Frequently Asked Questions Redux (Or, Yes, This Is Really Happening!)

My friends have known for the past year about my trip, but now that I have less than a month until I leave, it finally feels real to them and all of a sudden the panicked requests for happy hours and dinners and questions about my trip have come pouring in.

How Do You Carry Everything?

For those who know nothing about bike touring, it seems unreal to carry everything you could need for a trip this long on a bike.  Hey, European backpackers have packed everything they need into a single backpack for their gap year trips.  Even though I have to take into consideration bike repair, camping, and food, in some ways it is actually easier because I have a steel beast of burden to portage everything.  Granted, I travel lighter than the average person because, well, I'm little... so my things are little.

My beauuuuutiful Troll!  And my beautiful panniers, thanks to Karim for making the splurge for me!

You can check out my gear and equipment list to get the full rundown, but this is basically it... although there are still things to do like trim down the kickstand (wheeee, fun with dremels!) and work out any random kinks or last minute additions (seatpost water bottle mount for my fuel!).  This setup has evolved several times from a traditional setup to a minimalist setup to a setup designed for the ultimate flexibility, and is the product of endless hours reading reviews, blogs, my own past touring experience, and doing test rides.

Also, check out this website dedicated to pictures of fully loaded touring bikes for the way others do it, with setups that range from milk crates and zipties, to setups that look like they weigh 200 pounds.

The cockpit with my tent riding up front.

Isn't This Dangerous?

Yes, some cycling tourists have had fatal accidents in other countries, but that doesn't change a thing.  Biking in DC is dangerous.  Believe me, I've gotten hit 5 times now by 3 doors, 1 taxi, and 1 pick-up truck... the most recent this past weekend 2 blocks from home. Yes, Mexico has some areas that have travel advisories.  But then again, most middle-class suburbanites wouldn't feel comfortable in my cozy corner of Capitol Hill, and I've never felt more safe.

I've lived, worked, or traveled through all of Central America and half of South America...  I've backpacked by myself through unrest in southern Thailand, and braved solo travel in Egypt.  The scariest incident I had was when I was studying abroad in Spain and a druggie made some threatening advances on a fellow student.  This awesome British couple driving from Mexico to Argentina says it better than I can... No, it's not really that dangerous, just be smart.

What About Insurance?

But I'm not stupid.  I'm a lawyer.  I'm a lawyer who has had some experience in insurance practice and who has a penchant for extreme sports and adventure... of course I'm getting insurance for my trip!  After an incredibly huuuuge amount of research and carefully analyzing policy wording, I found the closest thing to a perfect policy I could find.  I present, World Nomads!  No, this insurance will not cover my annual visits to the dentist or pre-existing conditions, but the policy will cover most everything else, including theft of my bike, repatriation of my remains, and rental car collision coverage (which is always outrageously expensive when purchased at the rental car counter).

For the grand price of $1211.78 per year, and renewable on the road, this policy covers all the good stuff.  Among countless other activities, it explicitly covers:

• Abseiling
• Base Jumping
• Cavern Diving
• Dirt Boarding
• Trekking in Antarctica
• Cycle Touring
• Flying an Aircraft
• Heli-Boarding
• Rock Climbing
• Shark Cage Diving
• Snow Rafting
• Ziplining
• Mountaineering

Are You Going Alone?

The wonderful thing about the world is that there are an estimated 7 billion of us out there, which means the odds of finding someone else out there as crazy as I am pretty good with resources like the Adventure Cycling Association, Crazy Guy On A Bike, and Warm Showers.  I put an ad in the "Companions" section of the Adventure Cycling Association website (which also was featured in the February issue of Adventure Cyclist!), and got a surprisingly large number of responses, but most folks were still in the dreaming phase rather than the execution phase of their planning.

Hey, look at me!  I'm famous!

That is, until Gonzalo de la Pena emailed me.  He has a ton of bike touring and travel experience, and so we agreed that he would come visit me in DC to meet, and he did!  We got along well, geeked out over Star Wars Legos and cycling gear, and he didn't seem like a serial killer, so we agreed to start the trip together.  He will actually be flying to meet me in Denver and joining me on my cross-country trip so we can get to know each other better, and share our love of the outdoors at various national parks along the way.

For those who worry, you can see his photo blog from his bike trips at: http://bicimundista.com/.

Frequently Asked Questions (or No, Really, I Did Actually Think This All Out!)

I've gotten used to the incredulous stares and looks of disbelief when I tell people about this trip over the past year.  Usually, the first reaction is "wow, that sounds amazing" or "wow, that sounds crazy and dangerous."  And then the questions come pouring out. 

The Darian Gap

There are those who aren't really interested and snarkily ask me how I'm going to bike across the Darian Gap.  Very funny, guys.  I'm fairly certain my bike would not appreciate trying to cross the Darian Gap by air, so I'm looking forward to a lovely boat ride from Panama City to Cartagena. 

How Long Will That Take?

