TourBike; you did it, converted a "lurker" to a "poster". My wife and I are actively planning a 5+ year RTW trip, and I check this forum regularly for ideas, link recommedations, etc. I'm 46 at the moment and we are departing June 2007, leaving the corporate rat race behind forever. We figure expenses at 15K per year - give or take. Where the journey takes us at the end we do not care. I'll miss family and friends, but not the buissness world, 60+ hr workweeks and suburbia..