2015

My wife and I have been retired since 2015, so we have 5 years of retirement behind us...  and...  it is my opinion (whatever that is worth) that I will live at least another 2 decades which would take me to age 93...  My mother lived to almost 96 and my father lived until 89...  but, does that heritage support my longevity?  Maybe...  maybe not...  but, it is what drives my motivation.

At the beginning, my wife and I traveled a lot that included flights to Europe, Cruises to the Caribbean, and auto trips to various places of our interest all around the United States.  About the time that COVID hit us, my wife and I had pretty much decided that traveling no longer suited us.

Airports and Customs more than anything else caused our traveling dreams to end....  not to mention the fact that very few people in Europe these days seem to have made the decision that they no longer wanted to speak english....  and, more importantly, the food in Europe was not necessarily cooked to our Southern Tastes, at least those foods we could recognized.

A few years ago, we donated all our luggage to a local Church to sell at their Yard Sale and in order to travel now, we would have to purchase new luggage that to us seems like a needless expense.

The Great Smokey Mountains is only about 90 minutes away from our home in East TN and the Cherokee Gambling Casino is only 30 minutes beyond that...  although, neither my wife nor I have that much interest in gambling these days...  and if we do decide to gamble our limits are about $20/night.

While using our combined Social Security income, most of our monthly expenses are covered because of where we live in East TN...  this is not the case in other parts of TN or the case in other nearby States.  Our savings covers the other part of our expenses and allows us to travel in an average way...  so, we elect to focus on Myrtle Beach even though we have tried other places from time-to-time...  and, each time we do, we quickly realize we should have gone to Myrtle Beach.