Touring - Coming back after a long trip

Hi everyone,
My friend (and usual cycling partner) and I are thinking about going for a fairly long bicycle trip in a couple of years. We've done quite a few small trips already (together or with other people), up to about 2 weeks, but now we feel like we need more. In 2 years she'll be done with school and I'll be done with my present job. So we're thinking about going for a whole year, around the world or maybe just around Europe or wherever the bikes take us. I guess it would be the right time, because neither of us has kids and a family to take care of. We're just wondering about what happens when you come back. We both work in research, so if you leave and get disconnected from the research community for a year you might be missing some important advances and it might not be so easy to come back to the same kind of job. Personnally, I wouldn't mind doing something completely different when I come back (I've always wanted to become a bike mechanics!), because sometimes I really wonder of research is what I should do for the rest of my life. It seems to me that if I do decide to go on this tour, it means that I have to give up my research career, and that's a pretty important decision to make.
So I guess my question is something like: how hard is it to come back to your previous life when you're back from a bicycle trip? Does it change your life to the point that you have to completely change your activities, change job, etc... or is it possible to have some sort of continuity? Is the decision of going away for a year a life-changing decision?

I've done three longish trips, though only one of them by bicycle, but I think your question can apply to non-cycle trips as well. The first trip was 9 months after my wife finished university. One trip was 18 months after I finished university, and the last trip (by bicycle) was 22 months. I'm amazed at how little changes while we were gone. Our friends and activities were still around without big changes. Neither of us do research, however, so I can't answer that question specifically. For the last trip I quit my job doing GIS programming for an environmental consulting firm. As soon as we returned they wanted me to come back. Sure, there was new technology and obviously we had new projects, but I was excited to come back to work and eager to learn what I had missed. Leaving the job and returning made me much more appreciated than if I had simply continued working those 22 months! I've never met anyone who regretted making the sacrifices to travel for a year. Go. It's a life-changing decision but not in the ways that you're describing.

I have been on several long trips, 12 months, 6 months. After each one finding work has never been a big prolem. I work in the IT industry and face the same issues about 'being left behind'. I have never regretted my trips. It makes for an easy job interview as the interviewers like to hear about your motivation for going and the problems you have over come.

Several years ago I planned a 6 month 'sabbatical' that stretched into 14 months. Like petermi, I'm a technical person - things changed pretty rapidly while I was away, but had no trouble finding work upon my return. Things might be different today. But thats not really the point. If you're thinking about going, then its time to go. The hardest part is deciding to take the trip; once you're past that point its much easier to start making the necessary arrangements. The sooner you decide to go, the more time you'll have to arrange for storing/getting rid of stuff, getting your gear together, saving money, etc. Get on it!

I have done many "short" (3 to 5 months tours) and finally did a two year round-the-world tour from 1998-2000. To be honest I have had trouble getting back into the scheme of things, but I kind of view this as 'my problem' not as a "back from a bicycle tour problem."

The effect the bike tour had on me was so profound, that very often the ordinary hubbub of life seemed surficial and irrelevant. I want to go back to work, but not at what I was working at before (I was a college instructor). I like the road so much I am thinking of living on the road, perhaps getting my CDL license and truckin' for a living. I have had a lot of time to think about it the last 2 years as I have been a caregiver (along with my sister) for my mom until very recently when she passed peaceably away at the age of 79! So sometime in the next few months I'll get back into the swing of things.

The 'swing of things' might just be a permanent world tour. :)

roughstuff

I left my job as a computer programmer to take a 4 month tour in a camper van. When I came back, they would have had me back, but I just didn't want to. I ended up working as a customer service drone for about a year, and now I'm an armoured car guard. If I took off on a tour for 6+ months now, I can't even guess what I'd end up doing when I got back!

Change is good.

Roughstuff,

I cut short a long trip in Europe to take care of, in my case, my aging father. I can’t think of two more diametrically opposed ways to spend your time.

1. Totally free to decide on a daily basis your direction, both physically and spiritually. Every day meeting new people and seeing interesting sights.

2. Restricted, even if by choice, to a single place and spending each day within the same social circle.

I wish you well and hope you find time to whoop it up a little and take care of your self.