Our family’s trips have often included some unusual unexpected happenings. For instance, late on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend in 1986 we were returning from spending the holiday in Chicago, when about 3 hours from our home in Plattsburgh NY our car just stopped. A wonderful NY trooper came to our rescue first calling a local diner having them open up for us. And then he found a local garage who could look at our car. (The ride in the police car also added to the excitement of Kris’ 12th birthday celebration!) The mechanic actually loaned us his car to drive home and Bob returned to the garage the next day to get our car. Perhaps the idea of having four kids ages 2, 6, 8 and 12 in his garage prompted the mechanic’s generosity!

Then there was the time on New Years Day 2003 when the car we were driving suddenly filled with smoke! Bob pulled to the side of the expressway and we all jumped out getting far away from the car quite sure the car was going to explode at any moment. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we were driving on the Costa del Sol in Spain on our way to Malaga to return the rental car. As if by magic a gentleman pulled up behind us and told us, in perfect English, that he saw our predicament and had called a cab for us. When the cabbie pulled up we piled all of our belongings in the cab and left the rental car where it was. The cabbie never said a word but we all have imagined what he was thinking. When we got to Malaga, the office was closed and I left a letter explaining what had happened and where we left the car. We never heard from them again…no bill…no charges on our credit card.

Well, you get the idea.

Before we left Michigan this past December we got hooked on playing weekly trivia at a local bar with some close friends. So when we first got to DC we checked out area games. This past Tuesday night Bob, our son Patrick, and I had just tried a new game at a bar about a 15 minute drive from where we’re staying. The game ended and we were feeling quite proud of ourselves that we had finished in third place. When we got to the car I noticed that our back tire was flat…really flat! No problem I thought this is why we have AAA. Patrick pointed out that AAA has an app for trouble calls. So we put in the info, and got a response that someone would be out in about half an hour or about 11:00. Thinking they usually come faster than they predict we weren’t concerned. We waited!

After 15 minutes or so, we decided since our location in a city parking lot was difficult to describe, perhaps we should call. A very personable individual checked and said that she indeed saw our request; she took some clarifying information about our location and then told us someone would be out about 11:30. She couldn’t explain the time difference but it was what it was and we really didn’t have a choice. I did find it odd that she told us to have a good evening, but anyway… More waiting.

After about another ten minutes I received notification on my phone that a different garage was coming out and they’d be there about 12:01 am. (Not midnight but 12:01.) More waiting.

When about midnight a AAA car pulled into the parking lot I was a bit confused. Yes, we had reported a flat tire but I was expecting a tow truck. A very nice guy got out, and inquired if we knew where the spare tire was kept. Between Bob and the guy they figured out that on our mini-van you access the spare tire between the front seats. The AAA guy got out the wrench and set to work. After about 2 minutes he said that he couldn’t get the wrench to lower the tire, but did offer Pat the chance to try. The guy asked if we had used it recently, which thankfully we hadn’t but as a result, it wouldn’t budge! Since he had come in a car he called another garage and made arrangements for a tow truck to come. He told us they would tow us into DC to Mac’s a 24 hour tire service on the northeast side of town. He said he was sure that they’d be there within 45 minutes or a little before 1 am. Again, wishing us a good evening, he went on his way. And the waiting continued!

We were greatly relieved when the tow truck pulled in, and even more relieved that it had a cab that would fit the three of us saving us a cab fare. One of the advantages of needing a tow truck in the wee hours is that there was virtually no one on the streets of DC. We drove across the city at speeds I never believed possible. We arrived at Mac’s. He quickly set to work putting on a new tire and we were on our way by 1:30 am.

The downside of the night? We were out $125 for a new tire and by the time we got home at 2 am, Pat would have to get up for work in less than 5 hours. And the large rat that sauntered across the road in front of us downtown left a haunting imagine in my brain! But the plusses? The drive to the garage and back to our place was amazing! The monuments and Capitol are unbelievable when viewed under the lights. Driving around Dupont Circle without traffic is something everyone should be able to experience. We had met some really nice people! And we never would have had this experience if the unexpected hadn’t happened!

