I’ve been a bad, negligent, absentee writer of blog posts; of telling stories.  Mea culpa.  How did it get to be October?  My absolute favorite time of year and I barely have time to notice.

When we left Oregon, in October 2014, just shy of 1 year ago, we never looked back.  Not even once.  When you feel it in your gut, and you know you’re doing the right thing, you just take that leap of faith and run with it.

I’m beginning to understand why people return to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago more than once.  When we reached Santiago, the end of our journey, I was beyond exhausted and thought to myself, okay, that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Jump to the PDF:  Camino de Santiago FAQ

First impressions of redefining retirement and life on the east coast… well, let’s narrow it down a bit to first impressions of life in an vertical community apartment and the surrounding neighborhood business district.

The Road to Retirement

In 7 1/2 days we drove Big Betty approximately 3,109 miles and she sucked down approximately 448 gallons of gas.  Big Betty did her job well, we had no problems whatsoever, but I gotta tell ya I was more than ready to say farewell when we dropped her off at Home Depot.

The Road East – Day 7

For the past 9 years I’ve been driving my little ’05 Honda Civic Hybrid (a.k.a Hazel) and I could zip, zip, zip around town and easily access any parking space.  I loved that car and was sad to say good-bye to her when we left Ashland.  Driving Big Betty is a bit different than driving my little Hazel.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve attempted to look in the rear view mirror that doesn’t exist, or look over my left shoulder before changing lanes, only to see a wall of yellow truck over my shoulder.

The Road East: Day 6

Here we are in Frankfurt, Kentucky watching our absolute favorite show, The Big Bang Theory.  Please tell me you think it is hilarious.  I’m trying not to be overly panicked worried concerned that there are flash flood warnings scrolling across the bottom of the screen.  I think I heard the word tornado; we are in the midwest after all.  No worries.  Only (only?) torrential rains and flash flooding.

The Road East: Day 5

The shrill scream of the hotel’s fire alarm bolted us out of a sound sleep at 6:00 a.m. this morning.  It was the ultimate rude awakening. We dragged ourselves out into the hallway and sure enough all of the guests were evacuating – including a young woman wrapped in a towel – so we headed down the stairs, with me dressed in jammies and bare feet.  I guess that was better than being wrapped in a towel though.

The Road East:  Day 4

We were about 50 miles into our drive across Nebraska when it suddenly dawned on us that we’ve actually never been in Nebraska.  We’ve been in the surrounding states, South Dakota, Kansas and Wyoming, but not Nebraska.  And guess what?  Nebraska actually gave us a really good day.  Who knew?  Yes, it was a l-o-n-g drive, flat and very straight, but surprisingly our road to retirement is actually green and full of fall colors.

The Road East: Day 3

Day 3 dawned this morning with clear beautiful blue skies and we were on the road to our retirement by 8:00 a.m.  And our first stop is what I’m going to label as step 4 on my 12-step retirement program.  Treat yourself to something yummy for breakfast, even though you know it’s really not good for you, because sometimes it’s just fun – and yummy – to do so.