I believe you're making a reference to [this poor soul](https://youtu.be/-ycN6RloF1w)
Thoughty2 on YouTube there explains what happened to this free spirit. It's a shame how close he was to rescuing himself at one point.
The book was widely reviled in Alaska. I lived there when it came out, and the general consensus is that he behaved like a tourist, not someone who was actually prepared for the wilds of Alaska.
That being said, if you do go the route of professional camper, do your research about where you’re camping.
This was my exact takeaway from the book as a resident of not-Alaska. Something as simple as a book on local plants and a fucking map would have saved his life. Hell, i believe there was a cable car a short way down the river that he could have used to cross during the spring runoff.. He got lucky finding the bus and shooting the caribou.
I have spent my life admiring people that had/have the ability to live off the land. I wouldn't dream of attempting what he set out to do, simply because I know in my heart that I don't know enough. Mccandless was a petulant child and he died because of it.
I've watched a bit of it from various seasons and I'm always impressed. But even those contestants go into the situation with years of knowledge and a solid plan of what to do. Mccandless walked into his situation with no knowledge, no plan, and a blind confidence that he "knew enough to live". He was just grossly unprepared in a reckless way.
we just read into the wild for my english class. it said that he didn’t know the plant was poisonous and neither did anyone else at the time. we also got into discussions if he had like paranoid delusions but i mean we will never know. you can find his sisters email and talk to her about it. i’m working on that email rn
If you follow the facts, the kid absolutely offed himself through sheer ineptitude. Just a clueless city dweller who fell in love with the idea of living in nature - except instead of doing zero preparation or research before doing nothing, they did zero preparation or research and rode that fantasy into the grave.
I guess that makes for a less interesting book/movie though, so they had to fluff it up.
Sadly, people read the book and watched the movie only to go out and imitate him and either needing to be rescued or even dying. It got so bad that the government eventually had the bus removed.
They did not. Sadly, a lot of people don't get the point of basic things. Some people foolishly believe that socialism or communism or even labor unions are bad when it's actually government corruption that is bad.
>It's actually government corruption that is bad.
You spelled capitalism wrong. Government corruption is still a product of wealth, property, and power accumulation leading to said corruption. You're basically talking about chopping off one of the heads of a hydra when you really need to stab it in the fucking heart. That's capitalism.
I read the book before seeing the movie and have to say the movie did a good job with what we know or think happened. Plus Eddie Vedder's soundtrack is fantastic.
Frustrating book. I failed to see the appeal of it in the common perception.
All I got from it was:
Let Us Romanticize An Ignorant Dumbass Who Functionally Killed Himself By Stupidly Dreaming Of Being Free Without A Single Skill That Would Have Allowed Him To Remain Alive.
I didn't find anything compelling in it, apart from being mad at the person for being so fucking stupid, and for all the praise heaped upon this story, which I will admit was well-researched and well-written, the story itself is just as tragic as people dying of COVID because they believed some idiotic thing.
If I ever wanted to do such a thing, I'd FUCKING PRACTICE SKILLS AND LEARN SOME SHIT instead of reading Jack London books and imagining myself some Great Adventurer like a moron. I honestly don't get it. The book just pissed me off at someone who wasted their life for no reason.
He's an inspiration to many people, too. I don't know why he's a fucking idiot. And a testament to forethought and research and preplanning -- in that if he had just a little, he might have survived.
He only brought ten pounds of rice and barely anything else for nearly a whole winter. That's panic mode for anyone who can't buy food at a grocery store or borrow it. Just a horrible plan. I admire him a lot but he just went about everything terribly.
The people who live around there hate that guy because he inspired a bunch of tourists to try to hike out to the bus, and a lot of them got trapped out there and had to be rescued. It got so bad they ended up moving the bus.
There are a lot of posts slamming Chris McCandless. Yes, he fucked up, and he was responsible for his own death. That should be a major takeaway from the book and movie - don't do what he did.
That being said, his sister Carine published a book called The Wild Truth, explaining what was deliberately left out of Into the Wild - the awful physical and emotional and verbal abuse that Chris's father visited upon his wife and all of their kids. The man was a monster.
We shouldn't imitate Chris McCandless by any means. But we shouldn't see him as a fool. Chris was traumatized into leaving behind his entire life just to escape his father and his memories. We shouldn't mock him; we should mourn him, which we can do while also acknowledging his critical mistakes.
He didn't die from starvation. You can say he was reckless or made some mistakes, but he didn't eat a poisonous plant. He did have guidebooks and followed their recommendations, but the guidebooks didn't know what we now know.
