After many years of dreaming and making a plethora of different plans, we finally decided in May 2024 we will JUMP – depart Fairbanks, Alaska on our bicycles and attempt to ride to Ushuaia, Argentina. This ride can take anywhere from 1.5 years to 3 years. We will sell all of our belongings (except what we bring with us on our bicycles and one Rubbermaid tub stored in our parents’ attic) and unwind 25+ years of “adulting”.
Long term planning for this type of trip takes skill building as well as mental, financial and physical preparation. We knew we wanted to do something adventurous while our bodies were younger and more able but exactly what the adventure(s) would be we did not know. So over years of planning we built skills and developed ourselves for the eventual jump into the unknown.
Here is an overview of the different types of planning we did (each of these probably could be a separate post…maybe a future project?):
Skill Planning
We gradually built our skill set over the years to prepare us for an adventure, not necessarily knowing what the event would be. Often learning these new skills fed our adventure lust at the time and there was tremendous personal satisfaction knowing we’d (hopefully) be able to use these skills in “living the dream.” We often referred to these skill builds as “keeping the dream alive”. The following is a sampling of the expertise we added to our skill stack:
Emergency Medical Care – we trained and certified in Outdoor Emergency Care with the National Ski Patrol. We jokingly say we’ve used the OEC training more on ourselves 🙂than helping distressed skiers. (Added bonus we became much better skiers!)
Lines & knots – Dustin took Rock Climbing and we both took Ice Climbing courses. These classes allowed us to understand load forces, shock loading, redundancy management, and pulley systems. Hopefully this will come in handy someday if we make another JUMP and start sailing a sailboat. While bike touring this know-how helps in securing bags to our bikes, keeping a Jack Russell safe and raising/lowering bikes on a pulley system if needed for relocation or maintenance.
Sewing and fabricating – we are both self-taught sewers and Dustin handmade each of us a packraft. Dustin has really honed this skill with custom making several of our bags and Katy’s cover. Understanding the different materials, weatherproof ability and zippering systems has been a huge advantage. This competence has helped us repair clothes, tents, and bags on the go as well as being able to create custom items which were not available retail.
Accounting/Financial Management/Spreadsheeting – we’ve both built up skills over the years to enable DIY financial management, taxes and accounting. Understanding budgeting, taxes, compound interest, stocks/bonds/mutual funds, retirement savings vehicles, investment fees and withdrawal strategies has been a game changer! Patricia has taught others these skills through financial counseling sessions and assisted friends/colleagues sort the murky waters of personal finance. Patricia took university level accounting classes including “Federal Taxation” to better understand how the US tax system works and guide our decision making.
Bike mechanics class – we took this class twice! Dustin is an Eagle Scout and takes the “be prepared” mantra very seriously so we wanted to be prepared if anything were to go wrong with our bicycles. This class helped us better understand our machines, how to maintain them, how to fix them, and what tools/spares we should bring on such a long journey. Dustin even rebuilt a wheel on an older bike from scratch – hub, spokes, rim and all!
Language – once the idea for bicycling from Alaska to Argentina was starting to become a reality we started studying Spanish on Duolingo. We plan to continue studying Spanish and possibly stopping for a “vacation” from the bike and doing an intensive language school in Mexico.
Skills training for Katy – we did several different training classes with Katy for socialization, obedience, tricks, and agility. She’s still 100% Jack Russell (read independently minded and notoriously difficult to train) but these classes helped give her confidence (and therefore less fear) with the activities we’d expect of her (skiing, hiking, biking, flying, etc). We were also careful to train her for each of the activities including booties, slinging, and bicycling – now when the equipment for these activities come out she gets so excited (well except for booties – she still hates putting them on but loves life once they are on).
This is just a sampling, we did many other skill stacks along the way – sail making, from scratch food prep, long term provisioning, website building, hair cutting – essentially we tried to engage in activities that would eventually help us to live out our dreams.
Mental planning
Such a drastic reinvention of “us” takes serious mental preparation, especially after so many years of traditional adulting. Preparing ourselves for the following psychological challenges was an essential part of planning:
Identity tied to profession – we both worked for non-profits highly connected to the community. While there were amazing benefits to this (i.e. gratification from truly making a difference in someone’s life) there were also, in our opinion, drawbacks. One of the notable drawbacks was never being able to separate ourselves from our vocational identities. For example, at the gym, grocery store, or restaurant we were often identified by our vocations. These professions had expectations for our appearance, our possessions and our behaviors. Talking through how life would look when we didn’t have these career identities anymore and reading about people’s struggle through defining themselves after working for years where the personal & professional identities were blurred helped to mentally prepare us for this shift.
Self-worth tied to occupation and possessions – we’ve run into several people who place a large amount of a person’s worth on their job title and personal possessions. Once we JUMPED we would not have either of these and we sensed discomfort when discussing this with our families. In our culture one of the first questions people often ask is “So, what do you do?” When replying with our previous professions or lack of working, it often leads to many assumptions about us that change the dynamics of the conversation. We kidded around saying we should say we were now a “lady” and a “gentleman” (we watched Pride and Prejudice a few too many times 🙂 ) or we were “consultants” to get around the fact that we didn’t currently have occupations.
