I Have Everything I Need

by Bridget McGee Houchins

2 people, 2 years, 20 countries: Trading leisure and enlightenment for sunburns, scars, and blisters. This book details an attempted thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, traveling across the USA twice, and exploring nineteen European countries in four months, including riding a flea market bike from Vienna to Budapest.

Genres: Travel

464 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2019

About the author

Professional photographer, printmaker, Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike failure, flea-market-bike-tourer, beer drinker, self-published writer, and dog rescuer.

Reviews

[Danny McGee · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best travel books I have ever read, a must for anyone thinking of hosteling and traveling Europe or living months on end out of a back pack. A truly inspiring autobiography, I can’t say enough on how much I enjoyed “I have everything I need” and looking forward to the next adventure from Bridget and Tim.

[Antonio Mackintosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a super refreshing and easy read. As somebody who considers myself a writer, I think a lot about how to captivate my audience and truly tell a good story that people can relate too. I believe sometimes as artists we tend to try really hard to be somebody or say something important, when the best way to relate is to find some way to tell a true story with an authentic voice, and Bridget nailed that. I felt like a friend spent hundreds of pages regaling me with stories of her travels, along with some bruises and scars picked up along the way. This isn’t a self help book, or a travel guide. This isn’t a romantic or motivational story. This is Bridget’s original and highly relatable (if you’re a cool crusty punk) tale of how she spent a couple years maneuvering and experiencing the world around her. Her words won’t teach you how to conquer the PCT, or how to travel on a budget, but they just might inspire us to evaluate our own experience of this planet and how we navigate the world via our own unique, and meaningful pathways.

[Cassie Swindle · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re looking for a unique perspective on travel, this is the book for you! The author covers hundreds of miles through the U.S. and Europe on roads far less travelled than anything found in your typical “big adventure, Eat, Pray, Love” cliché travel memoir, and the twists and turns she encounters along the way bring an honesty to the experience so often lost in this genre. I loved reading how she and her partner valued experiences and human connections over luxury and normal tourism traps, and how they balanced planning their trips on a budget with spontaneity. Highly recommend for anyone interested in walking, biking, and train-hopping their way through life, abroad or right at home!

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As romantic as sleeping under a tarp in a ditch next to a castle, as friendly as meeting your old punkhouse neighbors halfway across the world - and as funny as even the worst, coldest wet-shoe travel days become in your memory.

[Ronnie Theroux · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I started reading this book, I couldn’t put it down. I never thought reading about this young couples’ travels would be so entertaining but the author, being a brilliant writer, also has a wonderful sense of humor. You can learn a lot through how these two traveled the Pacific Crest Trail and 19 countries in Europe. She takes you through what it’s like to travel these countries on a tight budget and the reality of what was a well planned 4 month trip, doesn’t always end up how you planned it. Through all the missteps leading to 3am bus drop-offs in the cold waiting for hours for the train to buying bikes to ride 30 miles to another country, this story had its ups and downs. But that’s really what makes the memories. She describes in detail, her trip in Europe to where you can follow so easily and visualize, which keeps you from putting the book down. You could learn a lot from this couples’ travels and I’ll tell you it sounded like way more fun and memorable than traveling staying in a nice hotel (yawn!). Now this is THE way to travel. Bravo to this couple for making the trip of a lifetime.

[Dionna Bell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a fun book, it was tough to put down. It's an absolute must read for those who enjoy or can appreciate more unconventional means of adventuring and traveling. Bridget's account of small details that most people forget or don't notice at all really do a great job at making you feel like you're along for the ride the whole way and take travel reading to a new and refreshing level. I have everything I need is so authentic and will inspire you to go on an awesome adventure your own way while reminding you to always look below the surface to find the real fun.

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Finally a travel book worth reading, where the author has both the complications and richness of personality that come with a few years of life experience under her belt. Loved the work they did to realize their dreams and the uniqueness of their travel perspective. Felt a warm rush of memory when they visited places I had, and felt joy of discovering new places with them.

[Morgan Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I ask my friends about a trip they went on this is the level of detail I wish I got in our conversation! A very real depiction of traveling the PCT and Europe. It sounds like a trip I would have taken, and makes me yearn to get out the world as soon as possible!

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a pleasure to read. From the dusty hot miles of the PCT and onward to four months living out of backpacks across Europe I felt like a stowaway along for the ride. Especially charming were the inside jokes and quirky little aspects of their relationship and journey that made me as a reader feel in on some new intimate world. If anything will give one wanderlust it is reading this book!