Welcome! I’m Mary, an early retiree who escaped from
the workforce in 2016 and never looked back.
Although I enjoyed every single one of the jobs I held in the fields of
finance and human resources, my transition to retirement was a smooth and
welcome one. My husband, Alan (also an
early retiree), and I have been married for over 40 years and we have two
amazing adult kids – a son, Ryan, and a daughter, Kyra. These kids have been traveling with us since
they were tiny tykes as we have explored this magnificent country of ours
from coast to coast, including Alaska.
Our family lives in the mountains of the northeast and enjoys a number
of outdoor activities including camping, boating, hiking, biking and kayaking. My special interests include reading, health
and fitness, planning our next travel adventure and, of course, blogging! If you’d like to learn more about me, be sure
to visit my post “I Can’t Go Camping, So . . . “ (link HERE) and take the quiz!
Since
Reflections Around the Campfire marks
my first experience in the world of blogging, I imagine that many of you
stopping by this virtual campfire would be curious as to my background and
credibility. In my working life, I
edited a company newsletter that covered four divisions of the federal savings
bank for which I worked. I’ve been
writing creatively for my own personal satisfaction for years, and I try to do
so with an easy, conversational style which feels very comfortable and natural
to me. In 2017, I had the privilege of
having a personal essay published in Money magazine which is, sadly, no longer in existence.
As
for my camping credentials, Alan and I have been camping for
more than 40 years and have made seven cross-country camping trips – five for
extended vacations and two for personal business – in addition to countless
trips of a shorter length. Although a
travel trailer is our home away from home now, our lifetime of camping began
with a small and simple tent.
Newly
engaged with big dreams and not much in the way of disposable income, Alan and
I turned to camping as an inexpensive way to combine our love of the great
outdoors with what would become one of the top priorities in our lives – traveling
throughout the fifty states of our grand and glorious nation. In fact, our honeymoon was a month long,
cross-country fall camping adventure to visit a number of the well-known
National Parks and Monuments of the West: Yellowstone, Glacier, Grand Teton,
Rocky Mountain, Devil’s Tower and Mount Rushmore. That trip solidified our love of the wild and
beautiful places that our National Parks encompass and our penchant for road
trips of any length.
In 2006, we bought our first travel trailer – a Jayco Jay
Flight 27BH. We loved that travel
trailer and put over 40,000 miles on it.
The times we spent camping with our kids - whether we were out exploring
America or simply relaxing at a favorite lake near our home - provided some of
the most precious memories of my life.
In
2017, we purchased a Creek Side 26RLS travel trailer made by
Outdoors RV Manufacturing (ORV) which we tow with a GMC Sierra 2500 4x4 pickup truck. Since
the kids were no longer traveling with us on a regular basis, a bunkhouse model
was no longer needed. The rear living layout
in our Creek Side provides extra space in our “retirement home,” while
retaining enough sleeping options to allow the kids to join us whenever they can. ORV is a small company located in the mountains of
eastern Oregon that builds RVs for outdoor enthusiasts like us, with higher
ground clearance, extra insulation, thermal pane windows, large tanks for fresh, black and gray water, and a bigger
refrigerator that includes a cold weather package. This genuine “four seasons” travel trailer
allows us to camp earlier in the spring and later in the fall, and extends our
ability to camp without hookups in the public lands that we love. Our campsites of preference include those in
State and National Parks, National Forests and Army Corps of Engineers (COE)
campgrounds where we enjoy the beauty and solitude that only nature can provide.
So,
please . . . Be sure to read my “Welcome!” comments at the right to get a
feel for the flavor of this blog, and do sign up to follow Reflections Around the Campfire via email in the column at the right of this page. New blog posts will be delivered directly to
your Inbox so that you’ll never miss one. Know that you’re always welcome to stop by
the campfire and join in the conversation.
Comments will build our little campfire community and yours are both
encouraged and appreciated. Please understand
that I’m a big believer in kindness so, while different ideas and opinions are
welcome (and are, in fact, what make the world go round in such an interesting
way), disrespectful treatment of others will not be allowed and inflammatory
comments will be deleted. Campfires are
for pure enjoyment and we celebrate the good conversation and solid
relationships they encourage.
Thank
you for stopping by today - please come back soon and often!
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