Showing posts with label Can I Retire Yet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Can I Retire Yet. Show all posts

November 11, 2024

RV ALASKA - Golden Spike National Historical Park

Our visit to Golden Spike National Historical Park was a long time in coming.  It had been on our bucket list for a while, and was actually on our itinerary in 2021 when we took an extended trip to Idaho to enjoy a number of the state’s many biking trails.  Back then, our scheduled visit to Golden Spike was preempted by the first inter-mountain snow storm of the year in the Rockies.  Instead of stopping in Utah for our planned visit to the Historical Park, we continued on our way east, trying to stay one step ahead of the storm – and just barely managing to do so.  Luckily, there was no snow in the forecast this September, and we not only marked Golden Spike as a completed bucket list item, but also re-scheduled our meet up with Chris Mamula, a fellow blog author who writes over at Can I Retire Yet.  A three year delay wasn’t exactly to our liking, but better late than never.

April 19, 2021

Campfire Talk - Part 1 of 2

It seems like I’m forever collecting little tidbits of news and information that may (or may not) be of interest to others.  None are worth a full blog post but I’ve found that a “Campfire Talk” format provides a good way to share such an odd assortment of items.  Since I’ve recently been focused on completing the documentation of our second cross-country National Parks trip, and since Alan and I spent the first two and a half months of the year renovating a rental house, I have more tidbits than usual set aside to share.  Because I’m a kind and thoughtful person (under many, but not all, circumstances), I’m breaking down this edition of Campfire Talk into Part 1 and Part 2 for your reading (and my typing) pleasure.

Please note that this post is not sponsored in any way.  I’m not affiliated with or receiving payment from any of the companies or organizations mentioned.  I’m just sharing what I consider to be interesting or useful bits of news with you – you know, the kind of stuff you might talk about around a campfire with friends, family and fellow travelers.  The photos in this post represent a recap of the National Parks trip series I so recently (and happily!) completed.  Well, except for the last, very special one.

June 28, 2018

A Blog Roll, Please!


Just to let you know . . . I’ve added some random photos from our Father’s Day boating adventure that have absolutely nothing to do with the following post.  I didn’t want to plagiarize any pics from the blogs mentioned below but, since I always appreciate some color in the posts I read on other blogs, I decided to provide you with at least a little something to break up the text.  In case you’re wondering what boating has to do with camping, well, that’s a perfect topic for a future post!


One of the benefits of retirement that I’ve enjoyed and appreciated is the gift of more time to read.  I’ve always gotten up earlier than any other members of our family and savored that quiet time with the first cup of morning coffee accompanied by a good book or blog, or the latest issue of a favorite magazine.  And then I would go off to work having started my day on a pleasant and even keel.  Once I escaped from the workforce two years ago, I stretched one cup of coffee into two and began spending my early morning time exploring blogs of different topics, especially those written by other RV travelers.

I always get great pleasure out of digging up intriguing and useful information about the travel destinations on our vacation itineraries whether through reading about those destinations in guide books or on web sites, or by talking with people who had visited them.  And I found out that poking around on the blogs of fellow RV travelers is pretty much a combination of all three.  I started discovering wonderful new destinations, tips on how to enjoy places we planned to visit and helpful facts about shopping, dining and campgrounds.

Blog authors, just like book authors, have different writing styles and formats, and I soon found that I was drawn to blogs that were well written and had at least a smattering of photos with excellent landscape photography being a plus.  And I was particularly attracted to authors whose warm personality and sense of humor was evident in both their blog posts and their relationships with their readers.

The blogs I read generally fall into one of several categories – finances and investing (you can take the banker out of the bank but . . . ), retirement (two years in and it’s awesome!) and, of course, the camping lifestyle (it goes without saying, right?).  I’m thinking that those of you who read this blog may enjoy some of the same things that I do so, in the interest of sharing some great finds with like-minded people, I decided to add a Blog Roll to the right hand column of Reflections Around the Campfire.  But, just like when I add a web site to “my favorite places,” I’d like you to know why I’m adding each particular blog to my Blog Roll so that you can decide whether or not it would be of interest to you.  Let us begin!