These are the stories of two people with itchy feet. Travel has been an important piece of our lives together; ever since our first camping adventure more than 50 years ago with a small dog and an untried tent. Over the years, we have learned that we would rather take our time and stay longer in our destinations, rather than racing around the tourist highlights and must-see monuments.
We like to pick a destination and arrange to stay a while, usually in some sort of self-catering venue. We take time to visit the local attractions, and we particularly enjoy seeking out the best restaurants and foodie experiences in the area. Our dining tastes are best described as “international” rather than exotic, so please don’t expect to see obscure or ethnic dishes, and we won’t be sitting on the floor to eat!
This somewhat different style of travel developed during the early years of our marriage. Like most young couples, we had a limited budget, so our first trips were camping, in a tent. This allowed us to save our pennies for playing some of the beautiful golf courses in the areas we visited. After several years of this type of travel, we stopped at Fairmont (in the British Columbia mountains) and attended a timeshare sales pitch.
Yes, we did. In fact, we didn’t just buy one week, we decided that we needed two – one to visit and one to trade – so that we could go to other places. The timeshare experience is not for everyone, and it is certainly different today than when we began this more than 40 years ago. For us, it has worked very well indeed.
Dick’s dedication to his career (and adding to that, may I say, a procrastinator’s outlook) ensured that if we had not made a firm commitment, with cash on the table, vacations would not have happened. I was never the wife who tried to “forbid” work contacts during vacation, but I also knew that I needed to get Dick away from home before he would look up from his work and take a well-deserved break. Exchanging timeshares requires a lot of planning. If you leave things to the last minute, you can only find vacancies in places you may not want to visit or have no desire to return to. So we planned a year ahead. We decided where we would like to go, looked for a suitable exchange, and committed to it.
Once Dick’s career became international, this experience stood us in good stead. We made plans well in advance, and we stayed in places that, while not quite off the beaten track, were not in the heart of the big cities or the hot tourist spots. Because we were exchanging timeshares, our accommodation costs were dramatically lower than they would have been if we had to choose to stay in hotels, and we were able to budget for airfares and/or rental cars as needed. Being able to prepare your own breakfast and cook as many of your own dinners as you wish; is another way of ensuring that a stay away from home is not just one expensive (and possibly indifferent) meal after another.
Over the years, we have lived in many places; and have been able to travel extensively, so it is not surprising that retirement has stepped up the pace rather than marking a slowdown.
Our first big adventure after retirement was an 8-year odyssey on a large power catamaran, travelling around America’s Great Loop in four-month segments. We visited many of the parts of Eastern North America that are accessible by rivers, lakes, or along the coasts. We stopped in large cities and in many of the smaller, less-visited towns along the way. Our experiences are told in the blog thevoyagesofninelives.com
Now that we have completed that adventure, we will have more time to travel as we used to, visiting places that we have enjoyed in the past, and new destinations that we have not yet seen. While we will expect to see some of the expected tourist highlights in our destinations, and some big cities, for the most part we will be stopping in the smaller towns and staying a few days or a week. We will be looking for interesting fine dining experiences, and we will also be finding and buying interesting local ingredients that we can prepare at home.
As much as we can, we will be travelling at a slow pace. Every trip is “a trip of a lifetime” and we want to take the time to enjoy, not race from one place to another. If we like a place, and can return, we will.
I hope that you will enjoy reading our stories. I expect they will follow a similar format to those of our Nine Lives voyages. I will publish irregularly, and there will be lots of pictures. As always, I expect to include some history and stories of the places we visit, and there will be lots of dining experiences. I will occasionally include recipes for some of the dishes that we prepare on our travels.
Scene and Done 