We’re on the road this morning to visit my brother and his lovely wife in South Carolina. We’re leaving the Orlando area on the Florida Turnpike, one of the state’s many toll roads. Apparently Florida leads the country with about 720 miles of toll roads. The next 5 are TX, OK, NY, PA, and NJ. this is a bit of a new experience for us … Continue reading Terrific Toll Roads
I met up with an old friend this week on a visit to my hometown of Racine WI. He had retired four years ago and said he “wasn’t happy without something to do” and went back to work at his old job half-time. I wondered how common that feeling was among early retirees and found an online thread where people addressed the question, “Are you … Continue reading Are You Happier In Retirement?
I just got back from a quick trip to Kansas City last week. I took my Jeep down there to see some sights, including a Disney 100 Exhibition that was going to end on Labor Day weekend. While I was in the area, I even drove up to Walt Disney’s hometown of Marceline, Missouri – the inspiration for Disneyland’s ‘Main Street USA’. It was a … Continue reading Planning Big Years
When I was a kid, if you were fortunate enough to spend the night with your parents at a motel, you made sure to clean the room out of little bars of soap, mini shampoo bottles, or matchbooks before you left. That was a big score when I was in grade school, but over the years we all came to realize how worthless that stuff … Continue reading The New Hotel Soap …
When we were in Italy last week, we stayed in a colorful little beach town just north of Venice. Caorle is a charming resort town of 12,000 that rarely sees American visitors. Our hotel on the beach said they had only one other American couple all summer. The town has a delightful little Old Town area with shopping and restaurants. At 12:30p each day most … Continue reading Pausa Pronzo
We just returned from our 11th trip to Europe and I keep finding new tricks to make the travel more comfortable. I could probably write a long post on travel hacks that I’ve learned, but today I’ll share a simple one … NEW SOCKS. Before we left for our 16 day trip to Europe this month, I bought two 8-packs of comfy new socks on … Continue reading Socks Make The Trip 🙂
Summer ended suddenly in the Midwest. We went from 95+ degrees every day on Labor Day weekend, to cool days in the 60s & 70s immediately after. Kids are back in school, our neighborhood pool is closed, and trees are beginning to change color. With families tied-down with homework, school activities, and Friday Night football games, it is the perfect time to get away for … Continue reading Shoulder Season Travel Time
My good friend & longtime MegaCorp accomplice, Dawn, and I had lunch recently and she shared with me the details of her recent car purchase. She went to Gothenburg, Sweden and picked up her new Volvo under their ‘European Delivery Service’. I’ve had some friends that have done this in the past, but I wasn’t aware of how it actually works. It’s cool! Working with … Continue reading European Car Delivery
Our January-March snowbirding trip was sadly interrupted by a family emergency two weeks ago. My wife’s father passed away unexpectedly, but peacefully. After the funeral, we decided to come back to Florida for a couple more weeks and flew back yesterday. In doing so, we found ourselves oddly packing for the same exact trip we packed for last month. I consider myself an expert packer, … Continue reading Packing – It’s Always Something
We’re back in Florida this winter, snowbirding from the Minnesota cold. One bucket-list item I got to do today was drive down the sands of Daytona Beach in a bright red Jeep with the roof panels taken off. That was fun! Recently, I’ve been reading about people’s disappointments with some of their bucket list experiences. It started with THIS POST on EarlyRetirement.org, where people shared … Continue reading Bucket List or Garbage Can?
MrFireStation 