an interview with rene cormier about his around the world travel

8/14/2019 An interview with Rene Cormier about his around the world travel

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ALLINTHEFAMILY BY SANDY BORDEN #188051

An Interview With Rene Cormier:When Friends Become FamilyIT AMAZES ME HOW THIS ADVENTURE

motorcycle community of ours becomes

more of a family than just chance meetings

and run-ins. Taking the time to sit and

share experiences opens us up to new rela-

tionships and an opportunity to increaseour family circle. Our Trio family increased

by three this summer, as Rene Cormier,

wife Colette and son Jacques bunked at

Bordens Boarding House a time or two.

With two boarding locations to serve the

weary traveler, we spent a memorable cou-

ple of weeks with the Cormiers in various

parts of Northern California. What came

out of our times together resulted in a new

honorary batch of aunties and uncles for

Jack and Jacques, and a lovely couple we can

truly call friends.When we first met Rene and Colette, it

was Overland Expo and Colette was

pregnant with their little one, Jacques.

While Colette attempted to find comfort in

a chair behind the authors table, Rene was

out in front, his usual boisterous self. Renes

hand is always outstretched, greeting his

newest fan with a handshake and a

smile, and hugging old friends as if

no time had passed. When we met

up again at Overland Expo , baby

Jacques was five months old and a ball of

chunky, giggly cuteness. I mean, you really

need to see this kid for yourself. Right off,

he reminded Terry and me of Jack when he

was a chunky babe. There was the smile onthis kids face! While Jack and Jacques had

some bonding time, the moms and dads

shared a beer or two, catching up on the

year, getting to know more about each

other. Unfortunately, you dont always get

enough one-on-one time at these events.

Our solution? Seeing as they were making

their way north through California, it was

time for Rene and Colette to experience

some time off the road. Theyd been carry-

ing all of their belongings in truck and

trailer for months on end, and it was timefor them to live in a house for a bit...a real

house. So, for two weeks, our family dou-

bled in size, spending one week near Sacra-

mento and another week in our tiny home

in the Mt. Shasta Forest. It was just what

everyone needed.

Days were spent at our respective

computers. It was funny, really.

With Colette and babe playing

in the next room, Terry, Rene

and I sat at with our laptops,

brains buried in the days tasks. I had to

chuckle when Rene came up for air, looked

around and exclaimed, This is so nice! All

of us working on our computers, getting

work done. I think he enjoyed the camara-

derie. I know I enjoyed having a little one in

the house once again. At night, Jack and

Jacque would play on the back lawn, the

bigger boys swapping stories while Colette

and I prepared a meal and learned more

about each other. What a special person she

is. Actually, theyre both pretty unique in

their stories of growing up in South Africaand Canada.

It wasnt until our final days together that

Rene and I had the opportunity to sit and

chat about the four years he spent traveling

the globe. I guess we were all enjoying our

time together a little too much. Is there

really such a thing? It wasnt an interview,

really, but more of two friends swapping

stories of travel and life decisions, one of us

Jacques and Colette

BMW OWNERS NEWS November 2013


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ALLIN THEFAMILY

with a few more queries than the other.

Enjoy as you are now a part of our conver-

sation on that quiet June afternoon, us

flopped on the couch, the squeal of little

ones in the backyard as they discover thesimple joy of a hose and bucket on a lazy

summer day in California.

As much as I wanted to hear extended

tales beyond his book, The University of

Gravel Roads: Global Lessons from a Four-

Year Motorcycle Adventure, I was more

interested in what spurred his desire to flee

the norm in Canada; what changed him the

most, and who he was upon his return. Did

Rene travel a lot as a child? No, actually.

But, it did spark something in him as well as

his siblings.

There were four kids in the family and we

were sort of like that age group. We took

one trip across Canada towing the trailer

with the station wagon; the full Griswold

experience, which was great fun. I thoroughly

enjoyed that trip. The limited travel we did

spurred a very big wanderlust. Out of the

four children, my eldest sister, was sort of the

stay at home style. My younger brother

worked for Royal Caribbean cruise lines. My

youngest sister has traveled probably the

most out of all of us. So, the last three kids

have a contest for how many countries theyve

visited. But, you cant count the countries you

fly in and transfer. You have to stay overnight

and have a beer. Those are the rules for the

country counting. My little sister I think is

leading us, as she is somewhere near . Im

not far behind and my brother is not far

behind me. Its a fun contest. My parents were

always very encouraging.

Of course, I have to know the answer to the

standard questions, When did you first

start riding motorcycles?

Like a lot of our friends growing up, wealways rode bikes, not legally, as we didnt

have licenses, but wed borrow the bike of kids

down the hall and ride the dirt bike in the

backyard. When we grew up, our house was

just at the end of town, so there were farmers

fields and forests, which was great; so we

could just go out and fart around in those

areas. Then I rode illegally for a while. No

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Of course not, Rene! This is completely

between you and me.

I got my proper license probably in my early

s. It wasnt until I was in my late s that

I could afford a motorcycle of my own. It was

a BMW RGS PD, red and white, big

tank, awesome thing. I sold it to do this big

trip around the world. So, I had that bike and

an GS. I sold both of them to downgrade

to the GS, which was the bike that I was

going to take around the world. I thought it

was a downgrade, but in actual fact it was

the best choice for the trip.

I had to know when was the moment Renedecided to do this around the world trip.

It was when I was deciding I was going to do

a year in South America. This was the initial

trip parameter. In some moment of lucidity

between Washington and Colorado Springs,

I thought, Why am I not thinking bigger?

The decision making went from South Amer-

ica for one year to the world in one year.

Quickly looking at an atlas, I decided it

would be stupid to go that quickly, that fast.

