Planning Again (Retirement Planning)

 Written 5/30/2017 as we prepared for retirement in 2018

We have spent the past few weeks since our trip to Spain planning our next adventure. There are some small trips in the plan and larger trips too. The planning can also be part of the fun of this journey and we are enjoying all the possibilities.

Each day I scroll through my instagram of those I am following who are already nomads. It has been inspiring to see all the places they are going and some of the ideas they have. My husband and I are project oriented and this by far has been a project of challenge. I look forward to what he will be creating as we go along.

I will be planning the route and where we go while he plans and creates what we use in order to make this trip possible. What does that mean? Well, that will be the fun in all of this as I document all the places we go and all the things he creates as we go along.

Our planning right now consist of the best vehicle to use on this trip - the route - the finances needed - going paperless - what to bring - what NOT to bring - and most importantly  making sure that we are physically okay to go. This month the priority is getting all the wellness appointments taken care of such as: yearly physical - mamogram - gyn - blood work - dentist. All these things need to be done first!

Planning (Retirement Planning)

Written 9/6/16 as we were making plans to retire by 2018:  

My favorite part of any trip is the planning stage because I love having something to look forward to. It's like Christmas to me because I love the planning part of the holiday and preparation. Once the day comes it is over so quickly. So this has been so much fun as we plan and prepare much like Christmas without all the stress of time constraint. There needs to be time to make the plans of traveling for long periods of time.

Our first concern is my husbands health and well being. He had a kidney transplant eight years ago and still has to follow up with blood work and check ups. Plus with traveling overseas it is vital that we are insured properly. We have terrific insurance here in the states but it doesn't help us over there. Fortunately there are policies and companies to choose from and we need to be sure they are accepted in the country we plan to visit.

Also, it is a good idea to know where the doctors, hospitals and clinics are located in those areas. We don't want to leave that for the last minute in case something should happen. So that is the part of the planning stage we are now. We began by changing his doctor to one that is closer to our home instead of an hour away. It gives us an opportunity to see what we need in order to make this change and then we can look for new doctors wherever we go and have a better idea of what we need to do.

When traveling abroad there is a great link to check out to give you an idea of what to prepare for - https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/checklist.html 

This picture was taken of my grandkids.

Planning Again!

We have spent the past few weeks since our trip to Spain planning our next adventure. There are some small trips in the plan and larger trips too. The planning can also be part of the fun of this journey and we are enjoying all the possibilities.

Each day I scroll through my instagram of those I am following who are already nomads. It has been inspiring to see all the places they are going and some of the ideas they have. My husband and I are project oriented and this by far has been a project of challenge. I look forward to what he will be creating as we go along.

I will be planning the route and where we go while he plans and creates what we use in order to make this trip possible. What does that mean? Well, that will be the fun in all of this as I document all the places we go and all the things he creates as we go along.

Our planning right now consist of the best vehicle to use on this trip - the route - the finances needed - going paperless - what to bring - what NOT to bring - and most importantly  making sure that we are physically okay to go. This month the priority is getting all the wellness appointments taken care of such as: yearly physical - mamogram - gyn - blood work - dentist. All these things need to be done first!

Planning

My favorite part of any trip is the planning stage because I love having something to look forward to. It's like Christmas to me because I love the planning part of the holiday and preparation. Once the day comes it is over so quickly. So this has been so much fun as we plan and prepare much like Christmas without all the stress of time constraint. There needs to be time to make the plans of traveling for long periods of time.

Our first concern is my husbands health and well being. He had a kidney transplant eight years ago and still has to follow up with blood work and check ups. Plus with traveling overseas it is vital that we are insured properly. We have terrific insurance here in the states but it doesn't help us over there. Fortunately there are policies and companies to choose from and we need to be sure they are accepted in the country we plan to visit.

Also, it is a good idea to know where the doctors, hospitals and clinics are located in those areas. We don't want to leave that for the last minute in case something should happen. So that is the part of the planning stage we are now. We began by changing his doctor to one that is closer to our home instead of an hour away. It gives us an opportunity to see what we need in order to make this change and then we can look for new doctors wherever we go and have a better idea of what we need to do.

