Yes, it’s been a while. Okay, a long while. There have been many changes to sort through since our last posting. Raeski and Wooly both have had employment changes. Raeski starting working again and Wooly stopped. Raeski’s was by choice, Wooly’s wasn’t. After some introspection we decided that all the changes are for the good. We are now anticipating moving our retirement plans up with a few modifications.

The first change is one of occupation. While our goal has always been to travel and live in different parts of the world after retirement, neither of us anticipated it starting this early. One of our changes will be to move to Chile hopefully as early as next year. The plan is to teach English as a second language wherever we land. Wooly is currently getting certified to teach ESL to help make this happen. Raeski, the accomplished teacher that she is, already has ESL certification along with the teaching degree.

By now you’re probably asking yourself why do I care about that? This is a travel blog! Okay, you’re right. But circling back around to traveling; this is a key development because it changes all of our plans. So for the rest of this year our travels will be confined to North America. We are going to cram in as much to see as we can.

Because we are moving to South America the plan this year is to see as much of North America as we can. So far we have three major trips planned. In June we are going to visit the National Parks in Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. In July we’re planning a major trip that starts in Arizona and goes as far north as Jasper Park in Canada. In August we are going to drive the Pacific coast from Southern California all the way to Seattle.

My employment situation (or lack of…) changes we will change how we travel this year. Before it was always catch a flight and go. Rent a car when you get there and stay in some nice hotels. And a lot of times frequent flyer and stayer points paid for everything. Now it’s drive to your destination and stay in cheap hotels and limit how much we eat out. Both Raeski and I aren’t wild about camping so hotels and motels are probably the ticket for us. Staying at the Fairmont Hotel at Lake Louis in Canada is probably out of the question now. *** sigh ***

So there are many stories to come. And yes, you may have a chance to participate in our planning. As I write about any particular place we are going and haven’t included a highlight you think we should see please send us a note with your suggestions.  Cheers, W.