Thats not traveling, thats racing, really.

The money question always seems to follow

the decision to hit the road. Even Terry,

who was quietly sitting in on this conversa-

tion, leaned in to hear how Rene was going

to answer the question with regard to funding

this now multi-year trek around the globe.

I had to sell everything I owned. I had a lit-

tle bit of equity in a house and I had saved a

little bit of money, but I had accumulated a

lot of crap as well. I was amazed. I got

, dollars for the trip. From my inter-net homework, I realized people were travel-

ing for a day, camping. In my little

optimistic brain, I figured if they could do it

for , I could do it for . a day for a

year is ,, so I had enough money for

three years and a bit of money for one-time

expenses. So thats how the trip started three

years around the world.

When did you realize, Oh crap...Im really

doing this!

As soon as I started selling stuff. Its the most

liberating, awesome, terrifying feeling ever,

because you are intentionally jettisoning

your life away from you. You are chipping

away at that base that you have worked so

hard to accumulate. Most people work their

whole lives to build that castle with the moat

around it so their life can survive. Now, you

are blowing it up for something that you

think will be awesome, but you really have no

idea what its going to be.

Oh, the people you meet. Tell me about how

you were received when rolling through

countries.

For the most part, about percent of the

people are mildly amused by what youre

doing. We (I and the motorcycle) have never

had a fuel stop where people wouldnt come

up. With the Iranian visit, everyone wants to

stop and have a cup of tea with you and tellyou that they get BBC and CNN and, by the

way, what our government says in the news is

not what the Iranian people want. That was

repeated half a dozen times. It was interest-

ing to hear.

These are the stories I want to hear. Is it true

that the media in other countries is trying

to scare their residents as much as ours?

Simply put, yes.

Not everyone expects to meet his or her

future spouse while halfway around the

world. Funny enough, Rene is not the first

to tell me the tale of meeting said spouse

while on the other side of the planet. It was

, and Rene had now spent a year off the

road, having returned to Canada to earn

some much needed travel money. He

landed in South Africa in August of

and met Colette three months later.

I met her at a party. She lived in a very beau-

tiful part of South Africa with a lot of great

roads and mountain passes. So, we took the

bike out and went to see how many passes we

could go over, and it turned into a date. That

date turned into another date and another

date, and we were just having a lovely time

together. I knew at that point it was a per-

sonal trip for me. I wanted to be selfish about

this experience and have it entirely for myself.

So we just continued emailing and SMSing

and it was like wow, this relationship isnt

cooling down at all. So I finished that legthrough Africa to Russia and Mongolia. That

was two years. Then I returned to Canada

and flew down to her to figure out what was

going to happen here. Were we going to give

it a go? Were we not? I couldnt have picked

someone to date that lived in a less opportune

place to get to. Its literally on the other side of

the planet from us. If we couldve dug a tun-

nel, it wouldve been great.

ALLIN THEFAMILY

BMW OWNERS NEWS

November 2013


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Im a sucker for before and after stories,

how a life experience can give you fresh

eyes as to how you view your personal bub-ble and life beyond the usual. What was

Rene like before and who is he now?

Now, Im a cheapskate. Im value priced.

Before I left, I was a . I was in the default

world. Heres my vacation; my weekends

start on Friday at : p.m. and end on

Monday at : a.m. That world terrifies me

now. We dont own a home, and we talk

about getting one at some point. But in seri-

ous talks about getting a mortgage, that

weight goes right to my throat and it sits in

my throat. Weve done without it for so long,and its not normal. But, our life is not nor-

mal and our life situation is not normal.

Maybe we get away with not having that. I

dont know if we can or not.

Youve heard of Renes tour company, Rene-

dian Adventures, right? Of course you have!

A little background...the name Renedian

came out of Renes Canada-speak when it

came to certain words. You know which

ones Im referring to aboot, oot, and so

on. During a business meeting, one of

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Renes good friends exclaimed, Renes talk-

ing bloody Renedian again! There you

have it. The moniker became a businessentity that published his book in January

, as well as the company name for his

South African tour group.

was our first South Africa tour, and I

didnt know if it was going to fly or not.

Would people be willing to go to South

Africa? The travel there is quite hectic and an

expensive flight. People are sometimes afraid

of new places and Africa has an added mys-

tery about it. But we had a great first year.

We ran two trips that year and three trips the

next year and five last year with eight as agoal for this year.

Any regrets?

None. Okay, I regret that I didnt have better

language skills.

I have to be honest, this is not the first time

Ive heard this answer. So many travelers I

chat with have the same two regrets more

time and better language skills.

Where are Rene and family now? It was

time to get back to work in South Africa

and time for Colette and Jacques to spend

time with family. Though not looking for-ward to the flight schedule, they couldnt

wait to go home, if only for a brief period of

time. Rene will be back in the States begin-

ning in March of , sharing his tales of

travel at various dealers, spreading the gos-

pel that is adventure motorcycling.

As much as we miss our friends, we know

that our time apart will be short-lived, as

those who travel are destined to cross paths

once again. Jacques will be walking, an

adventure in itself for those in the parental

know, and Jack will be there to help guide

him along. The honorary aunties anduncles will enjoy a cold brew as tales of time

spent apart fill the familiar scene. When

will that be? Who knows, but well be there

eager to catch up all the same. Till next

time... Cheers.

You can read more about Rene Cormier, his

upcoming speaking gigs, and Renedian

Adventures at www.renedian.com. Renes

book, The University of Gravel Roads:

Global Lessons from a Four-Year Motorcycle

Adventure, is available on the website as well.

ALLIN THEFAMILY

BMW OWNERS NEWS

November 2013

an interview with rene cormier about his around the world travel

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