Our condo

I find I’ve learned a lot so far:

Take winter for instance: While I don’t like winter I have learned I don’t dislike it as much when there’s little snow. We did have two occasions in January when we had to brush the car off, but that’s not the same as driving 40 miles to work in ice, snow and whiteout conditions–always wondering: will I stay on the road or slide off in the ditch and maybe more importantly will that other car see me? And if the weather is good on the way to work, will it be when I trudge home 10 hours from now? I also find that I don’t care what time the sun comes up, since I no longer go to work and come home in the dark! It’s also amazing what a difference it makes when the sun shines nearly every day. In west Michigan it seemed like the sun left in November and didn’t return until March! As good as all this sounds, I do find that a lot of winter is relative. Waiting for the metro or walking outside in 35 degree weather sounds summer-like compared to what Michigan is having, but in fact, I find it’s really pretty cold and find myself wishing for springtime! But I smile when I see how little snowfall here will close down schools and federal offices! (The day the picture above was taken all schools in the area were closed!)

Then there’s the issue of driving a car: We are living about 1.5 miles from the metro and so far haven’t braved that walk, but we do often park at the Metro Parking Garage where they have what for us seems like a creative payment plan. You park your car and when you leave it costs $4.85 no matter if you were there an hour or 12 hours. It makes it so very easy. The DC metro trains are extraordinarily easy to use. They’re efficient, clean and connections between lines are well-marked! It’s about a 40 minute trip to the center of DC and about an hour and three quarters to our son’s family in Rockville, MD. One of the greatest deals we’ve found so far is the senior half fare card! Can’t beat it! Driving here is another story. We do use the car to do our weekly grocery shopping, but for the month of January we used one full tank of gas, quite different from the 1.5 tanks a week I used before retiring. The traffic here is horrendous. Why anyone would drive to work when they can travel stress free on the metro is beyond me. And to boot federal agencies reimburse employees for their metro tickets.

What have I learned about renting a condo? We have been very fortunate to have found a perfect condo for us through Airbnb. It’s small; two bedrooms, a living room (with wood burning fireplace) and kitchen with dining area combination. (It also has a stackable washer and dryer in the unit. Really convenient!) The thing I think we got luckiest with is the bed. It is absolutely wonderful, has a brand new mattress. I can’t imagine what it would be like to sleep on a poor mattress every night! The landlord is especially nice, accessible, and accommodating. I would prefer to be less in the suburbs and closer to the city, but DC is a very pricey city and we couldn’t find anything that met our needs and our budget. We have decided to spend another month here and for that month we were lucky to find a place just on the northwest edge of the city and are excited to give that location a try.

Courtyard at Freer and Sackler Gallery

We’re half tourists half residents. DC is an amazing place. We’ve visited the Spy Museum (Since this time, it’s amazing how many people whom I’ve encountered have become spies in my mind!) toured NPR, the Library of Congress, the Portrait Gallery, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and the Freer and Sackler Galleries (part of the Smithsonian Museums). We have tickets for the 70th Anniversary of the End of World War II Concert by the US Marine Band (billed as The President’s Band…Imagine your own band!) and have also arranged for a tour of the Pentagon (assuming we pass the security check). We’ve also found our share of pubs and eateries! We even found a place to play weekly trivia nearby.

Library of Congress

Now what about glitches? Perhaps our biggest one has been managing our prescription drugs. After we sold our home our new residence became our son and daughter-in-law’s home in Michigan. We changed the address on virtually everything, but for some reason when we ordered our quarterly drugs, the address didn’t get changed on that account and the prescriptions were sent to our old address and weren’t “forwardable.” So we didn’t receive them. After repeated conversations with the drug company, the original drugs were never found, but the company had us contact our doctors to call in a new prescription to a nearby pharmacy and while we had to pay the upfront co-pay the company assured us that we would be reimbursed. Reimbursement hasn’t come through yet, I’ll keep you posted.

Another major issue is the use of credit/debit cards. As I mentioned in the above paragraph, we sent change of addresses to everyone: friends, relatives, credit card companies, banks, investment counselor, doctors, dentists, virtually anyone who ever heard of us has our new address. I paid particular attention to banks and credit card companies indicating that we would be traveling for an extended period of time. Well and good, but the first time we tried to use our debit card at a local grocery it was denied. Talk about embarrassing! When I called the bank, they told me they were just protecting me from fraud. I think they were protecting themselves. But okay, I understand that can happen. Then last week when I was paying my copay on my drugs on my credit card, yep, it happened again! When I reminded the guy from the card company that I had called in advance and told them we’d be traveling throughout the world, he paused for a moment before responding, “Oh yes, I see it noted on your account.” Really? A lot of good it did! I’m really glad we have a few months before we venture abroad as I’m quite certain these sorts of issues are best resolved on this side of the pond!

