You guys all make great points, and I do feel like I could probably take up to 3 weeks at a time MAX if I wanted to, and that would be time for a sufficient trip I'd think (1200-1300 mile trip?).

My situation is that I work in the Sales Operations area of a Software company. My fear is that if I went in and told them I was taking a huge chunk of time off, they would tell me to find another job, an idea which wouldnt be entirely suitable at this point in time, especially being that I generally like my job. The other part of the equation is that I just recently got married, and while I dont have young children at this point, we have a few dogs. It is one of my dreams to do a long distance tour. However, even taking 3 weeks off would be tough to put on my wife as she is a veterinarian who is extremely busy and would be burdened by managing the house and maintaining the pups by herself. Probably too much info and I sound like a whiner, but you get the idea.

That said, it's definitely something to keep on the docket. It's worth exploring my companies leave of absence policy, and other time off items we have. And the idea of splitting a tour up seems somewhat appealing. Probably best to bank some time, save up 120 hours of paid time off or so, give a decent amount of notice, and schedule a trip around some holidays. I think I would be ok getting 3 weeks or so off if I gave somewhat of a long term notice... Hey, maybe at that point I can get a couple trailers for the dogs and they can come with! The idea of that makes me laugh as they would probably be extremely bored, lol.

Thanks all for the replies. Definitely seems like there are a few with somewhat similar situations out there.