Buying one way tickets to...

I can't tell you for sure that I know how everyone reacts when buying a one way plane ticket for the first time. What I can tell you is that Brownie has had a really tough time with the idea of buying the tickets, remember money security is our issue right now. I am a care free (maybe a little dumb) American that feels that I can do anything I set my mind to, and my mind is set on being a digital nomad and blogging, the latter being easy since I'm an opinionated wind bag, or so I'm told. We really don't have enough cash in the bank to be doing this and while I know this, I can't exactly tell her. If I tell her then I have to come up with a new plan and answer all her questions like; who, what, when, where and how. It wouldn't be hard to look into my life and see that I'm not exactly the guy that answers questions before he's asked. I don't know if that is because I'm lazy, careless or functionally dysfunctional. So what am I going to do since we can barely afford to take the trip, much less take a chance on a job that doesn't really exist. So for all of my readers, this blog is about my transition from being a simple sales person living a simple life in the states to living a life of travel, backpacks and foreign languages. That's what I think it's about but if I were reading this blog I'd be waiting for the other foot to drop.


I would love to go, dollar for dollar and explain what costs what, how much I have saved up or how much I expect I'll need but all of the answers to these questions vary so much that my answer would be one in a million. So instead of giving you exacts, I'll paint you a picture and hope that you see my wife's frustration. My brother-in-law suggested that we have around five thousand USD to survive the first couple of months while we look for school, work, visas and a place to live. This was when we were thinking about moving to Ireland to live for a few years and take a few classes for the student status but once I did my research and her brother told me that in Ireland he hadn't had the opportunity to wear his shorts the "live in Ireland" idea started to die quickly. I'm sure there is a tinge of Irish blood in me somewhere, but that little ice cube will have to melt cause the devil's been keeping me warm for so long in Texas that I'm not sure I'd survive living closer to the poles than the equator. My saying has always been "If it's cold I'll bundle up with so many clothes I can't bend and end up looking like the gingerbread man in coats" but "if it's hot, you can always strip down buck naked and jump into water to cool off." Granted everyone has a preference and as such it is what it is, a preference. So instead of trying the student approach and build up more loans to repay, I thought I should utilize my gift of gab.

So back to the moral of this little posting, buying one way plane tickets out of your home country is terrifying to some people but what I think most people are missing out on the adventurous feeling of taking risks. People look at the "fear" they feel when taking risks as "warning" signs that maybe you shouldn't be doing that. On the contrary I think that emotion you may be feeling is the feeling of possibility, the emotion of life flowing through your veins. Taking risks will undoubtedly keep your brain firing on all cylinders and sharpen your wit for the rest of your life. There are as many paths in life as there are lessons and there is no "perfect" or "right" way to do anything, there just are ways of doing them. The biggest obstacle we face in our plans is our own fears. Google the word fear by itself and the first four links are two wiki definitions, one video game and one movie. If "fear" was a bad thing then there would be more links warning people on how dangerous it is right? Now Google the words scam, AIDS or something you perceive as bad and I promise you that there will be more negative results than when you look up the word fear. Fear is one of those double edged swords in life that come at you, what is important is how you react. Fear for me pushes me to stand strong, not give up and it motivates me to respond. How many feelings require a response? I'd be willing to be not a lot do but then again I am a man and my wife does repeatedly tell me how few emotions I have or understand but in this case I'd be willing to bet i'm right. So if it's fear that's holding you back from your dreams then your placing blame in the wrong hands, fear is an emotion and it isn't always rational so keep that in mind when your scared of something. Being afraid of falling out of the sky and hitting a mountain at 300mph is rational if you fly everyday but feeling fear about whether or not North Korea will fire nuclear missiles at your home is irrational because there is no precedent for that and unless you are the president of the United States of America, then you really shouldn't think so highly of yourself, +Kim Jung Il isn't after you, I promise.

So buying one way tickets to anywhere is exhilarating, eye opening and promising. I'm about to buy two sets of one way tickets. One set from San Antonio Texas to Dublin Ireland the second set from Dublin Ireland to Rome Italy. Where we go after that and what we will do after that is all a mystery to me but from what my theatre arts teacher once told me, "Mysteries attract smart people because they like to solve puzzles." Well smarty pants, what do you think so far? I'd like to know how i'm viewed up to this point so anyone willing to be honest, shoot me a message or comment. Until then keep coming back for more updates, I've got a scheduling issue to resolve before I buy the tickets but I should have them before the end of the day so we'll see how my post sounds tomorrow when my bank account is half empty. We are down to the last 12 days or so people, things on this site are about to start getting a lot more interesting, stay tuned!!

UPDATE** 4/29/13 0130**
In the event anyone is looking for another site to use to look for flights, I'd suggest using them all but make sure you add THIS one to your tool kit. I had never heard of it until my brother in law living in Dublin told me about it and it blows away the american companies when it comes to flights from the good ole USA to the other side of the pond. We have also found the airline Ryanair to be a very inexpensive airline too.

