Home Site
Previous letters
Blog RSS
Video PodCast Feed
Cindie's Daily Road Journal on Twitter
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Back to me. We have so much stuff. Well, I have. We have lived in the same house for almost twenty years. I confess to packratitis. We are seriously talking about the timing for our house sale and acquiring a smaller living space. I can take perhaps, 30% of my stuff. Whoa is me. I am undone. I will be a man without stuff.