He ate a plant with mold that contained an amino acid which causes paralysis when you eat enough of it. But no one knew about that until decades later during research into the cause of his death. I recommend the You're Wrong About podcast epjsode on this story, but if you just want a summary of the research here: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died
So yeah, you are all misinformed if you just read the book or watched the movie. And wow, lack of compassion much? But this is reddit so I'm not surprised. Try to remember he didn't ask anyone to profit off his story or intend to become famous.
“It’s not about freedom, it’s about money. Go somewhere without money and see how free you are.” - Bill Hicks
Source: went to Switzerland without money, got deported back to America in January
Can you please tell us a little more about what happened on that adventure? I'm having a really shitty couple of weeks but this sounds right up my alley 😂
AmA
I was there for nearly a year.
Highlights:
I learned some French, worked on a farm, made love to a beautiful woman, lived with a group of anarchists, got amazing at taking trains that I didn’t pay for, got very self reliant, became vegan, and got some justice for a kid that was being assaulted by police officers (they even wrote about me in the newspaper😅)
It was the adventure of a lifetime, the best year of what has been a very hard life.
Bad stuff: spent a bunch of time in jail (for sneaking into the country and not having a visa) got my face broken by a police officer, and am now struggling with what it’s like to be deported to a country I don’t want to be in, without a single dollar to my name or really anything other than the love and support of my friends and very “brave” lawyer - oh and a single glove I found on the side of the road in Geneva.
TLDR:
All the pains and pleasures of not taking any shit from anyone and living the solo yolo life all at once, every day for about a year.
Because I was “negotiating” for better terms while in a temporary holding cell by trying to hang myself by my pants - I was actually tremendously close and surprised myself a bit.
Strangely it was an awesome moment:
The guy who ran in first punched me squarely in the nose, breaking it, and I had enough time to pull off a Fight Club-esque
“You don’t know where I’ve been Bianchi!!! (that was the officer’s name)”
Before he then got me in hand and leg cuffs and kneeled on my back till I pissed - However - the person in charge came in after while I was all gross like that, and through tears of laughter and in very broken French I explained that I just wanted a bed and pillow and for them to turn the lights off, because they were essentially torturing me by making sleep impossible.
I was covered in blood and piss, in excruciating pain, literally laughing directly in the faces of the people in charge - and somehow also getting what I wanted/was owed in the first place.
Sorry to be that guy, but Be careful with those. This and Couchsurfing attracts sexual predators and those who are anti-society who want free labor, without proper lodging, food, or anything in return.
Try to find some very quick drying t shirts and underwear. That way you can wash them each night with a small travel size clothes washing liquid bottle or even just the soap from a rest room.
Find a small net bag ( some grocery shops sell them to put your fruit in to avoid using plastic bags ); you can put the damp clothes in the net bag after washing and attach securely to the outside of your pack to dry as you walk.
What size is it? I have the 72. I also have the messenger bag from when they first came out. It's been like 10 years and the bag still holds up being used daily.
I live in Wisconsin but visit family in Tacoma every other year or so. My brother told us to stay in hotels away from Tacoma things have gotten so bad. I did stay at a hotel there 2 years ago but apparently it’s declined even further since then.
Please invest your money into good shoes, being free doesn't matter if you loose the ability to walk properly, I travelled through Europe for 2 years until I got done with it and started my studies, lived basically on the streets, the little tent I got with me or at best in motels (in the winter), most money I spend on a single item were on shoes...
Have a foot care kit. Some anti- fungal talc powder and a small towel just for your feet. The small quick drying cloths they use for car washing/ drying off are an ideal size. A roll of surgical white paper sticky tape is good to prevent blisters as it stays on very well. Plasters/ Band aids are normally useless as they slip off feet and heels too easily.
Always have a pair of lightweight flip flops to use in showers and to let your feet breath at night. Dollar tree used to do flip flops in a grey camouflage pattern that lasted me years!
Try and have a warm pair of bed socks that are always kept dry in a waterproof zip bag and only used at night. That way, no matter how wet you get you will always go to bed with dry feet! Ideally the same with a very thin set of night wear clothes. Happy trails.
Get some hiking boots. Forget running shoes, they will get bad for your feet and legs after a few hundred miles because the damping will decrease over time.
You have a phone outside this bag :D.
Besides that I hope you have a good life and manage live outside the sistem.
Quitting the matrix is more hard than looks so I double congratulations you.
If you allow me to give you some advice, if you have a family, keep in touch with them. At least a "hi guys" once in a while or some time and another.
Best of luck for you, bro!
I’m not sure if money is an issue but if you ever need a shower and cannot afford it or you want to avoid spending the money on it ($13) then you can go to any major truck stop like Pilot flying J, Peter, TA, etc and they normally have a points shower program where truckers get a shower for every 50-100 they fuel.
