I've known a quite few people who dropped out of tech around the dotcom bust and I've not really had a very normal continuous career..
As afar as manual labor and car(?) travel, I would recommend against doing that without a specific trajectory in mind that you've already been working on. For example if you will be transitioning to more of a lifestyle as an owner of coffee shops.
Most people I know who went into the trades and stayed had pretty good advantages compared to ones that were really looking for anything open to an entry level worker.
As afar as manual labor and car(?) travel, I would recommend against doing that without a specific trajectory in mind that you've already been working on. For example if you will be transitioning to more of a lifestyle as an owner of coffee shops.
Most people I know who went into the trades and stayed had pretty good advantages compared to ones that were really looking for anything open to an entry level worker.