I'm 54 years old, and I'm tired. I'm tired of working for the same old company, and just bored in general. I have done many things in my life and did well at it, but I think I'm reaching the age to where I need to fulfill my life's dream before I get too old.

I think I have a lot of common sense, and what I'm thinking of makes no sense at all.

I'm thinking of quitting my job, selling everything I own, pulling all of my money out of my 401ks and yea, take the tax hit, buying a motorcycle and just ride. I'm thinking heading through Baja and eventually end up in Argentina during the winter next year, and then head north to Alaska during the summer.

I have enough saved to live for 4-5 years and I keep reading these riding reports on this forum that just makes me feel like a caged animal.

http://www.advrider.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2

I think there comes a point in life, where you have to make a hard choice based on the time you have left. Some call it a "Bucket List" and some question the intelligence of doing something so radical while they sit on the couch watching American Idol.

If I don't do this by the end of the year, it's my goal to start in 2014.

Live your dreams but think further than just 4 - 5 years!
You need some financial security for your older ages!

The Dalai Lama didn't have to work to put food on the table for his kids.

Hi Hou-Tex: I don't know what the point is of being alive if you don't follow instincts like this to see, do and feel as much of what the world has to offer as you can fit in. If the universe was put there for anything it's gotta be for being experienced, right?

So go. Do.

...Though I also think what other guys are saying is right. No sense blowing the rest of your life out the water if you can help it. I'm only a little younger than you: we know we've passed the halfway point in life, but we may well have decades still ahead of us, and we don't want to jeopardise them if we can help it. So think ahead. Have some reaslistic idea of what you'll do when you get back.

I know a guy who did just about exactly what you're talking about, taking a couple of years to bike down through South America. Absolutely brilliant, by all accounts. Still, he's a successful chef, and that's a job you can walk back into later without much difficulty, which is what he did. He was responding to the call of the wild but he wasn't acting crazy.

Also. If you want to travel in the hope that some unforeseeable and fabulous thing comes along to take your life in a whole new direction - well that is a bad reason to set out, because it is extremely likely not to happen. Travel is fabulous but it's not about finding answers and fixing problems or holes in your life. You do that by addressing problems face on, not by hoping a journey is somehow going to do it for you.

I've travelled a heck of a lot. I've visited over 40 countries, most of them several times, a majority for months at a time. It's great: you learn so much about other places, other people, and about yourself and where you come from. And sunrise through the mist on mountain tops - yadda yadda, all that stuff. But what you don't do is have some huge spiritual awakening, and if that is what you're looking for - it probably ain't going to work out.

I've encountered numerous people wandering the world looking for... something - and I've noticed they almost never find it. It's the wrong reason to travel.

So while you're thinking about what happens after the journey, just check up on your motivations too. It's quite important.

Best wishes - C

If you have a "bucket list" , better start emptying it.

You don't want to be on your death bed saying "I shoulda..."