BootsnAll Travel Network



Reality sets in & Gotta love BootsnAll

Reality sets in & Gotta love BootsnAll

  

Here it is last day of May 2008, 2 weeks to my auction sale where 99% of the possessions I absolutely could not live with out are to be sold. All the family heirlooms have already been passed on to the kids. Then one month later the new owner takes over the shop & I will be homeless with no fixed address.

Had a meeting yesterday with my Chinese clients about bussing for this years summer camp, 6 weeks of  showing 5 different groups of students from China around southern Ontario many of whom will be returning to universities here. When the last group leaves in mid August my career in bussing is over.

Am I sorry to see it end? Yes & no. I will miss the  young people with their aspirations & a life ahead of them, I will miss taking tour groups of all different nationalities around & being exposed to their cultures, I will miss the Friday night shopping trips with the Mexican & Jamaican farm workers.

I will definitely NOT miss dealing with the petty mentality of the simple serpents (civil servants) that end up in charge of transportation at the school boards & other provincial government organisations.

Why now? When I first started on my own I had the good fortune to meet a man who told me the one thing to keep in mind was to know when to get out of a business. That information has served me well as I have changed directions a few times a the business climate changed. At this point in time with one US company & 3 from the UK taking over the bus industry in Ontario & the bigger is better mentality that is prevalent combined with rising fuel costs, now is the time.

  

                             BootsnAll

After my last Cuba trip I came to the decision that there had to be a better place to live than Canada, a place where there was NO snow & the cost of living was lower. I had grudgingly been forced into the world of computers due to business needs & figured there must be some thing on the net where travel & retirement living was discussed. Consequently I stumbled on to the Trip Advisor forums, now they are ok & I have made friends on the Cuba forum where I hang out a lot but TA posters aren’t into the travel style I want.

From information on TA I came across other helpful forums like Flyer Talk, Seat 61 & Thorn Tree through which I came to realize not only my dream of going to Egypt & Oz was possible but so was an RTW which would enable me to visit the home countries of the people I had met on my buses, COOL.

  

Then the BBC bought TT & the new format made it almost impossible to use on dial up (I am only 1 hr from Toronto but high speed only available on satellite). Then another dissatisfied poster mentioned BootsnAll so I logged on & it has been a blessing.

Although I haven’t posted much I have lurked a lot & as I became more familiar with the site have gained a wealth of information from the site. The experiences of the regulars, the gear & adventure travel sections have prepared me for my RTW better than any other site I have been on.

I had planned on doing the whole trip independently but discovered that on some sections I could go with a tour group for basically the same price & experience a lot more. In one instance my original itinerary was too tight & not doable with out missing a segment, in another for the same money I spend an extra week & experience a lot more.

Hats off to BootsnAll  gotta love you guys/gals & happy travels to all that get to do their RTW before me.

    



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4 responses to “Reality sets in & Gotta love BootsnAll”

  1. Sean says:

    Glad to hear about your positive experiences on BootsnAll Busman! Thanks for the props and have a great trip!

  2. Dave says:

    Thanks Sean I believe in giving credit where it’s due.
    Dave

  3. Iriemon says:

    Interesting stuff, Dave.
    I left you a PM at Debbie’s: checkm it out,

    Irie

  4. Pinamimi says:

    WOW…cool…..I’ve been lurking on Bootsnall since you told me about it…very informative and boy do you ever write nicely!!! didn’t know you were such the author lol
    have an amazing trip Dave!!