Welcome to our travel blog.
Admittedly, Buddy and I are both a bit nervous and excited to venture into the travel blogosphere.
There is no shortage of travel websites and travel blogs out there, and many are very good. We’re glad you came here to check us out! We want to be your Trusted Travel Partner.
This is the culmination of a life well lived, and the beginning of a new chapter in life. As you know from our About Us page, I’m 64 and fully retired after 43 years of Federal service. Buddy is 19 and my faithful travel companion. I did what society expected – worked all my adult life then retired at 62 after a long career. With male life expectancy in the United States currently at 76 years (Bloomberg American Health Initiative), I had an expected 14 years left in retirement.
Retired Life:
Not wasting any time, when we retired in September of 2022 we visited England and Scotland the next month. That was followed by a road trip to Cleveland and Steubenville, OH in November. 2023 started with a road trip to Cleveland to celebrate Chinese New Year. In April we traveled back to England and Scotland, and then in July took an amazing summer trip to Katowice, Poland (Auschwitz) and Paris. We traveled to Seattle in August for the Civil Air Patrol annual conference, then made a quick weekend trip to Boston in September. Finally, at the end of October we took a “Bucket List” vacation to Oaxaca, Mexico to celebrate Dia De Los Muertos. What a way to end the year!
2024 started with a trip to Mexico City in January, followed by a trip to Cali, Colombia in February. April saw us traveling to Orlando and in June we enjoyed an extended weekend trip to Las Vegas. Back in Orlando in late June for the Florida Bar annual convention. In July it was our annual trip to England. August was a trip to San Antonio for the Civil Air Patrol annual conference, then back to Orlando in September for a weekend. After we returned from Orlando we set off on a week road trip to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, my hometown. In October we traveled back to Orlando for a Florida Bar conference, followed by a road trip to Cleveland then Shanksville, PA to see the 9-11 Memorial. Our busiest travel year so far.
This year of 2025 started with another road trip to Cleveland the end of January to celebrate Chinese New Year. We traveled back to Orlando in February for a Valentine’s Day weekend. In April we experienced Portugal for the first time in the lovely towns of Albufeira and Lisbon. May saw us traveling to Bagdad, AZ to watch my grandson graduate high school, then to Colorado Springs to see a good friend graduate the Air Force Academy. In July we once again went back to England and Scotland for our annual Europe vacation. In August we traveled to Orlando for the Creator Hub entrepreneur and content creator convention. Now in September we just returned from a road trip back to Cedar Rapids, IA, then to Kansas City, MO.
Career Thumbnail:
Prior to retirement I traveled quite a bit in the military. My first duty station was Berlin, Germany from 1980 – 1984 (behind the Iron Curtain), then Fort Riley, KS for two years. After receiving my bachelor’s degree and officer commission in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1989, it was off to Fort Sill, OK for officer training. Then Lagadas, Greece for a year, followed by two years at Ft Lewis, WA. Next was law school in Cleveland, OH, then a judicial clerkship in Painesville, OH.
I returned to active duty in 1999 in North Little Rock, AR, for two years, then spent a year in Charlottesville, VA getting my LLM. After that I went to Fort Bragg, NC for three years, deployed to Baghdad, Iraq from 2006 – 2007, then a nice follow-on assignment to Honolulu, HI for five years. My final assignment was four years at Fort Buchanan (San Juan), Puerto Rico until I retired in 2016. That’s when we moved to our current home in Kentucky.
A life well traveled and lived!
This Site is for You
We created this travel blog and site to share our travel experiences and provide practical travel advice, insights, tips and trivia to help you plan and experience a better next trip or inspire and encourage you to take that first trip you’ve always wanted. Though our focus is on older or retired travelers, it is for anyone who wants to travel better or is dreaming about taking that first trip.
We also want to be transparent and set expectations. We are not permanent travel nomads who quit their job and sold all their belongings to travel the world. Kentucky is our temporary home and we enjoy traveling. Being much older, we are not spritely, traveling the world and staying in youth hostels, hiking up mountains. There are some physical limitations that necessitate certain conveniences such as an elevator in our hotel. We also are not wealthy travelers staying in 5-star hotels on luxurious vacations. We are on a fixed retirement income and look for as many ways as possible to make our travel dollars and budget go as far as possible.
Adventure doesn’t always mean climbing mountains, sometimes it’s just walking a new street.
So welcome to our Travel Blog. We are so glad to have you and hope you enjoyed reading our first post. We look forward to helping you enjoy your next trip or inspiring you to take your first trip in a while or ever.
Please post your comments below. We would enjoy hearing from fellow travelers or potential travelers and what you would like to know or learn. We strive to post at least once a week, usually on Saturdays.
Your home will always be there, but the world won’t wait forever. What are you waiting for?
Buddy and Jordan