Full timing: temporarily taking life on the road.

Publication: Rider

Publication Date: 01-AUG-03

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COPYRIGHT 2003 Ehlert Publishing Group

Jym and Ann Batey spent seven-and-a-half months touring the country, logging more than 28,000 miles on their motorcycles, without abandoning their home. This couple still lived their lives, paid bills and maintained a Web site of their travels. Here's how they did it and how you, too, can take an extended trip without dropping out of society.

Jym and Ann Batey had taken plenty of two-week-long scenic jaunts during the 10 years they've been riding separate motorcycles. Like most touring riders, two weeks a year is all the paid vacation time their employers would allow. Once in awhile, the Bateys would stretch their time off to three weeks (unused sick days add up), or squeeze in a long weekend of touring on their matching Honda Magnas. "You have a specific goal or destination," explains Ann of those trips' limitations. "And sometimes, you get stuck in weather and places you don't want to be because you have this time schedule."

Soon, those fixed-time trips became frustrating. The Bateys craved more time on the road, more time to veer off in unplanned directions, more time to visit places they'd always wanted to see. But how do you find more of that precious pavement time while holding down a nine-to-five job, and managing a household? We're not talking about dropping out of society to tour the world for several years--we're simply talking about stealing away for a few months to see the country "The joy of a trip like that, for us, was not knowing where we were going to be that night," Ann, 60, points out. "Having time to relax with each other and not letting work get in the way."

So, in May of 2000, after five years of planning, Jym, a computer engineer for the city of Pleasantville, California, and Ann, a bookkeeper for a computer company, left their jobs and embarked on a seven-and-a-half-month journey...

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