Long term motorcycle travel. Not the quick tour or RTW trip. But long term travel. The kind that never lets your mind reset. Seeing the world, the good and the bad, the haves and the have nots, for years on end and then taking off the rose colored glasses.
Does long term travel leave you enlightened? Or just with Post Travel Stress Disorder?
We have been doing this for 13 years now. We go out on our motorcycle for a journey, for three to six months, and then return to our “normal” lives. We go to see, hear and feel. Sometimes the people talk and sometimes the air whistling through our helmets does the talking. After, it leaves just helmet time. Time to talk to one another and time to just think. When we return our “normal” seems just out of reach. It’s as if all around us has changed. Just slightly. But we know normal hasn’t changed, it’s us that has changed. And everytime that normal is just a little further away.
Years ago the change was so small. We could talk to non-travelers about it. Their views of the world were from media propaganda. It differed from reality. We could talk but most didn’t want to hear, or believe. After years of travel you learn to talk about the elephant that walked through camp, but then leave out the reality of corruption and 60% unemployment. If some are interested, they will ask. The wedge between the haves and the have nots.
Then there is the constant inflow of reality. You see it from your saddle as you ride the dusty paths of the world. You wonder about their lives, now and before. Ignorance is bliss. An old saying. Were people happier before they knew they shouldn’t be happy? The internet, a blessing and a curse. Tribal villages without much, but technology has found its way in. You see barefoot children playing in the dirt, squeals of happy laughter. Then, the adults without anything to do, no jobs. Then we look into our lives and the lives of the more fortunate. Where shall we dine tonight? What new car to drive? What private school for our babies? Helmet time is a mean thing.
The more fortunate don’t understand, and really don’t want to understand. We return to our normal lives and that normal seems just another reach away. And we, the travelers, have been changed again, another part of you, left in a far away country.
Over years of travel and seeing, the pile continues to grow. We return time and again, changed. But, without a long period of our “normal”, can you ever fully reset? I don’t think so, which brings around the question, again.
Have I just been enlightened, again? Or, is the PTSD just grown a little more.
2WANDRRs
2WANDRRs 
Greg and Melanie,
Very enlightened comments on your travelling lifestyle. Looking for the new normal becomes a quest in itself!
We can offer you a ‘reset’ at our HU meet at Kildevil here in Newfoundland. Won’t you join us?
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I think I’m still on the schedule. 😀 See you there!
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Thank you for your best post ever! We too, are fortunate ones, trying to understand and appreciate how many live by visiting small towns and villages, out of the tourist zones and out of our comfort zones, but then at night, we typically retreat to our comfy hotel or rental unit. Tomorrow, we embark on a two week tour of Southern California, taking in the sights and learnings at Joshua Tree, Big Sur, Yosemite and Death Valley. We will likely spend more $’s in that two weeks than most people in the world earn in two years. I’ll be re-reading your post several times over the next couple of weeks and pondering, what should we be doing differently.
I take it we will not see you at the European Riders Rally in Burkesville, KY near the end of the month. That’s where I met the two of you several years ago as we had our campers parked close together. I wish you the very best in your travels and thank you for continuing to make me think differently about our world.
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I remember you, Tom. I hope to again attend that rally, it was a blast. And thanks for the kind words.
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That is very thought provoking.
I have often thought about how travel and travel to different parts of the world makes you look at what you have in a different light. Sometimes it is quite confronting.
I think the other issue is that we are hit with this information from many sides and either become a bit immune to it or just not know what to do with the information.
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Re “ignorance is bliss”…
Ignorance of lies and deceptions (=most mainstream news and establishment decrees) is bliss because exposing yourself to that is self-propagandization.
Ignorance of truths is not, or only temporarily or rarely, bliss because it is ultimately self-defeating.
The FALSE mantra of “ignorance is bliss”, promoted in the latter sense, is a product of a fake sick culture that has indoctrinated its “dumbed down” (therefore TRULY ignorant, therefore easy to control) people with many such manipulative slogans.
You can find the proof that ignorance is never bliss (only superficial fake bliss), and how you get to buy into this lie (and other self-defeating lies), in the article “The 2 Married Pink Elephants In The Historical Room –The Holocaustal Covid-19 Coronavirus Madness: A Sociological Perspective & Historical Assessment Of The Covid “Phenomenon”” …. https://www.rolf-hefti.com/covid-19-coronavirus.html
““We’re all in this together” is a tribal maxim. Even there, it’s a con, because the tribal leaders use it to enforce loyalty and submission. … The unity of compliance.” — Jon Rappoport, Investigative Journalist
“2 weeks to flatten the curve has turned into…3 shots to feed your family!” — Unknown
“If ‘ignorance is bliss’ –there should be more happy people.” — Unknown
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I love this blog post! So well thought out, and you capture the feelings we too share. I find myself growing impatient when I return “home” because it’s a world which I struggle to be a part of again. It’s crazy because I spent nearly 30 years promoting upwards and making decent money, but that life seems so distant now. Even when we lived that life, we were always moving along to a new opportunity every 2-3 years. I guess some folks are drifters and that is where we feel most content. Here’s to many more years traveling and the continued search for enlightenment. Cheers, Travis & Chantil
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Thanks for the words, Travis. Safe travels and we’ll see you on the road.
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Hi ! Some years ago we met at Geiranger campsite, and I asked you about how to organise a trip to USA and shipping of the bike . For me it never materialised , I just stuck to trips in Europe. Being around 70, offroad travel is a bit too much, so I remained on the road. From Holland to Gibraltar was one, and later through Ukraine and Romania it led to some perspective in the present situation.
But, having worked for months on end in the Middle East, in Sudan, and India I already noticed the strange ways people deal with each other, leading to a very mixed feeling about the human race. In poor circumstances the ratrace is understandable, in richer environments attitudes towards fellow human beings are just close to criminal.
Therefore reading about your adventures is great and enlightening for many of us. Thanks and go on, and before all have a safe journey !!
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I remember that. Nice campground but very busy. Hahaha. I’m glad you take some enjoyment from my blog. Thanks
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Thx. I have read them all, with a special interest in your experiences in Mexico , since my daughter lives in Merida . Keep going you two !!!! I will keep following !
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