Originally Posted by
James1:17
those were cool videos, thanks!
Glad you enjoyed them.
very neat, just watched all of them. liked all the old brooks saddles. interesting talker, great stories.
Those saddles were well broken in. I enjoyed seeing his demonstration of the suppleness of the last one. He has some great stories. I hope someone puts together some kind of museum or archives.
Originally Posted by
SBRDude
I'm enjoying these right now, so thanks for the link. Does anyone more familiar with his story know how he gets by financially on the road? He mentioned something about finding a way, but it was at the end of one video and they took up a different topic at the beginning of the next.
He traveled for years on about fifty cents a day. He met the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie_I -- who just gave him five hundred dollars to continue his adventures.
He made money selling his booklets on street corners in cities, and did especially well with them in Japan. He earned enough (approx. 18,000 dollars) during one trip to Japan to pay for his traveling for another six years.
He sold some of his photography, and I believe had the help of an agent. He also got into jams at times, and his agent and other friends would help him out. Sometimes he had very little. One friend in Hong Kong sent him a couple thousand dollars to fly there for a visit.
He probably got paid for some of his presentations, and probably sold some booklets that way as well.
He learned to live frugally.