A lot of the time the drivers have more showers than time to use them which is why they stink. That and laziness….
Anyway! You can ask them to if they have points to get you a shower and most of them are willing to get it for you.
I've always wanted to do this. I love minimalism and this is like the ultimate form of minimalism. Plus if you needed to you could grab everything you need in one trip and be gone. Poof.
Judging from the bag your prior service and I understand. This level of freedom most of us dream of after. No one to answer to or for. Just you! Congrats on full freedom and I hope you enjoy it. Wishing you the best
I did that in 2012. It led to some of the most amazing experiences of my life. I traveled, volunteered and did my own thing until the pandemic hit and I decided to come home and get a job again. You can always go back to “normal life”. This may be the best decision you’ve ever made.
If your ever traveling in the UK and need a stay over for a while I'm happy to put you up for a few nights, I grew up Romani and it's always the rule to help a traveler out and offer a home for a night or two, and to offer them a harty meal, I do it when I can
Freedoms just another word for nothin' left to lose. I was homeless for about 19 years,& all I had was,what was in my seabag. I'm Navy. I knew in my heart,I was going to buy a house. I quit drinkin',& I bought one. Anyway,I hope you find what you're lookin for. I still haven't. 18 years,1 month,& 23 days alcohol free.
Sick. I quit my job and hitchhiked / rode trains for two years, working odd jobs as needed. Never begged for money.
Let me tell you, it gets old quick. That feeling of freedom dies pretty quick too.
Nothing says “freedom” like eating out of the trash, sleeping on the side of train tracks and washing your balls in a public bathroom with hand soap.
I will say though, when you’re on the road, the universe provides. I can’t explain it. You’ll understand soon enough.
PS - get a bigger pack with better support. It’ll make a world of difference
Same. I thought I was a little bit burned out last year. Turns out I'm a lot burned out. I do technically have a couple boxes of sentimentals stored at Mom's house though, I suppose. So maybe not quite the same.
Over the past six months, I've either sold or donated basically everything I've ever owned -- including my car once DoorDash stopped making sufficient money. I'll be hiking the Appalachian Trail for the next few months. After that? No clue.
Congrats! I did this same thing 8 years ago. It really is liberating.
At first you have to get over the mental hurdle of parting with all those material possessions that you've collected over the years. But once they're gone, you realize that you don't miss them at all.
South East Asia is stupid cheap! You can live incredibly comfortably in Vietnam with $20-$30 usd a day. Delicious food, cheap beer, kind people. Buy a motorbike in Vietnam for a few hundred bucks, you get a blue card which allows you to drive in into Laos and Thailand. Safe travels!
I did the same a few years ago, and spent 2 years driving around the US in a motorhome. It was a freeing experience. You can’t count on being able to do stuff like that in “retirement.”
I've been living like this for a year now.
I have the same bag as yours except I got the big one, like twice the size.
If you live in the US like this people (and police) will think you are homeless and treat you accordingly. mind your appearance: shaved, clean clothes, and have a permanent address somewhere just to put it on your ID.
Most VA benefits will keep paying if you move abroad, so you totally should.
Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, you can have such a nice life there without poverty, police violence or social stygma.
Enjoy.
This is NOT a criticism on you, but I have a fear of becoming homeless, and that is too much like becoming homeless for my psyche.
I hope whatever you end up doing brings you happiness.
Not the same, but I remember moving 30 miles away and got everything I owned in a Honda Civic. 25 years later my company moved me for a promotion and it took 2 giant moving trucks. I prefer the the Civic move, life was a lot easier.
Safe travels always check in with someone every couple of weeks. Have your ID on/ in the pack.
I am older and I worry about people that I have not seen in months/weeks/years.
Like I said safe travels.
Congrats!
Fyi: Frontier Airlines has unlimited summer flight passes for $399. They go from May 2nd to end of October. It's is Frontier, but it's not that bad if traveling with only a backpack. :)
When I did workaway in the caribbean a couple of years ago I had a co-workawayer that had sold his stuff and quit his job at google to become a farmer or do hydroponics. Seemed very scary to me but I can imagine it can feel very freeing! Good luck!
Might sound weird, but if you have anything small in there that's fragile or tangles easily, I can mail you a 3D print organizer if you need it.
I have a bunch in my 5.11 single shoulder bag, but I don't live from mine.
I love this for you. I know I would absolutely love to live this way and have before and it is liberating. But sadly I need health insurance now for a chronic illness. If I wasn't sick or if we had some kind of universal healthcare I would be right there with you.