When traveling abroad there is a great link to check out to give you an idea of what to prepare for - https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/go/checklist.html

This picture was taken of my grandkids.

New Beginnings! (Retirement Planning)

Written February 6, 2017 as we were planning for retirement:

 George Turner the lead character in the Australian/New Zealand show 800 Words writes...."Because endings are, by definition, finite...whereas new beginnings bring infinite possibilities."

There is so much fear in change but yet how often are we having to experience it in life? You would think with all the practice we have with change that we would embrace it better. Leaving our home of 30 years was an ending I never considered. It is also the beginning of a new life together for new things, new experiences, new normals which seems pretty exciting to me. 

The best part of our new beginning together is the sense of newness in our relationship. We have been raising kids and grandkids for so many years now and grateful to have them in our life. Now it is just us and it is such a change in our own thought processes. We go to the beach to sit and talk! It seems so strange to have each others undivided attention and we love that about this time in our life.

Planning things together and making new memories has been such a treat and we never dreamed that we would ever have this opportunity. We have precious memories with our kids and grandkids and looking forward to precious memories together! 

We are enjoying our sunsets on the beach!

This was our beginning: Praying & Planning 🙏 (Retirement Planning)

In 2016 I wrote this blog titled “Prayer!”  This was the beginning of our full time traveling life! It all started with a prayer 🙏.

My husband has been talking about retiring now for a couple of years. I can't imagine us stopping long enough to even make a plan much less retire. We are empty nesters but our home is constantly filled with kids and grandkids. There have been those quiet moments that we never knew before and we find that we absolutely love it more than we could have ever imagined. Then the house fills up again and the only way to describe it is like trying to come up for air after jumping in a very deep swimming pool, gasping for breath. We love our children and we absolutely adore our grandchildren. We have also found that we love our time together too, just the  two of us. Absolutely "heavenly!"

We have been parents for four decades and grandparents for two decades. To be honest we never took time to imagine our lives without them. I believe I spent most of my kids lives grieving their growth and that one day they would leave our nest. I grieved each time one of my kids became pregnant with my grandkids because of all the worries, fears and anxieties I felt raising my own kids.

I never suffered postpartum depression at all when my babies were infants. It came much later in their teenage years but that may have been called something else altogether (menopause) but feels much the same. We were so busy raising children, then grandkids and one day when I took my youngest to college I had a day all to myself. Freedom to do whatever I chose to do without having to work around a music lesson or church event. Trust me it was short lived but I got a taste of that freedom and I didn't hate it.

This past year our youngest grandkids began to attend pre-school and we found ourselves with more time to do things we had only talked about. We began to take day trips together, weekend getaways and weeklong vacations to places we never had the opportunity to go before. We found that we were perfect traveling companions and loved discovering out of the way places. It has been such a joy for us to plan on where we are going next.

That is where "prayer" comes in like in everything else we are making it a matter of prayer - our plan to go on a long trip. One that requires we sell our home and leave our family longer periods of time. We came up with the idea together so we know it's the right plan because when do two people ever agree on anything, right?  We are eager for this adventure and can't wait until it begins. For now, it is a matter of prayer and we are asking others to pray too. In most cases, my prayer request is just to ask for prayer without all the details because I don't think anyone will take time to pray if I requested prayer about our "nomadic journey!" They would be too fearful for us or think we are silly and I certainly understand. So until then we will be "praying!"

These are two pictures combined that I took on different mornings of the sunrise.

Praying & Planning 

2nd Stop - Spain!🇪🇸 (Retirement Planning)

Written 9/28/2016 as we prepared for retirement in 2018

This month we flew over to Spain to visit with family and friends. My husbands first trip to Europe and had no difficulty until we returned and went through customs in Miami. That was actually the worst part of our trip; otherwise, it all went perfectly!

We traveled around many parts of the Costa del Sol in Andalucia. So many beautiful pueblos and cities that we were able to enjoy the food and the beauty that surrounded each one. There was so much to enjoy about each place we found ourselves in each day. 

