I Have Everything I Need
Released October, 2019 · 457 Pages · Self-Published
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.
4.88 stars on Goodreads 4.6 stars on Amazon
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What People Are Saying
“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!” - C.S.
“Unlike other travel novels, where rich people spend lots of money and find themselves, I Have Everything I Need is a salt of the earth novel where enlightenment is traded in for a DIY approach to travel. I had no idea that you could travel the way that Bridget and her husband Tim did through the United States and Europe before reading this novel. The book serves as a 'does and don'ts' of traveling on an extremely limited budget. After reading I Have Everything I Need, I feel like I have some idea of how to ride the rails through the American Southwest, but I would probably need a tetanus shot first.” - S.C.
"Oh, I loved this. It's been five years since I've properly traveled, but this book gave me the urge to hit the road *and* made me feel like I was already out there. The story is full of the familiar tiny stresses of travel - nervously watching a taxi meter knowing just how little you have of the local currency, gulping a meal of crummy gas station snacks before your long-distance bus can leave with all your stuff, finding a place to sleep amid your hostel roommate's spread-out belongings - but Bridget's friendly funny ambling voice makes it all a pleasant trip. It's all wonderful, and every now and then, there's a perfect perfect sentence, like: 'Here’s what Europe is basically like in one long sentence: you travel across the globe, take trains to a little medieval town, go to the oldest existing bar, climb tiny treacherous stairs to a little nook to drink your local beer, not found anywhere else, sit down, look out over the castles, canals, and cobblestone streets, just as the theme song from Friends begins to play over the stereo.'” - H.M.
"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.” - A
“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." - H
“[I Have Everything I Need] was fucking amazing. I was captivated the moment I opened it. A lot reminded me of places and moments I've visited and lived, but also made me long for more adventures and revisiting old haunts.” - J.R.
“This charming journal takes the reader on a lighthearted and witty voyage through the backrounds and obscured trails of the western world. With charismatic snarkiness, and pints in hand, Bridget and Tim stumble and ascend from the Alpine Sierra to the European Underground, while they shed humbling light on the alternative and often awkward culture of the international backpacker.” - N.
"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!”
- M.W.
“This book takes you on a different kind of adventure. An adventure most people don’t realize they can have because they don’t have money. Bridget and Tim show you the beauty in places some people might pass because it’s not a typical tourist spot. I loved the attention to certain details. This book makes you wish they were your friends so you can have an adventure with them. I’m too busy to travel this book helped me travel with them to places I wish I had time to go. If you’re unmotivated and need that extra push to get off that couch and travel this is definitely the book that will make you want too!!! Tim and Bridget sound cool as f$&k!!! Buy and read this book!” – D
“Bridget, I'm 68 years old, no tattoos or piercings. I loved your book because it was honest and relatable. I love travel writing, even Paul Theroux :) But your writing made me want to follow your "adventure" back home. I just wanted you to know how good you are… I look forward to your next book(s). Oh, and one more thing. Your book isn't marred by mistakes in grammar, spelling or punctuation… Slowed way down the last few chapters as I really didn't want it to end.” – E
“To the casual reader, Bridget McGee Houchins’ debut seems a quick and easy read. Certainly, I Have Everything I Need is the sort of novel that can suck a reader in and hold them until a whole day has passed, but it’s also a multidimensional story chock full of honesty and rich little nuggets. From an adventurous couple of months on the Pacific Crest Trail to a four month, whirlwind unconventional tour of 19 European countries, I Have Everything I Need takes us on a humorous and memorable journey. Bridget McGee Houchins gives us this scintillating account of a wayward traveler; from Hiker Boxes and “the Day Drinking Hiker Trash of Idyllwild” to deciphering vegan options in foreign languages, sleeping in Hostels, on trains or busses, bunking with old friends or new acquaintances, even “Waking up Next to an Abandoned Building in the French Riviera Because it’s Sprinkling and you Have to Hurry to Pick the Spiders out of Your Shoes”! Every vignette is laced with spontaneous dry wit and flavored with refreshingly open-minded observation of people just being people. Houchins’ debut hits home with anyone who’s made, or dreams of making a voyage on the lesser traveled roads, trails and bike paths. It explores culture and subculture, and in a way challenges social status quo. This is a candid romp with some real fabric, consumed as easily as a beach read but offering ample opportunity for self-reflection. I give I Have Everything I Need 5/5 Stars and applaud Bridget McGee Houchins on her brilliant debut!” – Anonymous
"What a read! I picked this book up at last year SD Zinefest and am grateful for the journey it took me on during quarantine. I backpacked Europe with a cooker and tent for 4 months in my 20's and many of your adventures helped me re-live that time. It sparked something in me again. I hope you write another book, until then i think this would be a great Netflix original. Just sayin :) Cheers for sharing your story!”
- N.C.
"Well written tales of adventure & punk rock! I adored this punk rock tale of many adventures & shenanigans both throughout the US & in Europe as well. I loved all the memorable & distinct details about the trails & different places you stayed. I loved the funny lil things that you mentioned about each country you visited. Very real & raw feelings. Made me feel like I got to travel without leaving home. Very inspiring & loved the message. I can't wait to read your next book!!” - S.M.
“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." - M
“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.” - D.B.
“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.” - R. T.
"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.”
- D.M.
"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!” - J
“I adored this punk rock tale of many adventures & shenanigans both throughout the US & in Europe as well. I loved all the memorable & distinct details about the trails & different places you stayed. I loved the funny lil things that you mentioned about each country you visited. Very real & raw feelings. Made me feel like I got to travel without leaving home. Very inspiring & loved the message. I can't wait to read your next book!!" - D.P.
“I enjoyed reading I Have Everything I Need so much that I rarely put it down. The way Bridget inserts vivid details throughout her travelogue-esque book makes you feel that you too are traveling alongside her and Tim. Her point-blank delivery is reminiscent of On The Road without the added pretense. I enjoyed her unique perspective of traveling on the cheap while never failing to capture the magic behind those random encounters and situations that make it worth the while.” - A.C.