[General Butt Naked]

Allow me to preface this post by saying I’ve been browsing this forum for ~4 months and have consumed most of roosh’s posts. I can say with certainty, much of my inspiration has come from the content provide here. I appreciate everyone for their insights on game, travel and life in general.

It’s time for me to start opening up my brain, providing insights of my own and plain and simply… getting myself in motion.

I currently live in Boston and my lease expires September 1st.
At the time of writing this, 10 weeks remain till this date.

My plan is to use the ‘ride-share’ section of craigslist to travel from city to city as cheap as possible.
My aim is to experience as many towns/ cities as feasibly possible before settling in Dallas, Texas to live with my older brother (26) and to be around a large portion of my extended family.

I used the word experience above because this journey is about finding which city I need to be committing myself to living in for the next few years. I’ve been living in Boston for three years and am very much ready for a change. This city doesn’t quite have what I’m looking for. Unfortunately, I’m not even sure what I’m after. I can just intuitively feel that there is a better fit for me elsewhere.

Tentatively, my itinerary is as follows:
Start: Boston, MA
Philadelphia, PA (Visit my Mom and spend a week with her)
Charleston, WV (See some old friends from college)
Minneapolis, MN (Read it’s the number one biking city— A must see)
Fish Tail, MT (Spend time with my grandparents)
Vancouver, BC (No particular reason, just want to see the city; heard it’s cool)
Seattle, WA (Same as above)
San Francisco, CA (Crash with my cousin and see what SF is all about.
San Diego, CA (A good friend of mine moved here recently)
Phoenix/ Tucson, AZ (Curious about the city)
End: Dallas, TX

In case you’re unfamiliar with the Ride-Share section of Craigslist, it’s a space for people to post Ad’s for their travel plans… with an automobile always being the mode of transportation. The point is to share expenses and driving responsibilities. Since the ones who post up the Ad’s are making the trip regardless of whether they have company, you can often negotiate a price because they are happy to get even a little bit of money out of someone to offset the cost of gas. They do this because and have extra space to accommodate additional passengers. They post these ads with intention of find someone who has a similar destination and is willing to chip in for gas and shared driving responsibilities.

Depending on the City your searching under, the posts will have titles such as ‘Boston to NYC this Saturday’ or something like that. I live in Boston so it is common to see people posting upcoming trips down to NYC. At any given time a new post is being listed with any given end point being possible.

Although I have a list of desired destinations as , the shear randomness of the listings is sure to cause me to deviate from my plans. Life never goes accord to plan; fact.

I’m just entirely sure what i’m looking for by taking on this journey.
Life is decent for me right now.
I’m a twenty-three year old kid working +50 hours a week as a logistics manager for a ground transportation company.
I like to think everything is well for me, but i have this overwhelming sense that something is missing.
I’m hunting for something that is amiss.
I want to explore and find the people and experiences I’m missing out on by locking myself here.

My fear is that i’m not going to find a job that pays me as much as my current one.
I take home ~$750/ week and still have a hard time putting away much money.
I don’t have a college degree, but I’ve got some serious work experience that I feel I’ll be able to leverage into another position that will be able to float me in the city i choose to settle down in.

The biggest factor in my decision is going to be the bike-ability of the city.
I ride a fixed gear bike and have to be able to ride daily.
I don’t want to be locked into a car battling traffic everywhere I go.
Not my style.

I have thoughts of moving to Austin.
My brother travels there every Wednesday for work so I can tag along with him to check that out.
Of course, I have heard nothing but good things about Austin and it totally fall in line with the bike friendly city i’m on the hunt for.

Dallas will merely be a place to get back on my feet.
Bopping from city to city should eat up most if not all of my money so i’ll need time to recoop.
I’m lucky to have such a strong and willing support system down there to take me in.
That part of my family is really cool, laid-back and supportive to the vagabond lifestyle.
My thirty year old aunt recently moved from Boston to live with them as well.


All of this scares me very much.
Money is my biggest concern.
I need to get another job.
This summer needs to be devoted to stacking money.

I think $3,000 would be a good figure to roll with.
Obviously the more the better though.

Has anyone else done extensive traveling through ride-shares in the continental U.S.?

[samsamsam]

Somewhat relevant this guy traveled with no money in his pocket using Craigslist. His journey seemed to be one of trying to connect with people. I watched it, it was alright. Good luck!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1486616/

[Courage Reborn]

Sounds like you're in for a great adventure.

Congrats on stepping outside of your comfort zone and taking life by the reigns.

You will grow as a person, no doubt.

After you've toured the US, you'll be hungry for more. Especially after hanging out on this forum. Pretty soon you'll be ready to go international.

+1 for the courage, and legendary username.

[General Butt Naked]

(06-11-2014 05:15 PM)Courage Reborn Wrote:  

Sounds like you're in for a great adventure.

Congrats on stepping outside of your comfort zone and taking life by the reigns.

You will grow as a person, no doubt.

After you've toured the US, you'll be hungry for more. Especially after hanging out on this forum. Pretty soon you'll be ready to go international.

