Help Recapture Some American Spirit
Donation protected
“If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.” - Bukowski
Traveling the country, seeing the sights, living on the road. It’s a dream so many of us have. They’ve written books about it, made movies about it. How many people quote Kerouac as they sit in their cubes slaving away, “all I wanted to do was sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere, and go and find out what everybody was doing all over the country.”
That is what I want to do and that is what I want to help others to do, and it can be done. One doesn’t have to win the lottery to travel or hope that they saved enough for when they finally retire and get to travel. What is the point of working for 50 years in order to enjoy two years after it is all done? There isn’t, that’s the point. We should be working to live, not living to work.
Besides, I have already lived the modern American Dream. I have been divorced, bankrupted, foreclosed, depressed and worked 80 hours a week to make sure the CEO can take a private plane to Mexico to celebrate New Year’s while I answered emails. I want to take back that old American spirit of adventure, frontiersmanship (is that even word?) and hit theroad exploring what is out there in this vast country.
I’ve tried to take the steps to this point and it is happening either way, I just need some help along the way in order to help others down the road. I want to help others overcome that deep down fear. That fear that you can’t quit your job, that you have to buy a bigger house, that you need all the new gadgets, that you have to go to fancy dinners at trendy restaurants, that you can’t just go out on the road and find out what lies ahead for you. Once you face those fears there is nothing more to be scared of. You see that there was absolutely no reason to fear freedom.
I’ve given it some serious thought. An RV is expensive, requires a lot of fuel and is difficult to drive. I slowly whittled down the options. I went to my mechanic, a very honest one if you are in the market , and got his opinion on what the best values and cheapest to maintain and repair vehicles were. I wanted ease of driving, fuel economy, stealthiness to blend into urban settings, comfort and still enough room to sleep, have some storage and do some cooking. Afterall, the whole point of this is to be able to travel on the cheap, hotels and meals at restaurants add up pretty quickly on a budget of $0.
So what I want to do and share with everyone who donates is my story and how to knowledge of getting out on the road and seeing what this country has to offer us if we are willing to free ourselves. I want to get a used minivan. A Honda Odyssey or Toyota Siena, according to my mechanic, are the best options. Once we have the vehicle then we need to turn that little minivan into a mini-camper with a bed, sink, cooktop, storage. We need to learn how to do all of this and I want share my successes and failures along the way so we can all have the power to hit the road at a moment’s notice or better yet, hit the road when you give your notice.
Everyone who donates will get the blog address and email updates with directionsand pictures of the vans progress. We can probably even work out a visit from the van for the very generous among us.
It’s on us, so let’s do it.
Thanks, JOE
Traveling the country, seeing the sights, living on the road. It’s a dream so many of us have. They’ve written books about it, made movies about it. How many people quote Kerouac as they sit in their cubes slaving away, “all I wanted to do was sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere, and go and find out what everybody was doing all over the country.”
That is what I want to do and that is what I want to help others to do, and it can be done. One doesn’t have to win the lottery to travel or hope that they saved enough for when they finally retire and get to travel. What is the point of working for 50 years in order to enjoy two years after it is all done? There isn’t, that’s the point. We should be working to live, not living to work.
Besides, I have already lived the modern American Dream. I have been divorced, bankrupted, foreclosed, depressed and worked 80 hours a week to make sure the CEO can take a private plane to Mexico to celebrate New Year’s while I answered emails. I want to take back that old American spirit of adventure, frontiersmanship (is that even word?) and hit theroad exploring what is out there in this vast country.
I’ve tried to take the steps to this point and it is happening either way, I just need some help along the way in order to help others down the road. I want to help others overcome that deep down fear. That fear that you can’t quit your job, that you have to buy a bigger house, that you need all the new gadgets, that you have to go to fancy dinners at trendy restaurants, that you can’t just go out on the road and find out what lies ahead for you. Once you face those fears there is nothing more to be scared of. You see that there was absolutely no reason to fear freedom.
I’ve given it some serious thought. An RV is expensive, requires a lot of fuel and is difficult to drive. I slowly whittled down the options. I went to my mechanic, a very honest one if you are in the market , and got his opinion on what the best values and cheapest to maintain and repair vehicles were. I wanted ease of driving, fuel economy, stealthiness to blend into urban settings, comfort and still enough room to sleep, have some storage and do some cooking. Afterall, the whole point of this is to be able to travel on the cheap, hotels and meals at restaurants add up pretty quickly on a budget of $0.
So what I want to do and share with everyone who donates is my story and how to knowledge of getting out on the road and seeing what this country has to offer us if we are willing to free ourselves. I want to get a used minivan. A Honda Odyssey or Toyota Siena, according to my mechanic, are the best options. Once we have the vehicle then we need to turn that little minivan into a mini-camper with a bed, sink, cooktop, storage. We need to learn how to do all of this and I want share my successes and failures along the way so we can all have the power to hit the road at a moment’s notice or better yet, hit the road when you give your notice.
Everyone who donates will get the blog address and email updates with directionsand pictures of the vans progress. We can probably even work out a visit from the van for the very generous among us.
It’s on us, so let’s do it.
Thanks, JOE
Organizer
Joe Dlugosz
Organizer
Chicago, IL
