This sounds like such a fantastic adventure!
Couple Begins Retirement With Biking Trip Around the World
Brittany Jones Cooper
Editor, Yahoo Travel
Most people plan to take it easy when they retire. But for this couple, the end of their work life meant the beginning of their biggest adventure.
To kick off retirement, Eric and Penny Jansen embarked on a bike tour around the world. Over the past eight months, the couple has covered more than 6,000 miles, and visited seven countries in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific.
Eric retired on Sept. 30, 2014 after a 40-year career in industrial construction. The 64-year-old and his 54-year-old wife were living in Malaysia at the time, and originally planned to return to the U.S. But the day after Eric’s retirement, they packed up their gear, hopped on their bikes, and hit the road.
According to Penny, who wrote about her experience on Market Watch, the couple has been biking recreationally for years. However, they were inspired to embark on a global ride after meeting other travelers during a morning workout. “We met a couple in their early 30s who were finishing a two-year, 25,000-mile cycle tour,” Penny wrote. “They were our inspiration and answered many questions about logistics. We already had the bicycles and felt ready to go.”
In preparation, they opened up their doors to cyclists passing through Malaysia via the website warmshowers.org. These interactions allowed them to learn more about routes in the area and the gear they needed for such an adventure.
The Jansens bike 30 to 60 miles a day, mapping out five to 10 days of travel at a time, and navigating via a GPS mounted to Penny’s bike. Penny chronicles their journey on her blog Cycle 4 Retirement.
Financially, their journey has also been an exercise in frugality. The couple doesn’t want to dip into their retirement accounts until Eric turns 65, which means they are living off of cash saved from Eric’s last overseas assignment. This puts them on a budget of just $100 a day, an amount that is challenging, but doable. “In Southeast Asia we tried to find lodging with clean and comfortable beds, air conditioning and a hot shower. Currently, we’re camping and cooking most of our meals,” writes Penny.
The couple is traveling without U.S. health insurance, and instead relies on a travel insurance plan in the event of an emergency. There have been no catastrophes to date, but there have been a few bumps along the way. “We have grappled with, among other trials, stifling heat, food poisoning, more than a dozen punctured tires — and no small amount of homesickness,” writes Penny. “For Eric, the heat in Southeast Asia was a problem.”
The couple is currently in Australia, with plans to bike through Canada this summer and fall, and possibly Europe in the spring.
The days can be long and exhausting, but in the end, Penny is grateful for this exciting chapter in their lives. “Each night we go to bed feeling like we have done, seen or learned something new,” she writes. “In all, we know we’ve made a good decision.”