Solving problems and dealing with the mundane is part of life no matter where we’re living, but for me what I like best is that every day is a blank slate… a day to do whatever we wish, or nothing at all. If the day is pretty and we want to venture out, we do so. If we want to spend the whole day sitting and reading by the fire, we can do that! The greatest times we’ve had as a family have generally been the result of some spontaneous idea. “Hey, do you wanna…?”

I’m not sure what’s next, but all in all I think we’re off to a good start!

It’s been six weeks since my first post and I now realize this sorting process is taking far longer than I ever expected. It all sounded so simple! A couple of years ago I first came upon Tim and Lynn Martin’s blog as they embarked on a similar adventure. They explained how they donated or sold their possessions including their home in just a couple of weeks. Not a problem…I thought, I can do that! Maybe I just didn’t take into account how much we had accumulated in the past 20 years, but having done periodic sorting I really thought it would be relatively easy! WRONG!

When Bob retired on June 13 we sat down and established a schedule setting aside a day per room, thinking we’d put things into 4 piles: things the kids needed to look at, estate sale, Goodwill or throw out, keeping only those things that we’d use in the next few months and keeping in mind, we want the house to look like a home as it shows to prospective buyers. My plan proved a bit too ambitious!

First obstacle: what do we do with the things that we will sell? And the things the kids need to go through? At first we set aside a room for those items, but when that room filled in the first few days, we realized that wasn’t going to work. So we began putting things in closets…those closets I had just been so proud of emptying!

A second challenge was trying to determine what items have more than sentimental value and if they do, then what do we do with them? For instance, we found two prints from the 1930’s with artist signatures. After researching on the internet we found an art appraiser in Holland, Michigan, and made an appointment to talk with him. Turns out they do have significant value and so we are going through a process to preserve them. (Amazing how when treasures are found, we have to spend more money to ensure their continued value!) Having accumulated costume jewelry from Bob’s maiden aunts, his mother and my mother, we literally have buckets of the stuff. What does one do with that? To sell it on eBay would take an incredible amount of time…something that seems to be pretty scarce right now.

Next came box after box of photographs. Bob and I spent more than 24 hours sorting through photos, postcards and notes (so much for the one day per room idea). Some dating as far back as the late 1800’s. Our mantra became: “If our kids don’t know the people, we throw the pictures out!” I did save about 10 sets of pictures to send to relatives and friends for whom the pictures would have some meaning. An added bonus are the notes and phone calls I’ve received when those mementos were received.

Then came the basement. The place where when I don’t know what to do with something, it’s placed in a plastic tub and taken down there…sort of out of sight out of mind. Our son, Stephen, who lives in DC offered to come home for a week and help us go through things. I’m not sure he knew what he was in for when he volunteered. (I’m sure the other 3 kids are thinking, “OMG what do they have in mind for me to do?”) But oh was his help a godsend! We sorted a lot, laughed a lot, and drank a lot of beer. I’m sure it’s an experience neither he, nor his father nor I will ever forget. Finding decades old pictures (yep, there were more down there!) of all of us, long forgotten school projects, souvenirs from family camping trips made for many recollections and while not exactly fun…the experience definitely had its memorable moments of hilarity.

So where do we stand now? The last remaining challenge is the garage. I think as we’ve moved through this process it’s become easier to know what to throw away and what to sell. (After 40+ years in education, however, I have found myself saying, “Oh a teacher could use that. Put that on the free table.”) While Stephen was here we did gather a lot of hazardous wastes including: some pesticides as well as hydrochloric acid, oil paints and motor oil left by the previous owner. Yep, you read that right. We have allowed that to remain in the garage and basement for the past 20 years. After much searching Stephen found a location about 80 miles from here that would accept these items periodically and how convenient that the next collection date (by appointment only) was only 2 days after his call. We traipsed down there with 4 tubs full of wastes. We were so pleased with ourselves that we were discarding these items in a safe way! When we got home after driving more than four hours, Bob said, “I won’t tell people how stupid we are, if you don’t. We left the oil paint and the Raid in the middle of the garage floor!” When Bob called to schedule a second appointment for the conservation area’s next collection date, the woman inquired, “Weren’t you just here?” Guess the secret’s out now!

