familyonbikes

We flew. That messed with mind! It took us nearly three years to get there and then 10 hours to get back home.

Once - we were chased by a bear in northern British Columbia. I've got the whole story here: http://familyonbikes.org/blog/2011/09/chased-by-a-bear/

We had health insurance, but didn't even bother filing a claim. The total cost for an entire week in the hospital, including xrays, medicines, doctors, nursing care, food and whatever else came to $514. We paid it and moved on. Can you even imagine how much it would have cost in the USA?

We cycled across the Panama Canal on the Bridge of the Americas. We made sure we entered Panama City on a Sunday because there is less traffic then, so it wasn't too bad.

The hard part was getting across the Darien Gap - a 75-mile stretch of swamp between Panama and Colombia where there is no road. We took a boat around that part.

Basically, we rented out our house (it's paid for) so that paid for about half of our expenses. For the other half, we freelanced, got some income from our blog, and whatever else we could do. At the end of the month, whatever wasn't covered by the above, we took from our retirement account. I've written the details of how we managed here: http://familyonbikes.org/blog/2011/04/how-to-afford-long-term-family-travel/