I have a friend who likes to travel on the road full time (who should be nameless at this time, but a few of you might be able to figure it out). This guy likes to travel all over the place on a bicycle; no bus, no train, and not even an airplane. His travels are almost always on foot or on a bicycle. Sometimes he would ocassionally get rides by the police or just by random people he meets out in the public. Currently, he’s travelling all across the Northeast. This is permanent I believe. He just wants to get away from everything. Just wanted to get away from his home life and leaving his family behind.

I understand that there are some other people that can be like this. People who live on the road to get away from life and society, so they want to be on their own but living this way is very dangerous & risky, no matter what you think of it. This guy believes he’s doing a good thing and think he’s doing something inspirational. You can see all of his travel videos on his youtube account. He also mistakenly believes that this world is safe out there and thinks nothing will ever happen to him. In facebook, I would try to get onto him about this stuff and he usually gets all defensive.

Usually when people decide to live on the road like this — staying at various homeless shelters, sleeping at random places in the streets, etc. — usually things don’t end so good for people. People usually go missing or end up in bad situations.

What are the risks of living on the road on a permanent basis? I’ll list them here:

• Health issues & injuries – Who is going to take care of you if you get sick? Who is going to take care of you if you get hurt during an accident while on the road? Who is going to pay for your hospital bills? If you get hurt or get sick people are not gonna care out there.
• Becoming a victim of a criminal act – Muggings, beatings, robberies, shootings, etc. You’ll become a victim of all that stuff if you live out in the streets 24/7. It’s not safe anywhere anymore. Especially with all the tragic gun shootings and bombings happening these days. He has gotten robbed a few times already before in the past and that is just the beginning of it.
• Money issues – I don’t want to get into this guy’s personal life on how he gets his money to stay on the road, but one of these days he’s not gonna get any money at all when something happens. Soon he’ll be digging in the garbage for food or in search of things to recycle.
• Weather issues – Being outside on the road all day is pretty risky for the weather. You can even get sick or even die if you’re not smart of taking care of yourself whether during the Winter or the hot Summer weathers.
• You could wind up dead – Sad but this is true. Just look at Christopher McCandless of the “Into The Wild” story. Most people who decided to live on the road ends up in death. Whether by illness, getting hit by a car, murdered by some criminal, and things like that. All this stuff can happen.

While it’s good that this guy wants to get away from life, and I’m sure he’s very happy of what he’s doing but at the same time, I’m kind of scared for him. I just wish he would wake up and look at reality. It’s good that he wants to see the rest of the world and see what it’s like out there but at the same time, it’s pretty crazy. Someday, this guy’s bicycle is going to break for good and what is he going to do now if it does? Bicycles don’t last forever. They can get worn out after hours & hours of bike riding every single day.

Don’t get me wrong. I like to travel myself. I love it but I wouldn’t do it the way this guy does. I would rather travel with people and not alone. I would rather travel the safer way by bus, train, or airplane. I don’t mean to bust on him and I don’t mean to be harsh, just trying to give him a reality check on things. I think he will be back in Upstate, New York, though. Just give it time. When he runs out of money and can’t figure out what else to do that’ll make him return. I’ve had this topic in my mind all week and had to get it off my chest.

Kev