Showing posts with label Traveling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Traveling. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 5

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.

Thursday, January 14

COVID Lingering Around

One of my doctors told me that the vaccine was available, but when I checked the local health department, they informed me that it was for only healthcare workers, and seniors 75 years old and older which leaves my wife and I waiting a little longer.  And, it really is no big deal since we are both retired and don't need to go anywhere and because we vacations so much when we first retired, we are kinda "burned out" on traveling...   messing around with all the crap at airports, trying to find where to go at foreign airports, hotel accommodations, inconvenience of luggage, food availability, ground transportation, and spending hours in a car driving to the coast whether it be the east coast or the gulf coast, and the friendliness of locals and hotel staff.,

We have been on 10 Cruises, traveled to Europe, Alaska, Hawaii, Martha's Vineyard, NYC, Chicago, Denver, Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head, Vegas, Seattle, LA, DC, Gulf Coast, and numerous places in Florida with our traveling plans pretty much encompassing every other month for a week or two.

It is nice to finally stay at home and have no place to go.

But, when we do go places, only about 80% of the people are wearing facemasks and of those 80%, I would say about 10% are wearing them inappropriately...  this is especially true in places where facemasks are not mandatory.

It shows me that AMERICANS don't really listen to the advice of the doctors or their leaders and don't seem to care if they catch the virus or not.  These people are not just young, but middle aged, and older.  With this type of behavior, the virus is going to be around for a long time...

Saturday, October 10

Favorite Places to Live and/or Visit

While my wife and I like East TN as the location in which we live and Myrtle Beach as the location in which we visit...  everyone else, for the most part, has their favorite locations for one reason or another which allows for the rich diversification that makes American Great... 

For example, we have visit several places in Europe, around the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and Hawaii and none of those places suit our personalities 100% even though there were aspects of those areas that we really enjoyed as we were experiencing them...

Locations, to us, are not just locations but they consist of:
  • travel time to get there
  • transportation to get there
  • cost of living there
  • number of people there
  • annual climate there
  • things to do there
As we get older, even the 6 hour drive to Myrtle Beach is becoming to long of a time to take just to get someone in which we feel comfortable and know what to expect.  And, it is this knowing what to expect that clinches the deal for us...

COVID has put a damper on our travels and this fear will probably continue until next Summer even if they get a vaccine because we believe vaccines should be tested by others first in case they need to be modified due to side effects...   of course, the FDA would have taken all of that into consideration one would think.