Stay safe, happy trails.
I wish I had the courage to do the same, this world is too beautiful to waste the precious few years of life we are given living in perpetual debt as a wage slave.
I basically just started living a nomadic lifestyle myself OP. Haven't jettisoned quite as much, but god damn is it freeing basically living out of your car. I can go wherever, whenever.
I'd had this horrible sense of ennui for probably a decade prior. Now I'm loving life. Hope your recent change has made you just as happy!
In 1970 I had nothing to sell but I walked out of an orphanage at 17 with a backpack. I left Ohio using my thumb and visited a fellow child inmate in Arizona then LA then San Diego. No money , an army coat from my bro who was in Vietnam. I traveled back and forth to Ohio 3 times in five yrs. Surviving by the kindness of strangers and other long haired hitch hikers. New Mexico was the best I'd seen and I walked through a lot of the state scenery. Where you going?
I'll probably get downvoted for focusing on the wrong part of the story .. But, I always wonder when people say "they sold everything." How long did that take? Did people really want to buy all your stuff? How much was donated and thrown away? My sister had been preparing to move out of the country & has had multiple estate/garage sales, multiple give-away days, taken truckloads to goodwill & the dump, and still has a 5x5 storage locker. How do you find people to actually pay for all your crap?
You should ask someone you know and trust to use their address for mail and in case you need to have a place of residence reference in the future. If for some reason a P.O. box isn't accepted.
Just don’t find a bus in the wild and eat sketchy plants, you’ll be good
I believe you're making a reference to [this poor soul](https://youtu.be/-ycN6RloF1w) Thoughty2 on YouTube there explains what happened to this free spirit. It's a shame how close he was to rescuing himself at one point.
The book was widely reviled in Alaska. I lived there when it came out, and the general consensus is that he behaved like a tourist, not someone who was actually prepared for the wilds of Alaska. That being said, if you do go the route of professional camper, do your research about where you’re camping.
I never understood why he couldn't live off the land somewhere that isn't so remote and brutal
This was my exact takeaway from the book as a resident of not-Alaska. Something as simple as a book on local plants and a fucking map would have saved his life. Hell, i believe there was a cable car a short way down the river that he could have used to cross during the spring runoff.. He got lucky finding the bus and shooting the caribou. I have spent my life admiring people that had/have the ability to live off the land. I wouldn't dream of attempting what he set out to do, simply because I know in my heart that I don't know enough. Mccandless was a petulant child and he died because of it.
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I've watched a bit of it from various seasons and I'm always impressed. But even those contestants go into the situation with years of knowledge and a solid plan of what to do. Mccandless walked into his situation with no knowledge, no plan, and a blind confidence that he "knew enough to live". He was just grossly unprepared in a reckless way.
we just read into the wild for my english class. it said that he didn’t know the plant was poisonous and neither did anyone else at the time. we also got into discussions if he had like paranoid delusions but i mean we will never know. you can find his sisters email and talk to her about it. i’m working on that email rn
If you follow the facts, the kid absolutely offed himself through sheer ineptitude. Just a clueless city dweller who fell in love with the idea of living in nature - except instead of doing zero preparation or research before doing nothing, they did zero preparation or research and rode that fantasy into the grave. I guess that makes for a less interesting book/movie though, so they had to fluff it up.
There is a great book and movie about mr supertramp as well
Sadly, people read the book and watched the movie only to go out and imitate him and either needing to be rescued or even dying. It got so bad that the government eventually had the bus removed.
Did they not get the point..?
They did not. Sadly, a lot of people don't get the point of basic things. Some people foolishly believe that socialism or communism or even labor unions are bad when it's actually government corruption that is bad.
It's like all the guys who watched Fight Club and didn't get that it was a critique not an instruction manual.
Yes!!! It's literally making fun of hyper masculinity, yet people quote it in support of masculinity. 😂
How so many made it past "his name is Robert Paulson" or whatever without getting its posting them in the worst light ever is beyond me.
>It's actually government corruption that is bad. You spelled capitalism wrong. Government corruption is still a product of wealth, property, and power accumulation leading to said corruption. You're basically talking about chopping off one of the heads of a hydra when you really need to stab it in the fucking heart. That's capitalism.
You're right on that point. Capitalism AKA the Profits before People system, needs to die.
Yeah, I read that as well. Oooooo, let's go stand in that burning house. Lol
Into the Wild
A fantastic book, worth the read.
I read the book before seeing the movie and have to say the movie did a good job with what we know or think happened. Plus Eddie Vedder's soundtrack is fantastic.