This is an area we would like to be able to come and stay a few months out of the year. We took time to look around and see where we both could see ourselves spending time. There were a lot of signs showing rentals so I would just take a picture of them since I had my camera out already. 

It is a lot easier to enjoy a country such as Spain when you have a local to show you around. We were interested in just spending time with family, friends and the culture of the area. It was a great experience and gave us an idea of what we needed to do in planning for our next trip.

Stuff (Retirement Planning)

Written 8/24/2016 as we were making plans to retire by 2018: 

We all got stuff!!! Lot's of stuff too....right? I know I do and I am not a frequent shopper either. Which makes me realize there are homes all over filled to the brim with stuff. 

I started going through our home and beginning to decide what is going to happen to our stuff. Yesterday I loaded up a few things and took them over to my younger daughters house. Today I loaded up more things and went back over. In fact, I took a nail and hammer to begin putting those things up in her home. She loves my stuff!!!

So now we are planning what to give away, sell and throw out. We would like to leave here with nothing but the clothes on our backs. This should be fun taking 30 years of things and giving them another home. Most of what I own used to belong to my parents, grandparents or given to me as gifts. So I pretty much treasure everything that I have been given over all these years. The first thing I plan to do is to check with all the kids in my family who wants what....then the nieces and nephews....pretty much all that is here is some type of family heirloom. What they don't want we will sell or donate.....sounds like a plan!

I took this picture when watching the sunrise on the beach, 2016.

Mama Mia’s in Verona, Italy 🇮🇹

What a beautiful place to get lost in while we were exploring Italy. Yes, everyone’s biggest fear about traveling, we were so lost. I thought we had bought train tickets to Varenna, Italy. Let me start at the beginning!

We had family traveling with us in Italy and their first trip to Europe. They wanted to visit Lake Como and so I planned a day trip by train. In the process of planning my husband was looking online at the village of Verona thinking it was the same place. He kept telling me that we were going to a place where there was a Roman amphitheater. I told him I didn’t see a Roman Amphitheater but maybe he saw something I didn’t. Anyways, while I was on the train app I asked him what the name of the spelling was of the town we were planning to go because he was looking at it on his iPad at that time. Well, that was my mistake!

Anyways, when we arrived and we walked out of the train station confused me because I didn’t see Lake Como. I had planned to walk to the restaurant by following the Lake road but there was no Lake road. We got a cab and I gave the taxi driver the name of the restaurant but he seemed confused. He looked it up on his gos and said, it is 2 hours away. WHAT? I realized then that we were lost. So we had the taxi driver take us into town where we saw immediately a Roman Amphitheater. I realized right then that we were both looking at 2 different towns and I had asked him how to spell it when I was getting the tickets.

Traveling full time for 6 years now we have learned to just enjoy what is around us. I look at everything that God orchestrates everything, even when we are lost. It was a beautiful day and some incredible architecture. The amphitheater was impressive and they actually hold concerts there which is why my husband was so excited to be there. He has seen some of his favorite musicians perform there online. This was a great day for him all around. You have to learn to be flexible when you travel because it makes for a more pleasant experience!

Bistrot Mama Mia Restaurant https://maps.app.goo.gl/72sr524g5sdWaZvs8?g_st=ic

Our New Normal (Retirement Planning)

Written 2/15/17 as we prepared for retirement in 2018

A dear friend said to me she would be praying for me during our move to have a smooth transition to our "new normal." She had recently moved herself so she knew exactly what prayer we needed. After living in a home for 30 years it had been a very long time since we had made any "new normals."

One thing we began doing immediately was walking at sunset on the beach. We both would sit there just amazed at our "new normal" that God had just given to us. That became the place where we would have our evening prayer together. It also became the place where we would spend much time talking together about our day or anything that was on our mind.

Many "new normals" came into our life because of this move and we have thanked God for that over and over again. We are grateful for the time spent in our home of 30 years and all the wonderful memories of raising children and grandchildren there. It was certainly time for us to let go and begin this journey and new memories to be made.

