// August 17th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Lifestyle Design
This summer has been a wonderful whirlwind of adventure. I’ve traveled the country and seen more of the United States this summer than at any other specific point in my life. The fascinating part, though, hasn’t been the sights, but the economics of my travels. I’ll get to the economics in a second, but first a little background.
I recently read the book “The 4 Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss. Don’t be fooled by the title as the book doesn’t have much to do with actually working only four hours a week. It is simply a catchy title to get you to pick the book up. The real premise behind Feriss’ writing is that of lifestyle design. Ferriss argues for the reader to consciously choose the lifestyle they wish to lead and then gives the reader the tools to make it happen. A spreadsheet was included on the book’s companion website that was used to calculate the true cost of doing all the fun things your heart desires. For instance, I discovered it would ONLY cost me $2,400 a month to own a Tesla Roadster. Until my income drastically increases, though, I decided to look at what awesome activities I could embark on given my current cash flow. It turns out there was a lot I could do!
Since leaving school for the summer in May I have put just shy of 8,000 miles on my car. I’ve done everything from learn how to drive half a million dollars worth of farm equipment to ride some of the worlds top roller coasters to camping in a National Forrest out west. I’ve also seen friends and family across the country and opened my pull-out couch in Indiana to nearly a dozen guests passing through. Most importantly I have done it all for a fraction of the cost many of you might expect.
The art of couch surfing was something I wasn’t familiar with prior to this summer. Today, though, I feel like I have slept on more “couches” than I have in my entire lifetime. When I say couches by the way I am generically referencing someone opening up their house to me and giving me a place to stay. This has ranged from floor space where I place my sleeping bag to a full out bed. Every host is different in what they can provide. What has consistently amazed me is the hospitality people show. A couple of the places I stayed this summer were folks who were friends of a friend and therefore when I stayed at their place it was the first time I was meeting them. Sometimes these folks ended up being the best hosts one could ask for. I was even given some free beer!
The best trip I took this summer was a six day five night jaunt in Colorado. Myself, Annie, and her friend Lucy all jumped in my gas sipping Toyota Yaris and hit the road in search of adventure. There was no itinerary planned, but we did make a pact to stop by any major “World’s Largest” places if they were on the route to or from Colorado. We ended up stopping and seeing the world’s largest easel, goose, ball of twine, and pecan. We all made some great memories I’m sure we’ll never forget on that road trip. Couch surfing and camping were the two methods of choice for putting a roof over our heads rather than staying in a hotel. I’m so glad we did the trip this way because new friendships were formed that otherwise never would have. For instance, I got to meet a guy who hosted us for a night named Ben Hasbrouck who told the best stories about travels through Europe. One night while swapping stories he offered me a room in his apartment for $300 a month. I can’t tell you how close I came to taking him up on the offer. His apartment sits at the base of some of the most gorgeous mountains in Colorado! The only reason I said no was because I knew if I took him up on the offer then I would never finish my masters degree.
The total cost of my trip to Colorado was $120. I kid you not. I have a spreadsheet where I kept all the expenses. That $120 even includes the cost of gas to drive out to Colorado and back again to Indiana. Each leg of the journey was a whopping $30 in gas. Technically the car burned more than $30 in gas, but there were three of us in the car so we split the gas bill into thirds hence my $30 bill out there and subsequent $30 bill for the return. The remaining $60 was spent mostly on food. I think it goes without saying we didn’t eat out, but don’t be confused by that because we still ate extremely well. Annie brought a new cookbook along for the journey and we made a new dish almost every night. Often times we offered our hosts a free home cooked dinner in exchange for giving us free housing. This turned out to be an excellent way of returning the generosity of our hosts.
I’d like to close today by reminding everyone out there that if you are ever in Indiana or are passing through on your way north to Chicago or south to some place like Nashville then look me up for a place to stay. I’m always more than happy to have guests stay at my house. I live only two minutes from I-65 in West Lafayette. Have an excellent last few days or weeks of summer and good luck with the adventure that is your life!