Another topic strongly tied to self-worth, in the eyes of many people, are one’s possessions – the house you live in, the car you drive, the clothes you wear, etc. Divesting ourselves of our worldly goods made for several uncomfortable conversations, and honestly made us uncomfortable at times…”but I’ve had these boots for 24 years”. In the beginning finding new homes for our possessions was difficult but the more we sold/gave away the easier it got.
Not having a home – over the years we’ve gradually downsized our homes. Newly married, we bought a 2700 square foot house! It was crazy – we lived in 3 rooms: kitchen, living room & bedroom – the rest was just space we heated, furnished, and paid taxes on! Each successive living situation got smaller and smaller until we were living very simply in a small Fairbanksan dry cabin (no indoor plumbing). There are so many emotions tied to “home” and the “American Dream” is not possible without owning a home. We’re not sure how we will do not having a home…stay tuned. One thought was to use “home is where the dog is” but that will only get us to the US-Mexico border when we will separate from Katy 🙁
Yay-sayers and Nay-sayers – during all of our dreaming and planning there were people who supported and were excited for our audacious dreams. There were also several people we encountered who rejected our plans, called us insane, told us it would never happen, or would relay stories of failures. What we discovered was these people were responding out of their own fear or insecurity and we learned not to take it personally. We essentially created our own support network by reading the tales of similar adventurers and finding online communities who continued to allow us to grow into our ambitions.
Financial planning
Since we knew our dreams would require us to be younger and involved longer-term travel we’d have to carefully prepare financially for being able to take years off. This is no easy feat in today’s culture of “exclusive upgrades because you deserve them”. Here are some topics we thought of as we financially prepared for our JUMP:
Living on less – we learned to be content with minimalistic simplicity in many areas of our lives. Yes, we splurged on travel & bicycles but we really tried to think through purchasing decisions to ensure our spending matched our values. Throughout our time together we attempted to live on one income enabling us to substantially save and protect us from a potential unexpected job loss. Early on in our marriage we were caught by a delay in employment after graduate school where we couldn’t even cover our bills – in hindsight, it was one of our best life lessons – we were committed to frugality and being prepared for a rainy season.
Consumer consumption – Our culture, especially in the US, is driven by consumer consumption. To live into our dreams we had to be aware of the driving forces behind our desires to have the latest and greatest (marketing!) and learn to resist the urges. Unfortunately, at its highest levels, our consumer culture forces people into an indentured servitude where we spend years working to pay off our consumption purchased on credit. We read extensively on this subject and first got our financial life in order by following Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps and later joining the Financial Independence movement (Mr. Money Mustache & ChooseFI).
Saving for the JUMP – much of our savings is tied up in retirement vehicles which we can not touch without penalty until age 59.5. This required us to save independently for our eventual JUMP to live the DREAM. We placed a savings barometer on our refrigerator and filled in each 10% increment until we hit our goal – some months were better than others and there were certainly setbacks but we persevered.
Learning to DIY personal finance – learning as much as we possibly could about personal finance and “insourcing” these tasks was critical to ensure we had the resources for the dream. Our favorite resources are:
- Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
- Your Money or Your Life by J. Dominguez & V. Robin
- The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
- ChooseFI podcast
- Mr. Money Mustache blogger
Physical planning
Pretty much all of our dreams required fit and active bodies. Not really taking the physical planning seriously until the JUMP started coming into focus – we realized we wanted to set ourselves up for success. We’d read about too many people who did not train and experienced serious overuse injuries early in their journeys.
Training for biking – we’d always been recreational bikers – getting off the bikes for the cold or rain and then picking it back up as the weather was more agreeable. Once we started honing in on a long-distance bike trip as our JUMP, we began biking in (almost) any conditions – rain, snow, wind, extreme cold, and extreme heat. We also carefully scaffolded riding our (heavy) touring bikes – gradually increasing miles and weight until we were able to comfortably ride the distances and carrying the gear required for bicycle touring.
Training for camping – since our bike trip would require a variety of accommodations, including a good amount of camping, we (Patricia) had to become more comfortable with camping. For many people the standard American life is pretty cush and it’s difficult to downgrade. We slowly downsized our homes until eventually living in a “dry” cabin where we had to use an outhouse and haul our own water in 5-gallon cubes plus (gasp!) we don’t have a washing machine. Learning to live with less luxuries has helped to prepare us for the transition to long term travel.
Diet – the Standard American Diet (SAD) was making us feel lethargic and wreaking havoc on our blood vessels, so to keep our bodies in better shape we changed to a (mostly) whole foods plant-based diet. This has made us feel better and given us so much more energy for life. We’re “hospitalitarians” so we do eat meat/eggs/cheese when it is offered by a host or when it is the only option available. Added benefit: the whole foods plant-based diet is easier to accommodate without refrigeration and is better for the planet.
Alcohol – in 2021 we gave up drinking! For us, alcohol had become habitual and was sucking the life out of us. So after a few failed attempts we were able to give it up completely and “holy fireworks batman” we have so much more focus and energy. We have discussed several times that while we were drinking (a lot) we never could have fathomed planning and executing a long-distance cycle trip. Our two favorite resources for quitting alcohol:
- This Naked Mind book by Annie Grace
- The Alcohol Experiment (also by Annie Grace)
So there you have it! Just a sprinkling of the planning that goes into living out our dream 🙂