Can you travel with your pet?

As with all questions there is always an answer but as you read this posting you will soon realize the answer to this question is frustrating, incentivizing and plain dumb. The frustrating part is the fact that everyone has a set of rules and by everyone I mean each country, airline and even veterinarian so to keep your head straight you need to know all the answers to the questions you don't know yet, understand?
The incentive isn't really meant for you or I but for someone looking to get into a niche business here is one with hardly anyone to compete with. That industry needs someone to gather up all the information there is, get all the different players together and give them a home where people all over the world could find the answers they need. Like a wiki for traveling pets. Now the dumbest part comes down to cost. Why in HELL does Delta airlines want to charge me nearly $500 to fly my tiny little toy Yorkie from San Antonio Texas to Guadalajara, Jalisco Mexico? Now I pointed the finger at them but they aren't the only one. Some airlines refuse to take animals on their plane which is fine but if you do why would you charge so much? They put my pet (also known as my four legged daughter) in the bottom of the plane with the rest of the luggage and packages. Now tell me, isn't the occasional pet flying from point A to point B extra income for them? I know they get paid to ship packages so the space on the bottom of the plane is being sold just as the seats up top are, but why charge more for my dog to fly on the plane like a furry package than they do to ship a box the same size and weight? They take the same care of their packages as they do animals, they all get unloaded put on a conveyer belt and set aside until the owner or delivery guy gets there. Why does my dogs plane ticket cost more than our two tickets? My wife and I will have over 150 pounds of luggage that they will charge us an extra $50 for, make sense? My dog weighs 4.3 pounds, if you include the kennel she'd have to fly in it would be roughly 12 pounds. Again, why is the airline charging so much? Is it a deterrent to shipping pets or traveling with pets?

Now I would love to has over all the points on what frustrated me or explain how a person with a bit of time could go about making money off this niche but what I really want to talk about is the money!!

I really don't like money, I could honestly say I loathe it. People don't NEED MONEY, American society has made money the only way of payment for anything and I think that has lost some of the warmth of society. Don't understand where I am going with this? Then let me break it down for you.

In the beginning of man, was there money? Was there any sort of currency? Look it up, go ahead I know you're going to Google it anyways so I'll just wait till you confirm what I'm saying...

Ok so when a man wanted something another man had he would "pay" for the item but it wasn't always with trinkets because some people aren't interested in trinkets, I'm not. Men would trade services, supplies or work for whatever it was they wanted. Now I understand that I can't expect this world to still trade in animal pelts, weapons or other outdated form of currency but I do think that if I do something for a person I think that we could agree on other forms of payment. I am starting my new life of travel blogging and being a digital nomad by selling everything I own, giving away anything that is still useful and leaving my comfortable (barely middle class life) existence in the states for a life of learning, adventure and exploration and in my travels the need for money can be replaced with an internet connection, roof and a small portion of food. Now the reality is that I will need some sort of income during my travels so I do plan on moving this blog to its own domain and with a completely different look and I also plan on building up my network of websites to help produce some semblance of income. In between now and then I plan on trading my talents for room and board by using the helpX and work-a-way websites. I have mentioned them in previous posts and I will probably continue to write about them for months to come because they are the only reason I will be able to afford this life change.

So I've explained my money issue? Probably not, so this won't be the last rant I have on the subject so stay tuned.

Now back to the original question, can you travel with your pet? The answer is yes. You definitely can travel with your pet if you have a good stream of income and stay in each country a short/long enough time to get the next country's paperwork ready. I promise you if you do travel with your pet for too long you will easily become the subject matter expert (SME) because people with money don't want to blow it on dragging their pet around the world to see things the pet could care less about. On top of that, all of the work needed to travel with them is too expensive, tedious and time consuming makes the idea of taking them overwhelming. If you plan on sailing around the world and you have a pet that is cool with boats, then take your pet. You can leave your pet in the boat when you dock and they never have to go through customs. Problem solved and again it is solved with money. So to do the most annoying thing ever, I'll answer a question by asking a question (my wife hates that.) Why would a person want to travel the globe with their pet? My answer would be because some people can afford to live their dreams with or without a pet. We have decided to send our dog to my sister's in east Texas, Tekila can stay with her and when Brownie and I settle and get a home base then we will pay the bounty for our daughter. She'll just have a vacation of her own. So good luck to you, whichever category you're in because either way it goes if you have a pet and want to see if you have enough money to accomplish your goals with your pet, then you will still have to do all the leg work that I did since every situation is different it will literally take someone to collect all the information, decipher it and explain it to the rest of us before this process will get any easier. Right now it's so hard to figure it out that a lot of people give up, I think that was the plan all along.