Our kids are finally out of the house and we’re both now retired. Now what? We saw a plaque in a craft shop with the phrase “Eat Well, Travel Often” and thought that would make a great mission statement for us. During first half of our life, we raised eight kids together and created an extensive travel bucket list for ‘someday’. Now that someday is finally here, it’s time to start checking things off that list. A paramount principle guiding our travel decisions at this point in our lives is to never be anywhere we can’t wear shorts and sandals. We’ve made a great deal of progress on that but the plan still needs a bit of tweaking.
Becoming Snow Birds
The first step towards achieving the shorts and sandals objective is getting out of the brutal Central New York winters. We started by heading south for one month because I still like to ski. I could indulge in my vice and Cathy had a definitive end to winter.
The nudge – actually it was a shove – to become full time snowbirds came after a February that averaged -9 degrees. That’s well below my personal temperature threshold for skiing. Cathy pointed out that I don’t have to stay home to ski. Planes fly to all the major ski resorts when I get the itch. And she wouldn’t have to suffer through any more winters. Thus, the search for a good snow bird destination began. We’ve been to some great places and met some nice people over the past few years. We haven’t found a place where we want to spend every winter yet. Give us some suggestions and we’ll be happy to check them out.
Where Do The Lines Go?
Other things on our bucket list are some motorcycle tours. Getting on a bike to see where the lines on the road go has always appealed to me. I have amassed a lengthy list of roads I want to ride in the US.
The cruiser I owned was sufficient for shorter trips and would’ve been fine if I was traveling solo. But as we started to take extended trips, Cathy became increasingly uncomfortable. As much as I liked that bike, we realized the bike really wasn’t made for lengthy, two-up tours. Cathy sat on a BMW K 1200 LT once at a barbecue joint and said “you can buy one of these.” Well, if I have to, I have to. We’ve done some great tours so far, which you can read about here, but have some many more to do. I’m open to adding more to the list if anyone has any suggestions.
Chasing the warmer weather
To help facilitate wearing only shorts and sandals, we bought a travel trailer that Cathy named Freebird. Every winter, we search for someplace warm so we can get out of the cold weather at home. Like Kyle and Olivia Brady of Drivin’ and Vibin’, we hate to pay for camping. I learned a lot about boondocking from reading their blog. So every winter we search out the best free campsites the southwest has to offer. We’ve found some great spots and continue to find new ones. In addition, we’re trying to hit all the National Parks. We have quite a few to go. Check out our boondocking adventures in Freebird here.
Other items on the bucket list for someday include visiting and sampling the cuisine of interesting US cities and some international travel destinations. Follow along as we spend our kids inheritance. Hopefully we can inspire you to begin your own second half adventures.