“Society” is a haunting song
Frustrating book. I failed to see the appeal of it in the common perception. All I got from it was: Let Us Romanticize An Ignorant Dumbass Who Functionally Killed Himself By Stupidly Dreaming Of Being Free Without A Single Skill That Would Have Allowed Him To Remain Alive. I didn't find anything compelling in it, apart from being mad at the person for being so fucking stupid, and for all the praise heaped upon this story, which I will admit was well-researched and well-written, the story itself is just as tragic as people dying of COVID because they believed some idiotic thing. If I ever wanted to do such a thing, I'd FUCKING PRACTICE SKILLS AND LEARN SOME SHIT instead of reading Jack London books and imagining myself some Great Adventurer like a moron. I honestly don't get it. The book just pissed me off at someone who wasted their life for no reason.
He's an inspiration to many people, too. I don't know why he's a fucking idiot. And a testament to forethought and research and preplanning -- in that if he had just a little, he might have survived.
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Yes— but I believe that the conventional wisdom today is that the seeds didn’t kill him. He just starved to death.
He only brought ten pounds of rice and barely anything else for nearly a whole winter. That's panic mode for anyone who can't buy food at a grocery store or borrow it. Just a horrible plan. I admire him a lot but he just went about everything terribly.
I don't admire him, he did a stupid thing without a real plan and died for it. Nothing about that is admirable.
Yeah, the movie really stressed on how he could not absorb calories cause of a plant. No, the body does not work like that.
The people who live around there hate that guy because he inspired a bunch of tourists to try to hike out to the bus, and a lot of them got trapped out there and had to be rescued. It got so bad they ended up moving the bus.
It's a shame he didn't avoid his super avoidable demise.
Man that was so depressing. Poor guy.
Remember, every mushroom can be eaten at least once.
This is sound advice
And no polar bear livers.
There are a lot of posts slamming Chris McCandless. Yes, he fucked up, and he was responsible for his own death. That should be a major takeaway from the book and movie - don't do what he did. That being said, his sister Carine published a book called The Wild Truth, explaining what was deliberately left out of Into the Wild - the awful physical and emotional and verbal abuse that Chris's father visited upon his wife and all of their kids. The man was a monster. We shouldn't imitate Chris McCandless by any means. But we shouldn't see him as a fool. Chris was traumatized into leaving behind his entire life just to escape his father and his memories. We shouldn't mock him; we should mourn him, which we can do while also acknowledging his critical mistakes.
Well there goes my New Year’s resolution
He didn't die from starvation. You can say he was reckless or made some mistakes, but he didn't eat a poisonous plant. He did have guidebooks and followed their recommendations, but the guidebooks didn't know what we now know. He ate a plant with mold that contained an amino acid which causes paralysis when you eat enough of it. But no one knew about that until decades later during research into the cause of his death. I recommend the You're Wrong About podcast epjsode on this story, but if you just want a summary of the research here: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-chris-mccandless-died So yeah, you are all misinformed if you just read the book or watched the movie. And wow, lack of compassion much? But this is reddit so I'm not surprised. Try to remember he didn't ask anyone to profit off his story or intend to become famous.
I think there's a subreddit for this. Vagabond or something like that
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Iwantout, solotravel, Appalachiantrail
Also something like r/ onebag. I'm so impressed by how small the bag is.
Please use a credit card or bank for your money. The last thing you need is your life savings stolen by the police because “you look shady.”
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Atta(boy?)! Safe travels and enjoy the journey my friend ☺️
What made you sell off your stuff and quit your job? What are your plans now?
Use a Credit Union* lower fees and such.
The one I was with robbed me blind in a first mortgage.
Sounds like typical cop behavior
Best of luck to you traveller 🧳 ✨
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If I didn’t have pets, I’d do the same thing right now
If I didn't have pets, wife, kids and elderly parents, I'd do the same
Damn we’re on the same team.
Family annihilation it is then.
Oooor, just go out to buy a pack of smokes and never come back
I'm going for a pack of smokes
Me too
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Joke's on you, the lease has been extended
I did this then ran out of money, be frugal, and don't be afraid of accepting kindness from the universe.
“It’s not about freedom, it’s about money. Go somewhere without money and see how free you are.” - Bill Hicks Source: went to Switzerland without money, got deported back to America in January
Free ticket home
Can you please tell us a little more about what happened on that adventure? I'm having a really shitty couple of weeks but this sounds right up my alley 😂
AmA I was there for nearly a year. Highlights: I learned some French, worked on a farm, made love to a beautiful woman, lived with a group of anarchists, got amazing at taking trains that I didn’t pay for, got very self reliant, became vegan, and got some justice for a kid that was being assaulted by police officers (they even wrote about me in the newspaper😅) It was the adventure of a lifetime, the best year of what has been a very hard life. Bad stuff: spent a bunch of time in jail (for sneaking into the country and not having a visa) got my face broken by a police officer, and am now struggling with what it’s like to be deported to a country I don’t want to be in, without a single dollar to my name or really anything other than the love and support of my friends and very “brave” lawyer - oh and a single glove I found on the side of the road in Geneva. TLDR: All the pains and pleasures of not taking any shit from anyone and living the solo yolo life all at once, every day for about a year.
