Motorcycle Blog

Seconded.

Man, I had it almost all the finances and logistics planned, gear nearly in order. Was planning on taking a full year to just tool around South America. Then a Hepatitis E outbreak happened in Uganda and I was the only guy "available." That mission turned to shit - bad team cohesion, even shittier bosses, awful politics, dragged out much longer than anticipated, my name got dragged through the mud and I lost that chance. I can't think of another job I took that I even begin to regret as much as that one.

It's been years now and every year, I can feel that ride getting further and further away. Even if I do get to do it, it's not going to be the same as it would have been as a man in his early 30s.
 
South America on a motorcycle is in my bucket list.
Although I try and ride everywhere I go, home and abroad, there are some places it's just not possible (Papua New Guinea for instance).
 
Man, I had it almost all the finances and logistics planned, gear nearly in order. Was planning on taking a full year to just tool around South America. Then a Hepatitis E outbreak happened in Uganda and I was the only guy "available." That mission turned to shit - bad team cohesion, even shittier bosses, awful politics, dragged out much longer than anticipated, my name got dragged through the mud and I lost that chance. I can't think of another job I took that I even begin to regret as much as that one.

It's been years now and every year, I can feel that ride getting further and further away. Even if I do get to do it, it's not going to be the same as it would have been as a man in his early 30s.

Man that's rough. For me it's just the family situation, 10 years ago I had all the freedom in the world to do what I wanted, just not the money. Now I have the money but it's not fair to take off on something like that and leave the wife and kids at home while I go off on an adventure.

What kind of bike were you going to go on?
 
Man that's rough. For me it's just the family situation, 10 years ago I had all the freedom in the world to do what I wanted, just not the money. Now I have the money but it's not fair to take off on something like that and leave the wife and kids at home while I go off on an adventure.

Well, I'm not really the marrying kind of guy and don't plan on having kids, so its family that keeps pushing it off, but my commitments - financial, professional and otherwise - are getting to the point where I'm not nearly as free to do as I like as I used to.

And I guess the thing that is starting to bother me a little is that people look at you differently when you're still adventuring in your late 30s as opposed to your early 30s. When you're 31, people don't hold it against you and regardless of where you are in the world, social circles more readily accept you. In your late 30s, when you're pushing 40, that doesn't come as easily. You're more likely to face the question of what you're running from instead of just being another regular Joe out to see the world. I get enough of that already and I'm still just mid 30s.

What kind of bike were you going to go on?

Same as everybody else, either an R1200GS or an F650GS. Believe it or not, bike selection (and bike specific gear) was one of the last things to settle on my list. After a decade in Africa, SE Asia and parts far flung, I had everything else in order. I wanted the extra range of the big tank on the R1200GS Adventure, but I'm a shorter guy with a long torso and I can't flatfoot at 1200 even with lowered seats and suspension, so I was leaning towards the girl bike.

I'd planned to come back stateside, buy the bike and go on a shakedown tour down the US east coast over to my parent's house in Texas. I wanted to do my final staging there before starting the real journey over the Mexican border.

There's also a language school in a town near Mexico's southern border that came recommended on ADVRiders where I was planning on spending a few weeks, too.

The worst part of it is that the buddy that I had really started serious planning with, this German trauma surgeon that was on my team in the Congo, got tired of my change in plans and ended up doing Mexico-Argentina on a bicycle with his wife. He got called out on a job, but he was already halfway through his trip so he went out then went back to South America to finish the trip. I really wish I'd have done that.
 
Very depressing. I rode street bikes for many years and raced dirtbikes also. I had many hard falls and some very close calls, but never ended up with anything worse than some minor fractures...

RIP.
 
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