Allow me to stray a bit from the typical ThreadTripping format in which I highlight a travel-related discussion taking place somewhere on the interwebs.

Today I would like to draw your attention to a travel blog – and a travel blog that doesn’t allow comments to boot (though they do have a Guestbook they invite readers to add comments to.). The blog is called RideDOT.com and it’s written by Gene and Neda – a couple who are enjoying an around-the-world trip on their motorcycles and chronicling their adventure.

So what. Lot’s of people blog and/or create threads to share tales from the road.

But, you see, Gene and Neda are a bit different. About two and a half years ago they decided to, “quit the jobs, sell our home and everything in it, and set out on THE motorcycle journey with no route planned, no end in sight and no return date in mind.”

The blog is amazing. It’s well written, contains loads of incredible photos, and there is a lot of great information about a lot of places.

And even if all you read are the blog post titles, they are absolute gems. Take for example:

• Porn-on-the-Knob
• Knockin’ on Ecua-Door
• Day 1 of 100 Years

And

• “Are you sure this volcano is dormant…?”

Through their posts you really get to feel like you know this couple, and you start to care about them. You laugh when they laugh, and cry when they cry.

Which makes it all the more heart wrenching when, in their post titled “Two Years and End of the Line in Lima”, you read this:

we received some devastating news. Neda’s mom in Croatia had been complaining of a gradual loss of feeling in her arm for the last week. She checked herself into the hospital and had some tests done, whereupon she discovered that there were growths in her vertebrae that were pinching a nerve. She is a breast cancer survivor and there is a fear that the cancer has metastasized and spread to her bones. …

 

With the future very much uncertain, we reminisced about all the experiences we had in the last couple of years and toasted our last days in South America.

Followed shortly thereafter by a post titled, “Memorial to Mirjana”.

It’s a riveting read, and I recommend reading the posts in order from the beginning. Maybe on your next long flight.

Unless you’re the type who tends to sob uncontrollably at sad stories. If that’s you, you might wait until you are alone in your hotel room.

Read the blog in its entirety starting with post #1: Escape Velocity!