Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Wanderlust

Retirement Milestone Fifteen

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of my official retirement. I say “official” because I had already retired ten years prior, but returned to the workforce at another company to continue my career in aerospace. This turned out to be an important step in building up our “nest egg” savings in the new company’s 401K program. I believe we were able to put away about a quarter of our income during those final ten years, with much of the savings “sheltered” from the IRS. That was a good thing.

So, in the coming year, we are contemplating more travel in the big RV. We both have ancestors in many states and we would like to travel to our places of origin – at least on this continent, since many ancestors further up the family trees were from European nations which we would like to visit but are unable at this time. First things first – we will visit the places we can by motorhome. As for the motorhome, we have several maintenance items and improvements to accomplish beforehand.

As we prepare for more years of retirement, we are placing our efforts in God’s Hands to provide for us as He has in the past. We anticipate that this coming year will be as blessed as our first fifteen years of retirement.

p.s. Register to vote and then vote. Bring ten other voters with you. This could be the most important election in the history of the Republic (NOT a democracy, but a REPUBLIC, if we can keep it).

01 Oct 2024 by Aerospace Ancestors Retirement Travel Wanderlust

New Windshield for the RV

We encountered a minor glitch during our RV excursion to see the great eclipse in Waco Texas when a passing Big Rig Semi on a two-lane road threw up such a wind gust when passing in the opposite direction, that our windshield cracked from the shock. It did nothing to inhibit our travel plans, but became a greater concern since the crack size progressed as we got closer to home. I called the insurance company and fortunately, we were covered for a cracked/broken windshield.

Windshield Crack Getting Worse

Image: the windshield crack – pardon the reflections – click to enlarge.

After a couple of weeks waiting for the new glass to arrive, the new windshield got installed today and looks great. Due to some curing issues, we won’t be able to drive it home until tomorrow morning, so that will be the major issue for the day – getting the RV home and parking it in it’s usual slot up in the RV drive.

The new windshield

Image: the new windshield – click to enlarge.

Kudos to State Farm, RV Glass Express and Select Glass for a coordinated effort in getting the job done.

08 May 2024 by Notions Retirement Travel Wanderlust

Home, Sweet Home

Although we got home early, it is late now, so this will be brief; we had a good trip back home from Gila Bend today along the so-called “Phoenix Bypass” route, and that was the intent of going the way we did, to avoid the !*&%#^? Phoenix construction and traffic. It worked, although there was a lot of traffic for a Sunday. Anyway, we’re home.

We’re about to watch a movie and then climb into our own bed at home. G’nite!

21 Apr 2024 by Arizona Notions Travel Wanderlust

Gila Bend

We are in a really nice RV campground tonight. We have been blessed on this adventure to have stayed in many really nice RV parks. This park, the Sonoran Desert RV Park, is located in Gila Bend, AZ, and has a number of nice amenities. Our camp spot has it’s own fenced-in dog run, a concrete patio with charcoal grill and a propane “fire feature” where you can sit around and enjoy the warmth of a fire.

Tomorrow, we will be headed home. We are less than two hours from Wickenburg and expect to be home in the early afternoon. It has been quite the adventure and even though it has been enjoyable, we are now anxious to be home again.

20 Apr 2024 by Arizona Retirement Travel Wanderlust

Back in Arizona

We are in Benson, AZ for the evening. We have elected to take short trips per day to reduce stress and weariness, therefore we will not be home until Sunday, having one more camping night on the road at Gila Bend, AZ, tomorrow evening.

We selected tomorrow’s campsite specifically to avoid driving through the Phoenix Metro area, which is stressful given the driving crazies and construction in that area. Last fall, we made the mistake of driving through that area and vowed to avoid it as much as possible.

As for today’s campsite, Benson is a nice town along Interstate 10 in Cochise County, AZ. We selected this campground since it is far enough away from the Interstate to be quiet overnight, yet is convenient to get back on I-10 without any hassle.

We’re both looking forward to getting home, since we’ve been on the road for almost a month. Don’t get us wrong, though, since we have had a lot of fun, good eats, relaxation, adventure (seeing new places) and, most of all, another eyewitness of a magnificent solar eclipse.

19 Apr 2024 by Notions Retirement Wanderlust

Mountain View

Damsel and I walked down to the “scenic walk” area of the RV park here in Las Cruces to see what we could see. The view of the area from atop the Picacho Hills, west of Las Cruces proper, was very nice. I aimed my camera phone toward the rugged mountains we crossed getting here and got the (clickable) image above.

Those peaks are the so-called “Organ Mountains” which have this interesting appearance due to being formed by igneous, rather than sedimentary rocks. The organ name comes from some early notion that the peaks resemble a pipe organ.

Tomorrow morning, we head to the west again in continuation of the trek homeward. We shall (God willing) blog from Benson, AZ tomorrow evening.

18 Apr 2024 by Photography Retirement Travel Wanderlust

Las Cruces KOA —
  A Hilltop RV Park

We arrived at our campground today without incident. We drove straight through the planned route and stopped only once in Alamogordo to take on fuel.

We were pleasantly surprised that our campground RV park is elevated above the southwest end of the city of Las Cruces – actually a pretty big town in this region of New Mexico. In the image above, you can see our rig parked with the mountain ranges in the distance and the urban sprawl below.

Later this evening, Damsel and I took a walk down to the front of the park where there is an overlook of the area. I used my S23 Galaxy phone to photograph the city lights:

In the above image, you can dimly see the mountain range beyond the city we crossed coming here today. We also crossed the Rio Grande River, which flows through the area on its way to the Big Bend and thence to the Gulf of Mexico, where we were just a few days ago.

Click on either image to open the image viewer.

17 Apr 2024 by Notions Retirement Travel Wanderlust

Categories

Archives