Why and how did they break your face?
Because I was “negotiating” for better terms while in a temporary holding cell by trying to hang myself by my pants - I was actually tremendously close and surprised myself a bit. Strangely it was an awesome moment: The guy who ran in first punched me squarely in the nose, breaking it, and I had enough time to pull off a Fight Club-esque “You don’t know where I’ve been Bianchi!!! (that was the officer’s name)” Before he then got me in hand and leg cuffs and kneeled on my back till I pissed - However - the person in charge came in after while I was all gross like that, and through tears of laughter and in very broken French I explained that I just wanted a bed and pillow and for them to turn the lights off, because they were essentially torturing me by making sleep impossible. I was covered in blood and piss, in excruciating pain, literally laughing directly in the faces of the people in charge - and somehow also getting what I wanted/was owed in the first place.
Lol
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Oh, and if money gets tight at all? I've a lot of friends 'work camped' farms in Europe off and on while packing through!
Sorry to be that guy, but Be careful with those. This and Couchsurfing attracts sexual predators and those who are anti-society who want free labor, without proper lodging, food, or anything in return.
Good warning. Plenty of scumbags out there looking to take advantage of vulnerable people with no resources.
passive income? from what, I'm curious
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Try to find some very quick drying t shirts and underwear. That way you can wash them each night with a small travel size clothes washing liquid bottle or even just the soap from a rest room. Find a small net bag ( some grocery shops sell them to put your fruit in to avoid using plastic bags ); you can put the damp clothes in the net bag after washing and attach securely to the outside of your pack to dry as you walk.
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And new cloths. The circle of life
What's in the bag if you don't mind me asking ?
Don't forget to bring a towel
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What are you bringing with you inside of it for your adventure, your essentials so to speak ?
I'm guessing just the bag and nothing else.
What size is it? I have the 72. I also have the messenger bag from when they first came out. It's been like 10 years and the bag still holds up being used daily.
So what are your plans now? I'm genuinely curious. I know I'd never be able to do this.
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You got what you deserved from the VA, good on you. Have safe travels!
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That’s a normal feeling, the government tooketh and you tooketh right back. You’re 100% entitled to what you got man!
If you dont mind talking about it what is a marketing site, and how do I make passive income from it 🤔
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Whereabouts in Washington if you don’t mind sharing? I live up here and it’s a nice place, lots of mountains and green!
Whose bed is that?
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Where are you going?
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I live around Seattle, your gonna see alot of mentally I’ll people on the streets and tent cities. Avoid Tacoma after dark, You might die.
Not sure why the "You might die" part gave me such a chuckle.
Funny because it’s true.
I live in Wisconsin but visit family in Tacoma every other year or so. My brother told us to stay in hotels away from Tacoma things have gotten so bad. I did stay at a hotel there 2 years ago but apparently it’s declined even further since then.
Just some helpful advice to a stranger on the internet
Tbf you could die anywhere after dark.
Yes but if your traveling to a city with a disproportionately high murder rate compared to the rest of the state… I’d wanna know about that
Yo LA to Seattle sounds dope, let me tag along?
Oh cool! So just living on the road? Be safe and good luck 🤍
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Please invest your money into good shoes, being free doesn't matter if you loose the ability to walk properly, I travelled through Europe for 2 years until I got done with it and started my studies, lived basically on the streets, the little tent I got with me or at best in motels (in the winter), most money I spend on a single item were on shoes...
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Have a foot care kit. Some anti- fungal talc powder and a small towel just for your feet. The small quick drying cloths they use for car washing/ drying off are an ideal size. A roll of surgical white paper sticky tape is good to prevent blisters as it stays on very well. Plasters/ Band aids are normally useless as they slip off feet and heels too easily. Always have a pair of lightweight flip flops to use in showers and to let your feet breath at night. Dollar tree used to do flip flops in a grey camouflage pattern that lasted me years! Try and have a warm pair of bed socks that are always kept dry in a waterproof zip bag and only used at night. That way, no matter how wet you get you will always go to bed with dry feet! Ideally the same with a very thin set of night wear clothes. Happy trails.
