Juan Bayardo, 54, thinks that he could retire soon and enjoy writing on a peaceful Mexican beach. But before that, he wants to embark on an adventure.
His plan is to travel and tour the 50 states — and find a job in each state in construction, landscaping, maintenance, or anything he can do. For the next six months, it will be only Bayardo, his tools, his Chevy Avalanche and his cell phone.
Bayardo plans to leave Thursday, May 5.
“There’s nothing that stops me,” said Bayardo, divorced and father of three, with three grandchildren. “And it has to be now, because the 60s are coming fast.”
Bayardo wants to show that everyone is connected by the Internet and that people can work with a cell phone. On his travels he wants to feel the excitement of not knowing exactly where he will be or what he’ll do the day after. And when he returns home he wants to write a book.
Angela Bayardo said that her little brother is an obstinate, positive person. “If he says that he will do it, he will,” Angela said. “He became a very young parent, before the age of 20, and he hadn’t then the opportunity to do many things that he now wants to do.”
Bayardo believes he can find work by searching for gigs on Craigslist.
“For the last year, I’ve been using gigs at times,” Bayardo said. “I have clients here in Tucson, but if there’s not much work during a week, I search in Craiglist. There’s something new every day.”
Bayardo plans on traveling light — a tent, a portable oven and a lot of instant soup.
“When possible, I’ll take a room, if affordable, because I’m aware that I’ll need to rest some days,” Bayardo said.
He said he has lost about 20 pounds in preparation for his adventure.
Bayardo doesn’t know how many cities he will visit. The only thing he knows for sure is that he’ll work across America — including Alaska and Hawaii.
He intends to make Phoenix his first stop and find his first job there. He plans to zigzag in the Southwest before heading east to Florida.
When he eventually arrives in Hawaii, it will be where his idea was born.
A few years ago, after Bayardo’s grandson passed away, Bayardo’s son and daughter-in-law moved to Hawaii to deal with their grief. They asked Bayardo to join them.
He quit his job as a butcher and sold his possessions, including the tools he’d bought through the years working as a handyman.
In Hawaii he resumed working as a butcher but nine months later his son and daughter-in-law returned to the mainland, leaving Bayardo.
“In Hawaii I learned how to live with very little,” Bayardo said. He’s confident that experience will help him in his new project: Gigs Across America.
It was also in Hawaii that he began writing, which years earlier seemed difficult.
“I didn’t go to college. I didn’t even know how to begin,” said Bayardo, who graduated from Pueblo Magnet High School.
Writing is his new passion. He plans to write a new book based on his upcoming trip, and he’ll post stories in English and Spanish on his website: juanjohnsgigsacrossamerica.com.
“I want to do something that nobody else has done, to be in places that I always have wanted to be in, to taste new food, make new friends,” said Bayardo. “I no longer want to work with pick and shovel; at least not by necessity.”
