CHRIS'S RAMBLINGS
Hi,Please allow me to introduce myself .... I'm Chris, partner to the creator of this little web site and I'll be hoping to entertain you in my own little way with my view of the world as we travel through it.I'll be taking nothing away from Jyl who has worked extremely hard setting up this web site and is determined to make it as interesting a web page as she can, full of travel information and reviews etc along with pictures and videos of our travels.
We are both well-seasoned travellers and have constantly been reminded by friends and family how perfectly matched we are for one another,from an outsiders point of view .I'm sure they are right .From my point of view the girl I fell in love with just over four years ago is the perfect match for me in all ways possible (and a good cook).
So...... after years of motorcycle tours around Europe ,East, West ,North and South ...well all of it then ,including Turkey years ago ,rips into Morocco and Tunisia ,trips in to main land Russia and shipping our own bikes to Canada , USA, riding to Alaska and most US states ,New Zealand and Australia with very good friends I've final settled down with the girl of my dreams and a much prettier travel companion than I used to ride with! It's not all about motorcycles though ,I walked to Mount Everest once, well as close as I wanted to get.So if you stick with us you'll find our travels a little different and often obscure and odd destinations with a little bit of adventure and often slightly extreme.Upcoming trips for me to ramble about 'a week putting are feet up in Tenerife' ( who am I kidding it may be a small island but we won't stay still for long) then comes 'the big one', 'The Americas '. Please join us on our travels .
Living the dream" to coin a phrase, well I'm not too sure about that but a phrase that will fit in along the way " dreams are sorely for under the pillow monsters the fantasy of a Peter Pan world things from the wild imagination that we can't make up in life living however is something we do have control over " how we live and chose to live are life will determine who we are.
Ever since I was a young school boy I knew that one day I would travel distant lands and far away extreme off the tourist trail" places
To an extent I have lived up to my own expectations traveling to a good portion of the world already but life does get in the way people get tied down with unnecessary things , company cars , big house , bigger House ' promotion working 24/7 in the must have must have culture " I have always worked hard" payed my way did the seven day a week thing but only when it suited me" so I could do the things I wanted in life" weekend work used to pay for example " motorcycle air freight or shipping to Canada " New Zealand ,Aus. etc. . The bigger house the bonus the suite & tie job working your way up the ladder for someone to kick it from under you was never for me " that school boy ambition was all that ever mattered to me"
Then....along came Jyl . She refreshed the need to live up to my own expectations" I'm still convinced that I would have done it on my own " idiot abroad style" sold the house and gone with the flow" no need to panic Mr Mills is under new management. The build up to Christmas 2016 and the lead up to our flight to Nova Scotia " has been to say the least manic " it’s really quit stressful planning to "live the dream" you know! those of you who have gone before will know this those of you thinking of it" (get on with it) you have a lot to learn " preparation planning dealing with idiots " for the most part we are nearly sorted thanks mostly to Jyl’s hard work just need to get our house rented out for the period we are away then just a few more bits of paper work bike insurance etc and we are there. Friends & family all of which have been so supportive of what we are up to but they keep asking the closer the leave date approaches " what are we looking forward to the most? Are we excited? Are we looking forward to are travels? Well I can honestly say on behalf of use both we are trying to be " but till now" now that a lot of the pressure is off and things are coming together it’s starting to sink in " a little bit of excitement " (the grin on my face at work is getting harder to wipe of) but until I have our bikes and luggage safely in Halifax then it will really sink in then we can relax and enjoy some quality time together " Oh 'joy of for some expensive travel injection this evening" You see the list is long things to do people to see" roll on May 20th .
The time has come the big day is here !! Now is the start of the rest of my life!! 100% mine to be shared with Jill. For today the letter is on its way the letter that one way or another ends my working life as I know it" a 'chippy ' Foreman once said to me in his moment of stress "Did you ever jack a perfectly good job in ?" Well now I could answer him with a "Yes...from this day my life will change for ever I'm leaving a perfectly good job a well-paid job with free transport a job I actually love doing and I've enjoyed doing for the last 35+ years a job that has brought me my house and several motorbikes and many motor biking trips around the world and a grand life style , a life I've enjoyed
Now the adventure begins " One Life Live It." I never intended to work till I drop as they would have you do in this ever-maddening world that we all share " get out while you can go skidding down the road to meet the grim reaper without a penny in my pocket rather than dropping down on a muddy building site with a lifetimes savings in the bank
A few things have lead me to this point in my life ;
1-It has been a lifelong desire to travel by motorcycle to as much of the world as I can.