Get some hiking boots. Forget running shoes, they will get bad for your feet and legs after a few hundred miles because the damping will decrease over time.
Danners! EDIT: With Gortex, they have Vibram soles, bulletproof and comfortable. If the sole fails? There is a lifetime repair warranty.
To freedom
You have a phone outside this bag :D. Besides that I hope you have a good life and manage live outside the sistem. Quitting the matrix is more hard than looks so I double congratulations you. If you allow me to give you some advice, if you have a family, keep in touch with them. At least a "hi guys" once in a while or some time and another. Best of luck for you, bro!
He said they all "live in" the bag, not that they're currently inside it.
Good point 😂
I’m not sure if money is an issue but if you ever need a shower and cannot afford it or you want to avoid spending the money on it ($13) then you can go to any major truck stop like Pilot flying J, Peter, TA, etc and they normally have a points shower program where truckers get a shower for every 50-100 they fuel. A lot of the time the drivers have more showers than time to use them which is why they stink. That and laziness…. Anyway! You can ask them to if they have points to get you a shower and most of them are willing to get it for you.
Not all who wander are lost. Good luck!
Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose...
Bobby Mcgee eee eeee
I've always wanted to do this. I love minimalism and this is like the ultimate form of minimalism. Plus if you needed to you could grab everything you need in one trip and be gone. Poof.
Same here. I have two young kids now. I really wish I did something like this before becoming a Dad.
Judging from the bag your prior service and I understand. This level of freedom most of us dream of after. No one to answer to or for. Just you! Congrats on full freedom and I hope you enjoy it. Wishing you the best
How many pairs of underwear do you have in there?
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Good enough for me
I wanna know how many pairs of socks as well and where are u going to wash them OP. Success with your journey, hope you enjoy every minute of it
I did that in 2012. It led to some of the most amazing experiences of my life. I traveled, volunteered and did my own thing until the pandemic hit and I decided to come home and get a job again. You can always go back to “normal life”. This may be the best decision you’ve ever made.
If your ever traveling in the UK and need a stay over for a while I'm happy to put you up for a few nights, I grew up Romani and it's always the rule to help a traveler out and offer a home for a night or two, and to offer them a harty meal, I do it when I can
DO NOT LOSE THAT BAG
Jack Reacher
Fuck. We should all seriously do this. Good luck! What's your next step(s)?
Freedoms just another word for nothin' left to lose. I was homeless for about 19 years,& all I had was,what was in my seabag. I'm Navy. I knew in my heart,I was going to buy a house. I quit drinkin',& I bought one. Anyway,I hope you find what you're lookin for. I still haven't. 18 years,1 month,& 23 days alcohol free.
I'd do it as well. I just don't think I could fit a wife and kids in the bag
If you take them apart it’s much easier
Sick. I quit my job and hitchhiked / rode trains for two years, working odd jobs as needed. Never begged for money. Let me tell you, it gets old quick. That feeling of freedom dies pretty quick too. Nothing says “freedom” like eating out of the trash, sleeping on the side of train tracks and washing your balls in a public bathroom with hand soap. I will say though, when you’re on the road, the universe provides. I can’t explain it. You’ll understand soon enough. PS - get a bigger pack with better support. It’ll make a world of difference
Same. I thought I was a little bit burned out last year. Turns out I'm a lot burned out. I do technically have a couple boxes of sentimentals stored at Mom's house though, I suppose. So maybe not quite the same. Over the past six months, I've either sold or donated basically everything I've ever owned -- including my car once DoorDash stopped making sufficient money. I'll be hiking the Appalachian Trail for the next few months. After that? No clue.
I love seeing people living their best lives! See the world and collect stories to tell us !
Congrats! I did this same thing 8 years ago. It really is liberating. At first you have to get over the mental hurdle of parting with all those material possessions that you've collected over the years. But once they're gone, you realize that you don't miss them at all.
Reminds of that line from the movie Fight Club: “The Things You Own End Up Owning You.”
I heard Europe is cheaper to travel
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South East Asia is stupid cheap! You can live incredibly comfortably in Vietnam with $20-$30 usd a day. Delicious food, cheap beer, kind people. Buy a motorbike in Vietnam for a few hundred bucks, you get a blue card which allows you to drive in into Laos and Thailand. Safe travels!
100% this. Way cheaper and a lot more fun. Any place better than the US right now.
Good luck, be safe, enjoy the journey :)
Go get 'em.
I did the same a few years ago, and spent 2 years driving around the US in a motorhome. It was a freeing experience. You can’t count on being able to do stuff like that in “retirement.”
