It’s been one year since we retired and set off for a month-long exploration of western Canada and Alaska. These past twelve months seem to have flown by, and yet have been quite busy. We have traveled more than 17,000 miles, by road, sea, and air; and have slept somewhere other than at home for about two months. We have marked off states from each of our yet-to-visit lists, with Alaska being Jon’s 50th state, and New Mexico being my 43rd state. We visited nine US National Parks, which is a revised number from what has been written about previously because we set some “rules” on what counts as a visit; as well as trekking through numerous other US and Canadian National Monuments, Historic Sites, and National Forests, etc. There have been up-close-and-personal interactions with wildlife that we had not imagined would happen…and we lived to tell about it! And we even decided to upgrade our tow vehicle (watch for coming photos of the new rig’s maiden camping trip soon).
Outside of our travels these past 12 months, we have experienced so many precious moments with our family and each other. We frequently find ourselves saying to ourselves and others, “This is what we retired to do.” We are incredibly blessed by this life we have, and give thanks to God for gift that it is.
What does Year 2 of retirement travels look like? You’ll have to hang around to see, but so far there are at least four road trips planned in the next twelve months.
And so, for all who celebrate such things, Happy 1st Retirement-aversary! Cheers to many more!
And just for fun, here’s a few of my favorite photos from the past twelve months:
God Bless America!
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