This past weekend we took our grandkids for a walk on the beach and then a picnic at the park. We look forward to many new outdoor activities with them and many new memories to be made together!

Praying & Planning 

Emotions (Retirement Planning)

 Written 8/27/2016 as we were making plans to retire by 2018: 

Floods of tears came when I began putting together a box for one of my grandkids with some of my things that I have carried with me since a child.  Some of these things have been with me all of my life. I had a few pieces that my parents purchased in Africa when I was very young. They were my favorite things in my parents house because it brought me back to some very wonderful memories.

Later that same day I called my dear friend Gwen who lives in Louisiana and they had just gone through some terrible flooding. She shared with me how so many had lost everything because the water had risen so high. It was such a mess there that they were not able to buy food in the stores and people were very misplaced.

This really spoke volumes to me about my sadness earlier in giving away "stuff" that was sentimental to me. I felt grateful that, unlike many people who suffer tragedy and lose everything, I was able to give away and share with others in my family. I now plan to enjoy wrapping each precious item of memories with joy in my heart and not sadness. Emotions change when perspective changes I have learned today!

I took this picture from our hotel room of Niagra Falls at night.

Home for Sale (Retirement Planning)

Written 1/28/17 as we prepared for retirement in 2018

When we returned from Texas I contacted my cousin who is a realtor in another state to connect me to a good realtor in our area. The realtor in our area was named Sharon and she connected with us right away. All our questions were answered about the sale of our house.

Immediately we put the "For Sale" sign up and the next day over a dozen families came by to look around. Within 24 hours we received 5 bids and decided to take the one that offered us more than the asking price. We had 30 days to pack up the rest of our things and find a place to stay.

Fortunately the clean up had already began months before so we were ready to spend the next month eliminating the rest of our things. I continued to give away, donate and sell our things. I knew there wasn't enough time to get rid of 30 years accumulation so I purchased a small storage unit nearby. Each day I filled up the car to go either to the GoodWill or to the storage unit. I stored what I thought we could use at our Beach Bungalow. Within one month we moved those things into the beach bungalow and no longer needed a storage unit. We lived in the Beach Bungalow until retirement and left everything there that we brought because our landlord loved our decor.

Using this method to move allowed us not to have to depend on movers or anyone else to help us move. Basically, I moved everything myself with some help from my granddaughters. I left the heavier things for my husband to do. It eliminated us from having too much to do on the day of the move. We were able to spread out the heavy physical stuff to do so that we would not get too worn out.

The day of our actual move we were able to get it all in both our vehicles and go to our closing. Afterwards, we got a hotel room nearby and spent the next couple of days resting, relaxing and visiting with friends who came from out of town. A much needed mini-vacation!

This was our new home on the beach for the next year and a half!

Inspiration & Contemplation (Retirement planning)

Written 5/3/17 as we prepared for retirement in 2018

Traveling gives me a chance for inspiration and contemplation! We all need time to reflect and I find that when we are home in the business of life, it is difficult to do. On a trip and especially to somewhere beautiful and natural you find yourself inspired and contemplating all the possibilities of the life around you.

John Muir who was born in 1838 writes about the joys to be found in quietly observing the world. All part of his desire, he said, to"preach nature like an apostle." The story of his life is inspiring to me because of the religious abuse in his young life. He never turned his back on God in spite of his tyrannical and religious fathers beatings while he forced him to memorize the entire Bible. He left the life of what he describes as mans institution of worship to worshiping God in the midst of nature itself in Yosemite Valley. He spent his life trying to protect the beauty of Yosemite which he considered his cathedral from becoming a carnival for people who wanted to commercialize the area. He became the voice in politics to protect Yosemite and other natural wonders of the United States by creating National Parks. He describes himself as an "unknown nobody" who had entered Yosemite and then been transformed by his "unconditional surrender to nature." He would need to convince many other Americans to surrender, as well. To see the necessity, as he said, "in all that is wild." What he means is that wildness is an essential part of ourselves that we lose in the everyday routines of life and rediscover when we wander in the wilderness.

The tendency these days to wander in wilderness is delightful to see. Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home. That wildness is a necessity, and that mountain parks and reservations are useful, not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers but as fountains of life. ~John Muir

Taking A Break!

