I'm not sure if it's legislated or just a common benefit but it goes something like this: After ten years of employment with an Australian company, the employee receives a three months of paid leave, recurring every tenth year. Wow, I thought. How great that would be.... and then the wheels began to turn.
I hadn't had a summer off since finishing Grade 8. Wouldn't it be great to take two months off with my wife and kids for the summer? Being married to a teacher who has her summers off, I thought maybe I could have just one - but this would take a lot of planning and saving.
With the a summer off I had always wanted to take an Epic motorbike ride around Canada and the US. My buddy Mike and I had discussed this idea several years ago after getting hyped up watching Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's Long Way Round. But I didn't want to burn half the school vacation away from the family riding my bike. The solution? Take three months off instead of two and ride the bike while everyone's still in school!
Fortunately, I work for a great company and my bosses supported the plan, as there was lots of time to plan for this amount of time off. (I also thank God I have a very understanding and patient wife who supports me indulging in my gas powered adventures.)
I wanted to be home for my daughter's Grade 8 grad, so I decided to cheat a bit and bypass the ride though the prairies and ship my bike to Calgary and start from there, so I can enjoy a nice leisurely daily pace of 400-500km/day. A couple hours in the morning, a few in the afternoon.
My bike the day it shipped. It arrived safely last week in Calgary.
So, here I am now 18 months later and I'm counting down the days before I leave for Calgary on June 1st for my 24 day riding adventure.
Can't wait.
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