I think we’re making good progress! We’ve contacted a realtor. The house goes on the market August 25. This gives us three weeks to get the garage cleaned out and the deck painted. Then hopefully the house will sell quickly. In early September we’re headed to Alaska for a couple of weeks. Wouldn’t it be nice if the house sold while we were gone?

It all seemed so easy when we first decided, about five years ago, that we wanted to live around the world when we retired. We knew it would be prohibitive to maintain our home and pay property taxes and travel extensively, so part of our decision was based on practicality. But now that it’s upon us, I never dreamed there would be so much to do, so many decisions to be made.  As soon as we manage one thing, it seems dozens more jump up to take its place.

For instance, we first sorted out the issue of insurance after learning Medicare would not cover us abroad, but in the end we found one of our supplemental insurance options will cover us when we are out of the country.  We still need to figure out evacuation insurance, and we also feel it’s important to update our wills. But what about residency in order to vote, and maintain drivers licenses? We are fortunate that our oldest son and his family live in town so we will use his home as our primary residence and he and his wife have graciously agreed to let us have our mail forwarded to them (though there shouldn’t be much).

How much is this going to cost? We have worked hard to become debt free and our plan is to live on our combined social security and pensions. We have established a tentative monthly budget estimating costs for rent, insurance, transportation, food and entertainment but are a bit anxious as we don’t know if it is realistic or not. Guess we’ll find out!

The first question people always ask is, “Where are you going?” Our initial response is, “Everywhere!” We hope to find reasonable places to rent through sites such as VRBO and Homeaway with the intent of staying about two to six weeks in each place and hoping to travel to many places in off seasons, both because it’s cheaper and in order to avoid the crowds.  Because of the Schengen agreement we know we can only live within most countries of the EU for 90 days and then we’ll have to be out of the EU for 90 days.  We finally sat down with a map this past weekend and created sort of a “wet cement” plan for our first year.

We hope to take off in the middle of January 2015.  Cascais Portugal (40 minutes west of Lisbon on the sea) will be our first stop staying until the first of March.  While most of the time we will rely on public transportation, there are locations where we’ll need to rent a car. When we leave Portugal we’re going to head to Bearn Province in southwest France and because of its remote location it’s one of those times we’ll want a car.(This brought up another question. I’d like to learn to drive a standard transmission. Where does one do that in 2014?)  We plan to stay in the south of France for about 4 weeks then drive up to Paris for a couple of weeks (where we’ll drop the car off). Luckily the UK is not part of the Schengen Agreement so we’ll live in parts of England, Scotland or Ireland for the next 90 days, and we will definitely rely on public transportation there!  We’ll spend July through October in Scandinavia.  Then in the middle of October through January we’ll be back in the US. While in the US we will have our yearly physicals, dental checkups and other maintenance projects! And more fun…catch up with the kids and grandkids!

So now back to the nitty gritty. Bob retires from teaching at the end of this week and then we’re into sorting and pitching our collection of stuff from the past 20 years we’ve lived in this house. Kids can have whatever they want; I have to find a few homes for special items: the clock that Bob’s grandfather gave his grandmother for a wedding gift, the chair my grandparents brought from Denmark in the 1880s, my piano I began to play at age 5, but luckily for the kids there are only a handful of these items. Our toughest conundrum is finding a home for our elderly Old English Sheepdog. He is a gem and while he loves other dogs, he is terribly neurotic about traveling in cars (i.e. barks continuously) and now he’s having difficulty getting up and down on our tile and wood floors. We absolutely must find a good home for him before we leave. With the exception of a few items, primarily artwork that we’ll store, the rest of our belongings will be sold or donated. We plan on traveling with one 24 inch suitcase each along with a carry-on tote. We will rotate between a spring/summer wardrobe and a fall/winter wardrobe (Each season must fit in the 24 inch). Our daughter, who conveniently lives in Europe, has agreed to store our off-season wardrobes for us. Our electronics will take up a sizeable chunk of our totes/purse: camera, phone, computer for me, tablet for Bob, and our ereaders. Of course we’ll wear neck pouches for documents, bankcards and cash.

So until next time, I’m off to start the sorting and pitching game and getting our house market ready!