+1 for the courage, and legendary username.

thanks for the kind words.
i appreciate the feedback.
i value constructive criticism more so than the average person.

it's all about the experience.
i strongly believe that i have yet to meet the people who will shift the sails of my life in a direction where all cylinders are firing and all my desires are in line.

i'm looking for profound people.
men and women a like.

life is about connection.
i'm very open and genuine in my interactions.
i don't want a shallow connection.
body language is huge.
not to get off on a tangent, but i feel like i have a hyper sense of awareness and a insatiable appetite to understand than be understood.

i'm very much pleased with the person i'm developing into.

i should have mentioned in my first post that i've seen 'craigslist joe’.
i’m not doing it for the same reasons as him though.
i would like to have money and be able to stretch it as far as possible.

i suppose i just want to be efficient- with time and money.
these are the biggest resources dictating your day to day.

the combination of affordability along with the inherent relationship building that goes along with being in a car with someone makes it a no brainer as a means to make movements when you have no time constraints like a job or a family. you’re just kinda rolling and seeing what happens, what types of people you mesh with.

…paradigm shifting.

unless i experience the infinite speeds of life, i will stall.

i often feel like a narcissist.
it’s bother me a little bit, but then i try to affirm it doesn’t matter.

now playing: basement jaxx- hot n’ cold

[General Butt Naked]

i tend to meet a lot of people.
quick to build connection.

i talked with a sixty year old guy out front of the supermarket tonight and got his email. i laid out a little bit of my plan when speaking with him.
we talked about the universe, consciousness and various deeper-than-normal- small talk conversations you have with a stranger.

i shot him an email when i got home to express my interest in some of the writing he mentioned he's done.

his prompt reply:

Good meeting you as well, General Butt Naked.

I don't show my writings to the world-at-large unless and until they are in a finished form and published. What I need to do is make commitments with other writers and/or other working professionals (including my best friend for over 27 years, who also has many writings planned and has released a couple of very short non-fiction e-books thus far) to keep myself focused and determined to succeed, set deadlines for completion, and to not succumb to the curse of chronic procrastination.

Best of luck with your planned travels around North America. Just be careful as to whom you wind up getting involved with (ride-wise, travel-wise, accommodations-wise, and otherwise). There are enough people in this world with unredeeming character, sinister motives, or not the most optimal mental health and wholesome redeeming values . . . or, even if they don't have bad intentions, some of said persons engage in detrimental life practices like involvement with drugs, alcohol, et al that can make them detrimental to yourself and others). It's too too easy to become a victim. In my 60 years of life thus far, I've known enough persons personally or know of persons otherwise who became victims by getting involved with perfect strangers.

Be well,
Steve

these words really hit me.
i'm facinated by strangers and don't feel much fear by way of them.
could be part ignorance and naivety, but i feel in control and able to steer myself away from harm at all times.

perfect strangers...

[Moma]

Good luck, the user name General Butt Naked is similar to the guy from Liberia in that civil war..

[samsamsam]

I wonder if you could set your GPS on phone to be tracked so you can see where you traveled during this journey. There are some other benefits of this but I won't say more.

[General Butt Naked]

(06-11-2014 11:09 PM)Moma Wrote:  

Good luck, the user name General Butt Naked is similar to the guy from Liberia in that civil war..

that's where my username was derived from.
i was in awe by the guess whole mindset.

he went into war butt naked cause he felt like it made him invincible to bullets. he felt so strong about that that you could almost say he was.
he had shoes on though. tennis shoes only.
dick swinging every which way.

i can't remember the exact number, but through his power, he claims responsibility for taking the lives of ~10,000 liberians.
killing his own people- coupled with a ritual of cutting the heart out of a young child and cutting it into small bits for the rest of the child soldiers to consume as good luck and protection.

the guy was heartless; no pun intended.

"Sometimes I would enter under the water where children were playing. I would dive under the water, grab one, carry him under and break his neck. Sometimes I'd cause accidents. Sometimes I'd just slaughter them."

then one day a switch flipped in his head and he felt bad about his actions as a warlord.he had an epiphany with Jesus Christ where he appeared to him as a blinding light, spoke to him as a son, and told him that he would die unless he repented his sins.

he became an evangelist and opening speaks as a pastor.

dudes brain is on a whole nother level of consciousness.
i really like what he's all about.
similar to his own Liberian people who have forgiven him, i forgive him as well. he represents change and how profound some insights can be.

@samsamsam

Quote:

I wonder if you could set your GPS on phone to be tracked so you can see where you traveled during this journey. There are some other benefits of this but I won't say more.

that is some excellent advice.
i've got a pretty serious relationship with google maps.
i route various points all over the world hundreds of times a week for work. i could certainly integrate that.

thanks for the input- don't be shy.

[samsamsam]

^^ I was just thinking worse case, people know where you were last. There I said it, but I hope for you an incredible fun and safe journey.

[kavakid]

http://www.couchsurfing.com
http://www.ic.org