The First Year Check Up
Wow! It’s hard to believe a year plus has already passed by since I retired from my job as an engineering manager. I have been busy, some days I’m not sure with what exactly but stuff I guess. My first year goals were to travel, and to relax and not take on anything new like new volunteer positions and certainly no new jobs. I was successful on all fronts. In addition to travel I have been: crafting, get lots of exercise, eating healthy, seeing friends, going to lots of $5 Tuesday movies, creating new recipes or refining the old, setting up this blog, writing content for the blog, and at the end of the year started working on our remodel of our kitchen and two bathrooms (that will be a topic of another blog).
So how much travel was this? I took 9 trips some of them far and some of them closer. This totaled 80 days away from my house and bed. This would have been around 13 weeks of vacation from work. Most of the them I was with my husband but a couple I went on my own with others. I can’t say I had a favorite trip looking back on the list they were all different from each other, but I do love being in the outdoors.
Early in January, I went to Camp Northwoods in Northern Wisconsin for a 3-day cross country ski weekend with some great friends. We skied, walked, sang songs, had a fire in the fire place, crafted, played games, and ate great food. This is such a relaxing weekend with friends.
In January – February we spent 16 days in the Bozeman area hiking, downhill and cross-country skiing, and sitting in the hot springs of Bozeman. We stayed in an Airbnb in Bozeman. It was located close to town, so we could go shopping and out to dinner.
Cross Country Skiing at Bohart Ranch
Yes, I went down Crazy Woman at Bridger
In April – May we spent 16 days traveling the East coast. We saw a lot of Pennsylvania (a very beautiful state by the way), Washington DC (always a lot to see), tour of Philadelphia (seeing the bell, mint, etc.), visited our daughter who was living in Flemington, NJ at the time and the grand finale was New York City. Then we headed home.
Hiking in Pennsylvania
Washington DC
Minnesotan’s enjoying the Jersey Shores in May (Haha). We were not the only ones there. The kiters were there too.
Last stop was New York City
In June, I spent 3 days canoeing on the Namekogan River in northern Wisconsin with some wonderful women adventurers. We have been canoeing this river for many years. We originally started taking this trip when my daughters were in middle school and high school. It’s a wonder river for people to learn how to canoe (if they have some instruction of course). Most of the river has a gentle current of 3-4 miles per hour. Depending on your route you can work in some simple rapids into the trip. The cooking is over the fire. You must carry your water, food, and all your camping supplies in your canoe. The facilities include a pit toilet in the woods.
Floating down the Namekogan
In July we spent 3 days camping at Eagle Cliff in Southern Minnesota. This is a great place for car camping especially during the week. The campsite is surrounded by the Root River, so you fall asleep with the gentle gurgle of the river. In addition, there are excellent biking trails right out of camp and onto the Root River bike trail. The towns nearby rent bikes, my husband and I like to rent a recumbent bike because we can chat easily as we cruse through the forest. The nearby town of Lanesboro is a great place to enjoy ice cream, and lunch or dinner if you don’t feel like cooking at the campsite.
The view from the back seat of the recumbent bike. The front person never knows if you stop pedaling.
At the beginning of August, I spent 5 days volunteering at a Girl Scout Camp run entirely by volunteers. This was our 15th year of running this Leadership camp for girls going into 6th – 8th grade. Our role models are in 9th – 12th grade. The girls sleep in ground tents and cook their evening meal over a campfire. During the day the girls enjoy activities including: archery, canoeing, adventure course, power tools, and leadership training session. It’s a fun week spent outdoors and away from electronics. I’m always happy and very tired when it is over.
Surviving the ground tents is just the first challenge of camp
Also, in August, I spend 5 days exploring the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) with some of the same outstanding women adventurers that went on the River Trip in June plus others. This is my 4th year venturing out with this group of women. It is hard to put into words how this trip impacts me. It is breathtakingly beautiful. It is challenging hiking through the portages with all your gear. It is about friendships. It is about being off the grid. It is about seeing nature at it’s finest. I saw my first pine martin and snowshoe jackrabbit. The pine martin was actually hunting the jackrabbit. You will see many eagles, turtles, beaver, and many birds in the sky and on the water. Just so cool!
Enjoying the wilderness
In September we spent 16 days traveling around Colorado. We were fortunate to have friends that lived near Denver as they shared some of the adventures with us. They let us setup base from their house too which was really nice. We visited Salida which included a trip to the Great Sand Dunes. If you have never seen these maybe you should. They are the largest sand dunes in North America. The town of Salida is a quaint little town with lots of shops and eats. We stayed in an Airbnb, it was very nice way to go. On our way back to Denver we stopped at the Royal Gorge for a hike. Around Denver we visited the Devils Head Fire Station (worth the hike up), Flatirons near Boulder (simple drive, you can hike too if you so choose), Red Rock Amphitheater for a concert and a walk (Fun!), and we visited Painted Mines Interpretive Park (Interesting and colorful rock formations, simple hike). Later on, we ended our Colorado adventure in Rife and Glenwood Springs. A fun hike in this area included Rifle Arch Trailhead. The hike to the arch was simple but the climb up to the arch for a closer look was pretty exciting. Not recommended unless you are a bit of a climber. A must see is Hanging Lake. It is worth the climb up. Then for our viewing pleasure it had snowed in the mountains so our trip back to Denver was very beautiful. Then we headed home.
The Great Sand Dunes
Painted Mines
In November we flew to Texas for Thanksgiving for 13 days. This was a wonderful time spent with family in Austin and Houston. We were able to hike just about every day, and it was warm not hot!
Hiking around Enchanted Rock near Austin
What I learned from all this is that it is really important to take the time to relax after retiring and to figure out what’s next. You don’t have to be busy every second. This was a little bit of a challenge for me because at work I was always busy with no down time. I always was working in the present and didn’t have adequate time to reflect and wonder what I wanted to do next. I love to volunteer but I did make a conscience decision to not take on any new volunteer opportunities this first year. Of course, I did keep the ones I had been working with for years.
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