Here I am… – the explanation

The journey of retirement begins!! I came to believe some time ago, since I had announced my end date almost 18 months earlier, that retirement for me would be moderately challenging. In order to make this transition, I decided to follow a few dreams.

First, was to pack in only carry-on luggage. Emily and I committed ourselves to minimizing (kind of like the tiny houses we have been looking at over the years) and find a way that we can both travel with carry on bags. We did some experiements with this and loved it. In particular, not needing to stand in lines at checkin counters was brilliant. We did a couple of test runs with this limited baggage approach and have things down now with only a few adjustments left to implement. But, we set out on a summer journey with just what you see in the picture. We have now done plane, train, bus, and auto with our two bags and backpacks.

Second, I have had a dream to travel with family and friends during this transiton. Dream came true when first my sister, daughter, and my daughter’s boyfriend confirmed they would come to Warsaw for my retirement celebration in Warsaw. Then, shortly after, my great friend Randy and his wife Sandy confirmed not only that they would be coming to enjoy the retirement with us, but would be traveling through Europe for the summer (more on that later). Finally, while he couldn’t come to my retirement, my son and his girlfriend confirmed some time in Europe that their jobs would allow and we will be meeting up in Lisbon shortly.

Bottom line, I now refer to this as my wonderful summer game of Where’s (you fill in the blank). Right now I’m playing Marco Polo with Randy as he travels central Europe, while I headed north to find my Sister in Norway. My daugher did time in Warsaw and Krakow with me, but then took her boyfriend to Dublin only to return to a nice family time together (and a wonderful golf game with friends from work and Erin’s boyfriend joining in – cigars and all).

So, now, as I write this, we will be playing “Where’s Jaisen?” and going to find him in Lisbon to spend 11 days. After that, it’s “Where’s Randy and Sandy?” time, likely taking us to the south of France.

Finally, I still want to get in one dream trip. This dream goes like this – I head to the airport with my trusty companion at about 7a. We sit down in a cafe, preferrably with the departure board nearby. I picture us enjoying a nice coffee and then looking up at the board. Slowly, I pull out of my pocket two dice. We roll the dice (or otherwise make a random selection) and pick one destination from the departure board. We immediately get online or head to a ticket counter to get seats on that flight. While waiting for takeoff, we lookup AirBNB or Booking.com accommodations and head for security to take our random destination flight? Sound crazy? It may, but I believe that random chance is worth considering as part of this retirement journey and all things are possible.

After this we made the decision to make our final destination the wonderful country of Iceland, which has two great features. First, it is a wonderful northern adventure that we have always wanted to visit. Second, they have direct flights to Seattle which is our final destination. And, I have a vision of watching some truly volcanic activity (not of the political kind) before stepping back into the Pacific Northwest to stay for awhile. So, homeward bound we are, and the journey will be long and adventurous.

So far…

So, let the adventure continue. Adventure is the launchpad to what comes next. I’m ready to keep going. I’m ready to go wherever I’m able.