Retirement, baby!

Well, retirement has pretty much kicked in. The official date is still a few weeks away, but there will be no more eight-hour-a-day grind for me. I did get a part-time job that I will work 20-25 hours a week. Three-day weeks, tops. It never hurts to have extra money for travel and to buy doo-dads that I want for my photography hobby. Last month I bought a new camera and now I want to start picking up nicer lenses.

Over the next eight months Carole and I have planned seven trips, all with our Casita travel trailer. These will pretty much all be within more local states (NC, SC, VA, WV, TN, GA); but we are heavily leaning toward a camping trip to Pennsylvania. I think it would be nice to visit Gettysburg. We'll see if we can firm up the plans.

The only month that we probably won't go anywhere is June. That's a busy month for us. We have our 35th wedding anniversary, my son's birthday, my birthday, and Father's Day. All of that will keep us busy sticking close to home.

At any rate, I made it. All the way until retirement. Hopefully I won't croak anytime soon. Recently an old friend of mine died a week before he was to begin retirement. The second I saw all of that happen, I realized that there was no way I was going to try to punch the clock for even one more year. I'd like to enjoy a few years of the kinds of adventure I want to take and not suffer one more day of the grind of working for either corporate or federal pay-masters (both of which I have done).

Taken on a camping trip. This, and all of the photos that follow, were taken on camping trips. Lots more camping ahead for us!

Takin' Stock.

Well, the year is almost over. This has been the worst year in a while for me as far as having time to post here at my blog. Things have changed where I work and these days I'm generally too exhausted to do much of anything when I get home except shower, eat some food, and get ready for bed.

At any rate, I was going through photographs that Carole and I took on our vacations this year. And even though this was a bit of an off-year for us as far as traveling was concerned, we still managed to take a few vacations and short trips. Generally, we tried to stay relatively close to home base. The longest trip we took in 2014 was to the Outer Banks. By sticking to the deep South we were able to have some interesting vacations.

Now, we're looking forward to 2015 when we'll travel much farther afield. Glacier National Park in Montana is highest on our list just now. And we're even looking as far into the future as 2016...could Europe be in reach, at last? Maybe so. I don't want to die without having seen Florence, Italy--specifically Brunelleschi's Dome and Ghaberti's Baptistry doors. Hopefully, it'll happen.

Vogel State Park, Georgia.

North Arch, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (TN/KY).

Man Made, Baby!

It's not all mountains and rivers and canyons. Sometimes it's stuff people make. (And, yeah, working hard on the novels.)

Small town we stopped in somewhere along the road. I forget where...maybe West Virginia?

Covered bridge in Philippi, West Virginia.

Old fort in Florida.

Lighthouse, northern Florida.

My son, Andy, at the Sea turtle hospital in the Florida Keys.

The straightest mountain road I've ever driven. Along one side of the Dolly Sods Wilderness in West Virginia.

Observation tower on Spruce Knob, highest point in West Virginia.