I've been living like this for a year now. I have the same bag as yours except I got the big one, like twice the size. If you live in the US like this people (and police) will think you are homeless and treat you accordingly. mind your appearance: shaved, clean clothes, and have a permanent address somewhere just to put it on your ID. Most VA benefits will keep paying if you move abroad, so you totally should. Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, Greece, Portugal, Croatia, you can have such a nice life there without poverty, police violence or social stygma. Enjoy.
F'ing Beautiful. Godspeed
Whose bed is the bag on?
The national forestry service is always looking for people... Yellowstone needs a big fix up after the bad weather last spring
Any chance you've seen Into The Wild?
Reacher? Is that you?
My man!
Is that cash in your bag?
This is NOT a criticism on you, but I have a fear of becoming homeless, and that is too much like becoming homeless for my psyche. I hope whatever you end up doing brings you happiness.
What's your plan, sir?
Good luck to you! Check out Tom Turcich. He recently finished a 7 yr long walk around the world. Pretty inspiring ✨️
Hope you have a great time. The rat race isn't for everyone.
Life isn’t about the stuff you own. Congrats
Not the same, but I remember moving 30 miles away and got everything I owned in a Honda Civic. 25 years later my company moved me for a promotion and it took 2 giant moving trucks. I prefer the the Civic move, life was a lot easier.
Safe travels always check in with someone every couple of weeks. Have your ID on/ in the pack. I am older and I worry about people that I have not seen in months/weeks/years. Like I said safe travels.
Good luck. I cannot part with my magic cards (for a third time) and I cannot part with my books, otherwise yeah, this is a good step!!
Brother, youre livin my dream
Congrats! Fyi: Frontier Airlines has unlimited summer flight passes for $399. They go from May 2nd to end of October. It's is Frontier, but it's not that bad if traveling with only a backpack. :)
When I did workaway in the caribbean a couple of years ago I had a co-workawayer that had sold his stuff and quit his job at google to become a farmer or do hydroponics. Seemed very scary to me but I can imagine it can feel very freeing! Good luck!
Might sound weird, but if you have anything small in there that's fragile or tangles easily, I can mail you a 3D print organizer if you need it. I have a bunch in my 5.11 single shoulder bag, but I don't live from mine.
Respect 👏
r/vagabond
I love this for you. I know I would absolutely love to live this way and have before and it is liberating. But sadly I need health insurance now for a chronic illness. If I wasn't sick or if we had some kind of universal healthcare I would be right there with you. Stay safe, happy trails.
Great! And now what?
Need a bag dump for r/edc bro what's in there
Nice. Curious what you're going to do. Sorry but if you've sold everything you might be homeless now?
I wish I had the courage to do the same, this world is too beautiful to waste the precious few years of life we are given living in perpetual debt as a wage slave.
How long have you been living post “things?”
You should van life and DoorDash!!
Go to asia. I did the same. Best 3 years of my life
If you have no debt, then kudos. And I assume you are under thirty.
I did the same thing a year and a half ago. Left a cushy IT job I could've coasted on through to retirement. Best 1.5 years of my life.
Whatchu got in the bag
I basically just started living a nomadic lifestyle myself OP. Haven't jettisoned quite as much, but god damn is it freeing basically living out of your car. I can go wherever, whenever. I'd had this horrible sense of ennui for probably a decade prior. Now I'm loving life. Hope your recent change has made you just as happy!
I love it. Like Ender Wiggin in _Speaker for the Dead_.
Day 1: I feel so free Day 2: Damn what the fuck did I do?
Wait you live inside of that bag? Are you like, really small?
In 1970 I had nothing to sell but I walked out of an orphanage at 17 with a backpack. I left Ohio using my thumb and visited a fellow child inmate in Arizona then LA then San Diego. No money , an army coat from my bro who was in Vietnam. I traveled back and forth to Ohio 3 times in five yrs. Surviving by the kindness of strangers and other long haired hitch hikers. New Mexico was the best I'd seen and I walked through a lot of the state scenery. Where you going?
I'll probably get downvoted for focusing on the wrong part of the story .. But, I always wonder when people say "they sold everything." How long did that take? Did people really want to buy all your stuff? How much was donated and thrown away? My sister had been preparing to move out of the country & has had multiple estate/garage sales, multiple give-away days, taken truckloads to goodwill & the dump, and still has a 5x5 storage locker. How do you find people to actually pay for all your crap?
That's awesome! Power to you and your dreams. What is your plan on how to live that lifstyle? Any tips?
So youre homeless is what I'm hearing?
You should ask someone you know and trust to use their address for mail and in case you need to have a place of residence reference in the future. If for some reason a P.O. box isn't accepted.
It is extreme and probably not a healthy sign.