My friends are well traveled. Me? I’ve spent thousands on mulch.
Before the economic correction cured me of a pesky home ownership addiction, I used to shell out shekel over shekel on shredded wood, old newspaper and, well, poop.
My jetsetting friends all nurse their own home ownership habits. Not all of them owe the gross domestic product of China to a credit card company. And none of them has ever owned a BMW or a private jet.
Still, every spring, I’d spread truckloads of dried fecal matter over my flowerbeds. They’d snorkel in the Caribbean.
Freed from the bonds of owning a house (and also a good portion of my income), I figured at least I’d be able to do the traveling I’d always wanted, since my cash was no longer tied up in crap. But I have this other addiction doctors call eating and a sentimental weakness for not dying of exposure. Plus I’d kind of like to retire one day.
A few years ago, Rolf Potts wrote the book “Vagabonding” and started a website that’s become the new “Walden” for middle-aged Jack Kerouac (OK, Charles Kuralt, maybe) wannabes like me. Potts advocates something akin to a monastic lifestyle. Sell all your stuff. Wash dishes. Then backpack and sleep in hostels. Don’t worry so much about retirement — that’s like spending the best years of your life trying to make yourself comfortable in the worst.
In my darker moments, I promise myself that one day I’ll follow Potts’ teachings. I’ll sell my BluRay player and mint condition 1988 Topps Baseball card set and head off on a cattle boat to . . . anywhere.
But nobody really does that, right?
Is there anybody out who is a vagabonder like Potts who quit their job, went somewhere just to see and then lived to tell the tale? Please share your story.
Also, is there a happy medium? What are some of the more creative ways you finance your travel?
I have the strong urge–very strong at times–to sell my house and everything in it, buy a small motor home, and never again ever have to pay a utility bill the rest of my life. Never see another water bill, another electric bill, a gas bill, a cable bill, a telephone bill, no more garbage/sewer bills, no more lawn care bills, newspaper bills, magazine subscriptions to pay for, and most of all, never see another real estate tax bill. I just want to hit the road with camera, cell and laptop and be a female Ansel Adams!