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So often when life throws you a curved ball, and positively craps all over your life plans, it's not actually the end of the world, but the start of a different, and altogether more exciting adventure.
Now whilst Tracy and I would love to turn back time to just before the accident, that desire is more concerned with reversing her lasting injuries than the desperate feeling that we've lost out on life as a result of having to cancel our trip. Sure, we're disappointed at having our plans ruined by some incompetent Slovakian truck driver, but we've found a new direction, and it's one that we're both very excited about. Not least because it offers the chance for some really long-term changes to our quality of life...
So what is this great new adventure?
Simple. We're going to replicate the 1970's comedy "The Good Life". Only with some slight, but important, differences. We're not going to live next door to Jerry and Margo Leadbetter for one. Not because we don't like the idea of pompous twits living next door, but because we're looking to buy a small-holding rather than a suburban detached with a garden we can turn into a farm. And I won't be giving up work, either, not least because I'll need the money to pay for the off-road motorcycles I'll need to ride around the track in the field... But we are going to be growing our own veg, and keeping a few chickens so we can have truly free-range eggs. Who knows, we might even get a couple of pigs and a goat. And some dogs.
But first we have some logistical matters to attend to, not least of which is selling our house. And as is so often the case when we embark on a new plan, life has decided we should be challenged, and the housing market crashed. But we're not disillusioned. It may take us a long time to sell and find our dream small-holding, but we're committed to making it happen, and excited at the prospect of living in the country, and living our new dream...
When Tracy was back at home during October & November 2007 following the accident that put paid to our Round-the-World plans, we started discussing our options for the future. It was already clear even then that Tracy would not be able to ride a motorcycle again, and that as a result of the trauma she suffered was also very unlikely to ever want to ride pillion either. So we started looking at alternative adventures. As we'd been so committed to quitting work and travelling for a couple of years on motorcycles, finding anything that appealed to us both was at first quite difficult. Then we got onto the subject of lifestyles and what we felt we'd been looking for with the RTW trip. That led us on to a realisation that what we both craved was the opportunity to spend more time outdoors - away from the drudgery of day-to-day life working long hours for large organisations.
All this soul-searching coincided with us being stuck in the house during the dreadful hours of daytime TV. At a time when there seemed to be nothing on but programmes about property. And that got us thinking. Whilst we both love the house we're in, which is the house I've lived in and practically remodelled over the last 19 years, we don't have a garden or a garage or any land. And with land we could ensure we were outdoors more often. Hell, I'd even be able to build an off-road motorcycle track if we had enough land...