So many people have asked why haven't created any new videos or updated our travel blog? It is only because we have been visiting so many family and friends this past year. It is easy enough to do when we are on the road by ourselves but I don't ever want to take the time that we have when we are with others. It has been another incredible year together going to all the many places that we have had the privilege to explore. We feel like two kids living in a fort and opening the door to new adventures every day!

We have nieces and nephews who have made our journey even more remarkable by spending time with us and taking us places that we would not have been able to on our own. The memories that we have made these past few years have been so full of laughter and joy! We still feel the same excitement the day we left our home of 40 years and moved into the beach house on the coast of Florida.

Every night we thank the Lord for our time with others and our time together! We are reminded that the doctors said Jimmy would not live to see these years but God saw differently. We don't take this time together for granted at all....

The holidays are coming and we will be back home with more family and friends but we are planning to make time to document online our adventures! Thank you to all of you have joined us online to see where we are and what we are up to.....you all encourage us so much and we thank you!!!!

Travel Life 

The Element of Yearning (Preparing for Retirement)

 Written 7/19/2017 as we prepared for retirement in 2018

It is going on 5 years now that I have yearned to live a more nomadic life. It's in my roots from my own parents who took me at 6 weeks old to Africa. Jimmy has lived here in South Florida nearly his entire lifetime so he could not even entertain the idea and said, "No way!" My prayer was that God change either my yearning to go or his heart to stay. One year ago he came home and said, "I think I would like to do go ahead with your plans!" Music to my ears.....I began packing the next day!

My favorite part of any trip is the planning which feeds the yearning inside of me to travel. The past year has been all about preparing for travel full time and eliminating much of our life before. Paperwork, stuff, etc. has to all be eliminated when there is no home to store it away. Relinquishing everything was much more liberating than I had imagined. I have enjoyed life with less and have more time to work on the things I choose instead of things I need to do. I really wasn't expecting this new form of freedom which was an unexpected surprise. Somehow the grief of letting it go fooled me into believing that my grief and regret would be overwhelming. It wasn't the case at all but instead it seemed to release me of my normal anxiety and stress.

Anxiety has always been an issue for me since I was a teenager. Medication has too many side affects that eliminate my being able to use them. When I had kids my way of dealing with the anxiety and stress of motherhood was to go camping with my mom and friends from Europe. It would always work in calming me down and just what I needed to help me cope and start again fresh. That is my biggest reason for wanting to do this because I know it works for me. My husband noticed that my anxiety and stress went away as soon as we moved from our home of 30 years and started this quest. I have to agree!

We have a table I was painting just before my husbands heart change that says, "Prayer changes everything!"  My yearning calmed down when we moved here on the beach because it has been like a vacation for us. My husband now yearns for more travel just from living here so we find ourselves exploring the area to find new things to see and do. We are both thankful for answered prayer!

Exploring Lake Okeechobee!

Fear (Retirement Planning)

Written in 2016 as we began making plans of what retirement would look like for us:

We were fearless when we were young and then life shows you a few too many things to fear. In my 50's I am having to overcome more fears than I care to admit. We don't want fear to keep us from living our dream. It is so easy to do and easier to just stay put because of fear. I have relatives that won't leave the house if there is a rain cloud above their house and I have other relatives that travel in ice storms and monsoons. I am hoping there is a happy medium. I have no desire to drive in perilous weather but I don't want my day to be decided on by the weather either.

There are health issues to fear but I really believe getting out of the house is always healthier. Walking and doing at any age is always best. I love to walk and can walk several miles easily. 

I love how Rolf Potts put it in his book Vagabonding - Never underestimate your ability to learn and adapt quickly - and don't waste your time fretting about every possibility that might come your way on the road. Again, simple courage is worth far more than detailed logistics, and a confident, positive, ready-to-learn attitude will make for any travel savvy you lack at the outset.  With such an attitude, most people find themselves brimming with confidence after their first few days of vagabonding - and kicking themselves for not having mustered the courage to do it years ago. (Chapter 4)

This picture was taken when my husband took me to see the sunrise 

A New Life: The Beginning

Chapter 1

The beginning of our traveling life. How we made a conscious decision of becoming nomads traveling full time. Click into each title as we go through the process and emotions of making changes after living in our home for 30 years.

