OBAMMACARE
What if, over a period of 4 years, the US Government raised fuel taxes causing gasoline to increase from $3.50 to $12.32 a gallon and called this the Affordable Petroleum Act? Percentage wise, this is exactly what has happened to my Affordable Care Act insurance premiums since I retired in 2011.
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Truck Packed up leaving Chicago
Many, if not most, working people would likely jump at the chance to travel where and when they wanted, especially those now sitting in a cubicle with no view and a day of deadlines and meetings. I did not always plan to travel in retirement, but that is our current plan. I am no expert yet, as we have not yet started our first big solo trip to Europe and we have only been home free since September 2013. However, there are certain inconveniences with a life on the road you may want to figure into your dreams or plans.
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Cactus Sunrise, Sea of Cortez Mexico
If the visit to San Carlos is to be judged by the people we met, the visit was a grand success. Less so from the photographic side, which may be simply my fault. I did not get an abundance of good photos, but hope to stay in touch with the people we met.
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Stairway to Retirement
Retirement
I started preparation for retirement from my first job out of collage. Immediately when I qualified for savings contributions to their 401-K plan I participated to the maximum the company matched, I contributed 6% before taxes and the company contributed an additional 3%.
I walked about 50 feet for this sunset photo and the moon behind Mount Tetakawi. It was basically taken from our deck. We are staying in San Carlos, Mexico for a couple months. The term Tetakawi either means hill of stone as most people say “Goat Tit Mountain.” Either way, there seems to be surprisingly few photo opportunities in this sleepy little town.
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Infinity Cruise Ship
I feel as if we are WAY behind in our reservation efforts. We now have booked a cruise going and returning from Europe, but no car nor a single night’s lodging reservations. Twenty-eight places have been selected, most for a one week stay, but no reservations have been completed. Many people with this home free lifestyle pick one or two places and live there for months at a time, but we are trying to visit many places (28) for a week at a time. Scotland seems to be the least expensive area and not too surprisingly, Venice is by far the most expensive. More about this in the Budget section under the Plan tab.
There was no need to return to the same port as we left from, but that is the way it worked out. We liked the departure date which allowed for more time in Great Britain. Here is the itinerary of the return cruise, booked through http://www.repositioningcruise.com/index.cfm
ITINERARY
DAY DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART
Mon Oct 13 London (Harwich), England 5:00pm
Tue Oct 14 At Sea
Wed Oct 15 At Sea
Thu Oct 16 Lisbon, Portugal 7:00am 4:00pm
Fri Oct 17 At Sea
Sat Oct 18 At Sea
Sun Oct 19 At Sea
Mon Oct 20 At Sea
Tue Oct 21 At Sea
Wed Oct 22 King’s Wharf, Bermuda 3:00pm
Thu Oct 23 King’s Wharf, Bermuda 4:00pm
Fri Oct 24 At Sea
Sat Oct 25 At Sea
Sun Oct 26 Nassau, Bahamas 7:00am 5:00pm
Mon Oct 27 Fort Lauderdale, FL 6:00am
Acorn Woodpeckers
My Mom moved to Ruidoso, New Mexico in 1995. She had 15 wonderful years here, enjoying the mountains, friends and working thousands of hours at the local Pink Lady Thrift Shop. She was known for cleaning up old dolls of all shapes and sizes for resale in the second-hand store, making them available to little girls who may not have otherwise had a nice doll. The local newspaper ran stories on more than one occasion about the Doll Lady of Ruidoso. She passed away in September of 2010, and three years later my sister and I have finally sold the house.
Gayle and I are now where we have worked hard to be….. homeless, or home free and able to travel the world where we wish, when we wish. We do not yet seem to really be into this mode of living. All we have done is book a one-way cruise from Florida to Rome. No return cruise and no places to stay during our five months in Europe. We continue to pursue the re-positioning cruise listings…… Did you know you can cruise from Denmark to Singapore? Who knew?
So good-bye to many good memories, Christmases with my Mom, golfing at the Links, summer BBQ’s and my favorite home-made molasses crinkle cookies. Our new adventure being homeless begins….
Mom’s House
The photo of the wood peckers was taken off the back balcony at my Mom’s house.
Sheltering Sky
I was retired for only a couple of weeks, when I saw an interesting statement on a lady’s hand bag while riding the CTA in Chicago. After memorizing as much of the saying as possible, a search of the Internet informed me it was an excerpt from a novel written by Paul Bowles, “The Sheltering Sky.”
New F150 in Chicago
Our plan worked out as anticipated. We were sad to have left such a nice condo in Chicago with wonderful views, but adventures along RT66 and beyond are ahead. The truck
Truck Packed up leaving Chicago
was packed as full as possible. Here is a picture of our new truck with Chicago in the background. Also, one with it fully packed as we look like the Clampets driving down the highway with all of our belongings. The prior planning of test packing in the living room helped out. Oddly enough, there was enough room for many boxes of golf balls but not the toaster…….
Back Seat Driver Side
Back Seat, Passenger Side
Will it fit into the truck?
Part of the retirement plan is to sell our car and buy a Ford F-150 pick-em-up truck. Rather than settle in a single place, we wish to stay in small scenic towns across the Southwest. Towns like Moab, UT; Taos, NM; and Page, AZ. The goal is to get me closer to photography. One cannot get great photos breezing into a town for a night or two. I want to stay in each town for 3-6 months and experience numerous lunar cycles. The truck is necessary to do a modern day version of the Clampets when moving from town to town. So this weekend was the big test. Will all of our belongings fit into a truck? Gayle’s belongings could fit into two suitcases. On the other hand, I have a large Epson printer, printer stand, golf clubs, computers, monitors and photo books and lenses…. On the attached photo, you can see the blue tape on the floor where I have outlined the dimensions of a Ford truck bed. The indentations are the wheel wells. The two large boxes at the end are wardrobe containers. Bottom line is I have more donations to do….