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Couple spends four years touring the globe on motorcycles Date published: 8/3/2003
QUIT YOUR JOB, sell your house, buy a motorcycle and travel around the world. It's something many people think about, but Erin and Chris Ratay did just that. Chris Ratay quit his job in the lipstick business, and Erin Ratay completed her master's degree at Columbia University, sold their Manhattan apartment, and flew with their motorcycles to Morocco, thinking they'd be back in 15 months, tops. Fifty-one months later they're finally back in the United States, rich with memories, but just about penniless, and they couldn't be happier. "After we were on the road for six months we realized we were going too fast," Chris Ratay, 36, said. "We realized we were doing two-week trip after two-week trip. We finally learned to slow down." On motorcycles--BMW F650s--the two went first to Morocco, then to Spain. The trip continued through Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Egypt, India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, New Zealand, then all over Latin America. And that's not the complete itinerary. "The hardest part about it is making the decision to do it," Erin Ratay, 38, said. "Once you've made that decision, it's really not that hard." The newly married couple made the decision in the late 1990s. Once decided, the couple sold their upper west-side apartment for $265,000, providing them with $100,000 profit. At first they thought they'd go to Latin America for three months. But as they looked at maps, they realized that wouldn't be enough to satisfy their adventure appetite. And their travel plans wouldn't be satisfied on a bus, car or cruise ship either. They wanted to feel, smell and be able to touch the people of the countries they went to. That's when the two motorcycle riders knew their bikes had to be their mode of transportation. "We are motorcycles riders before the trip. We were doing two-week trips every year. For us a motorcycle is a way to meet people," Chris Ratay said.
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