When I started Motorcycle Misadventures I had no idea how the word "misadventures" was going to resonate with so many people. I get a lot of emails humorously addressed to "Miss Adventuring," so I've decided to go with it, adopt the name and share the experience by profiling and interviewing people who are living a misadventurous lifestyle. I'm doing this on internet radio, and you can find it here: The Miss Adventuring Show.
Nobody--I mean nobody--has to ask what "misadventurous" means, how it differers from just plain adventuring. In this world of packaged adventures, what better than to strike out on your own with just you and your psyche and perhaps a friend or two who is willing to make some mistakes, risk some mishaps, encourage perhaps a little misbehavior?
Still, I know when I'm qualified to misadventure and when I'm not. I can strike out on a motorcycle or bicycle trip anywhere, anytime, but as for boating and scuba diving, I'll need an adventure package--that is, unless I can wheedle an invite from a qualified friend. (Hint hint, you know who you are.)
But these are misadventures that may merely punctuate life. That's a big "merely," but if you take your misadventure and go back to the ho-hum life you've been living before, waiting, yearning for that next misadventure, maybe you want to think about creating a misadventurous lifestyle. Living every day without that illusion of security, tempting fate, taking risks, opening opportunities.
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. --Helen Keller
My dad always said luck is where preparation meets opportunity. In this show I'm going to explore some of those intersections with people who have been aware enough to recognize those opportunities and misadventurous enough to say yes to them. And most of all, who have worked hard to prepare to meet them. I don't know anybody whose highly misadventurous and satisfying lifestyle has just appeared out of the vapor.
Stay tuned and learn about a young family who lives on a catamaran, a man who single-handedly created an off-road trail through the United States, a woman who makes a living as a travel writer, another who teaches dance in exotic locations all around the world, a man who makes his living reviewing fast bikes and fast cars, and more.
You'll see how some of these people have integrated corporate careers with their dream lives, how others have found a way to escape the corporate world entirely. You'll find out what they gave up and what they gained. What they did right and what they did wrong. Maybe you'll even find a model for your own misadventurous tendencies.
And please e-mail me (carla at carlaking dot com) with your questions about misadventuring, and be sure to use the subject line: Dear Miss Adventuring, so it doesn't go in the spam filter.
Until then, may all your misadventures have happy endings!
Carla King
aka Miss Adventuring