2- Finding the perfect partner at the right time in our lives in Jill.
3-Well ( how long have you got ) !!
If you can't see it take a look out your window ,when will it end !!! It's total madness out there ,we are all running around on behalf of someone else wearing out the things we need to get us to the places we need to be to produce the things we are wearing out so we can spend the money we earn to replace the things we need ( and on and on it goes ). This with the humans lifelong overwhelming desire to kill every living thing in the name of fun or sport, our quest for power over one another ,our need to self-distrust, to fight each other in the name of politics and religion, borders, colour of skin or even the colour of your shirt .It saddens me that we still do it war after war , let alone our appetite to consume our planet and dream that we could habitat another planet and start again is beyond belief, considering that the dinosaurs roamed the earth for 165 million years but eventually it all went wrong for them. Consider our options, our ancestors 1st appeared 6 million years ago, to even think we will last amazes me. Ok.. I know I'm guilty as charged I'm no tree hugger ,I sit in my van like the rest of us on 8 lanes of traffic going nowhere ,dreaming of a better way to make a buck to pay for the politicians that want to destroy me while looking forward to a steak dinner !
If you were an alien looking down from space and considering earth as a place to visit ,I think you'd view us from a distance for a while, and then with utter disbelief and disappointment in the human race, you would bypass this overwhelmingly beautiful planet and overlook the average people’s kindness and love for one another and disappear to another galaxy never to be seen again (maybe you have already been and gone). I don't know what the answer is but I sure don't see it in any politician political group or religion .
4 - The master plan get the timing right and that time is now. So here's my plan ...I have some savings and I'm of to spend them ! When there gone there gone ! I don't know what the future holds after that. Stick around maybe we will find out together. Any way what happens in between will be interesting.
Don't worry I properly won't get this serious or morbid again I’m mostly just in it for the fun. In a few weeks time, that fun starts !
This day.....Tuesday 4th April 2017 is one big step towards that fun !
Tomorrow May Be Too Late
Holiday's in the Sun
Small things often lead to greater things . On Christmas Day 2016 I’m handed an envelope from Jill , my Christmas and Birthday present combined , interesting I think as I open it to find a week’s holiday in Tenerife to be spent there over my birthday week! Now that ladies are what to buy the man who is content with what he has got .A week of sun, San Miguel, and Spanish speaking lessons.
To keep it short the week to be spent with my feet up relaxing in the sun was far from it ,with a week’s hire car included in my treat we were never very still .We did visit some lovely beaches and we both came home with white bums..... we also drove every day on some of Europe’s most delightful roads to some wonderful places, (It has to be said we both missed are bikes here) avoiding the main holiday destinations, we found some truly amazing places.
Once on a road side picnic stop, we sat in the sunshine to eat our lunch, only to find ourselves the centre of attention of the local wild life,a small lizard 🦎 did try to steal my boiled egg but couldn't quite get his lips around it. Even more entertaining though ,they took a fancy to the crisp we put down for them. They would compete with each other for the snacks and scurry of to the nearby bushes with their bounty .One after another they came and went to our amusement and in the total silence that surrounded us, all you could hear coming from the bushes was 'crisp munching lizards ' a memory of this island I'll never forget .
We went to the top of the steaming volcano El Teide on my birthday,( hard work but worth it), to underground larva tunnels .We saw ancient trees and a truly Jurassic and alien land scape, What with local red crabs and daily lizard watching entertainment (on every beach and lay by they would appear) , we 've had a wonderful time on this beautiful interesting island, all by staying away from the madness of the early morning sun bed towel-laying, competing tourists.
There's so much more to this island than a lot of people get to see but each to their own.
For more of Chris's Ramblings