There are those who aptly realize that Argentina is reaaaaally far away and ask me how long it will take to bike from the U.S. to Argentina.  The answer isn't a simple one.  I could do it in well under a year.  I've seen trip blogs of folks who have done the entire Pan-American from Deadhorse, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina in just 9 months.  But I'm approaching this trip with an open mind.  I will have the luxury of time and no itinerary.  The only place I absolutely have to be my brother's wedding sometime in 2014, and that just means I have to visit the U.S., if just for a bit.  I have the complete and utter freedom to stay somewhere I like for a week, a month, or a year.  Conversely, if I decide the wandering lifestyle isn't for me, I can pack up and head home after a couple months. 

How Much Will This Trip Cost?

There are those who respond to my Adventure Cycling Association website advertisement who ask me what my budget is for the subsequently described adventure:

"I'm a 32 year old American woman doing a two-plus-year self-supported bike tour starting in Seattle and going south via the Pacific Coast to Baja California, Central and South America, and possibly to Southeast Asia afterwards, depending on funds. I plan on taking my time and taking smaller dirt roads, and whenever possible, hiking, rafting, climbing, and scuba diving. 50 to 75 miles (75 to 100 km)/day, camping with one to two days/week in hostals.  Plans are flexible and I speak Spanish fluently."

From what I can tell, folks who do long distance bike tours typically fall into two categories: (1) the fresh-faced twenty-somethings in their gap year; or (2) retirees.  The former think they can get by on $10/day.  The retirees may have not even have a budget, or don't have to think in terms of a daily budget because they are living off their retirement.  Mid-career, young-ish, folks like myself seem to be scarce.

One of the first things I had to decide was how much I wanted to have set aside for the trip and how much I wanted to have set aside for "reintegration" back into American society should I choose to do so.  I decided that at a minimum, I would like to have enough money to take at least a year but up to two-years for this trip.  I read a lot of cycling blogs, in particular http://travellingtwo.com/resources/budget, to get an idea of what a reasonable budget would be. 

Ultimately, my budget was somewhat arbitrary and driven by the following conclusions:

1. I needed a nice round number to aim for. 
2. $10,000 per year of travel seemed reasonable and would allow me to do all the things I wanted to do.  It's actually more than I will probably end up spending due to how cheap Latin America is. 
3. I also have the option of finding temporary work along the way to supplement my savings since I have the advantage of speaking Spanish and English. 
4. I did not take this into account while doing my calculations, because even if I may have the option of picking up temporary work along the way, whether its manning the front desk at a hostal, giving salsa lessons, teaching English, or whatever I can muster up, I can't rely on finding that type of work.

This $10,000 number was based at least a little bit on past experience and my research:

1. I calculated that $20/day is reasonable for a solo traveler who camps over half the time, stays in hostals less than half the time, and splurges on a hot shower, beer, and a good meal a fair amount of the time. 
2. When I backpacked through Central America during law school, I managed on $15-$20/day and that was including the cost of public transportation and a bed every night.  Accomodation accounted for over half of my costs.  Camping would allow me to take that extra cash and upgrade my meals and other simple luxuries. 
3. Soooooo $20 x 365 = $7,300 base cost per year. 
4. Then I needed to make sure I budgeted for the fun splurges of rafting, scuba diving, trekking, skydiving, paragliding, or whatever else I felt was once-in-a-lifetime. 
5. $10,000 was an easy number to aim for as far as per year costs went, and made my "fun splurges / repair stuffs / emergencies" fund $225 per month.  And voila!  My minimum was to save $20,000 for the trip.

Deciding on what I felt comfortable with for "reintegration" was hard.  After all, I do have an easily liquidated 401k / IRA that has enough to see me through just about any emergency.  I also have a wonderful network of friends and family who would bail me out if I crashed and burned.  But how much money in the bank would give me ease that I could live off it and find gainful employment and a place to live if I decided to come back?  That's a highly personal analysis.  I decided I should have a $10,000 cushion.  Again, it was a somewhat arbitrary but easy to aim for.

Most people I know are always behind their financial goals.  Somehow, I managed to get ahead of mine, and ended up paying off my student loans a month early.  I recalculated my savings projections today based on the new timing of my departure from work, and somehow I will end up likely having saved enough to take at least four years off.

What Will You Do When You Get Back?

And there are those who can't quite wrap their mind around the fact that I'm willing to leave the rat race and walk away from a six figure job to go on this trip, and all they can think of to ask is what I'm going to do when I get back.  The problem with this question is the faulty premise that I plan on coming back.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I always have a Plan B/C/D/E/F.  Always.

• Plan B:  Take the foreign service exam and become a foreign service officer.
• Plan C:  Take an online TEFL course and teach English abroad.
• Plan D:  Work as a grease monkey in a bike shop.
• Plan E:  Peace Corp.
• Plan F:  Take my 401k / IRA or surplus monies and start a mountain bike hostel in the U.S. / Bolivia / Peru / wherever.
• Plan G:  Become a translator.
• Plan H:  Discover on this trip what I want to do when I grow up and do that.
• Plan I:  Live in the woods of West Virginia.
• If all else fails, go back into law.  Maybe in Alaska.  They like me up there.