Prayer 

Dream 

Fear

Living Vicariously

Stuff

Control

Emotions

Anxiety

Planning

Selling

Dross

Debris

Wait

Home For Sale

The Element of Yearning

Inspiration and Contemplation

Leaving Home to Travel

Living with the “What If’s”

New Beginnings

Our New Normal

Fun in the Sun

Weekend Warriors

Our Travel Trailer for YouTube

Our New Normal

A dear friend said to me she would be praying for me during our move to have a smooth transition to our "new normal." She had recently moved herself so she knew exactly what prayer we needed. After living in a home for 30 years it had been a very long time since we had any "new normals."

One thing we began doing immediately was walking at sunset on the beach. We both would sit there just amazed at our "new normal" that God had just given to us. That became the place where we would have our evening prayer together. It also became the place where we would spend much time talking together about our day or anything that was on our mind.

Many "new normals" came into our life because of this move and we have thanked God for that over and over again. We are grateful for the time spent in our home of 30 years and all the wonderful memories of raising children and grandchildren there. It was certainly time for us to let go and begin this journey and new memories to be made.

This past weekend we took our grandkids for a walk on the beach and then a picnic at the park. We look forward to many new outdoor activities with them and many new memories to be made together!

Praying & Planning 

Traveling Life

 10 Travel Tips for RV Life

11 States in 4 Months

2018 Campground Destinations

2019 Campground Destinations

A Typical Day

Artwork on the Road

Chasing the Sunrise

Traveling Life during Quarantine

Final Frontier

Happy Camping

Making Memories

Our Theme Song

Planning Again

Taking A Break

Thankful

Warning

Winnie Drop Hacks

Prayer!

My husband has been talking about retiring now for a couple of years. I can't imagine us stopping long enough to even make a plan much less retire. We are empty nesters but our home is constantly filled with kids and grandkids. There have been those quiet moments that we never knew before and we find that we absolutely love it more than we could have ever imagined. Then the house fills up again and the only way to describe it is like trying to come up for air after jumping in a very deep swimming pool, gasping for breath. We love our children and we absolutely adore our grandchildren. We have also found that we love our time together too, just the  two of us. Absolutely "heavenly!"

We have been parents for four decades and grandparents for two decades. To be honest we never took time to imagine our lives without them. I believe I spent most of my kids lives grieving their growth and that one day they would leave our nest. I grieved each time one of my kids became pregnant with my grandkids because of all the worries, fears and anxieties I felt raising my own kids.

I never suffered postpartum depression at all when my babies were infants. It came much later in their teenage years but that may have been called something else altogether (menopause) but feels much the same. We were so busy raising children, then grandkids and one day when I took my youngest to college I had a day all to myself. Freedom to do whatever I chose to do without having to work around a music lesson or church event. Trust me it was short lived but I got a taste of that freedom and I didn't hate it.

This past year our youngest grandkids began to attend pre-school and we found ourselves with more time to do things we had only talked about. We began to take day trips together, weekend getaways and weeklong vacations to places we never had the opportunity to go before. We found that we were perfect traveling companions and loved discovering out of the way places. It has been such a joy for us to plan on where we are going next.

That is where "prayer" comes in like in everything else we are making it a matter of prayer - our plan to go on a long trip. One that requires we sell our home and leave our family longer periods of time. We came up with the idea together so we know it's the right plan because when do two people ever agree on anything right?  We are eager for this adventure and can't wait until it begins. For now, it is a matter of prayer and we are asking others to pray too. In most cases, my prayer request is just to ask for prayer without all the details because I don't think anyone will take time to pray if I requested prayer about our "nomadic journey!" They would be too fearful for us or think we are silly and I certainly understand. So until then we will be "praying!"

These are two pictures combined that I took on different mornings of the sunrise.

Praying & Planning