I'm No Longer What I Was!

A lot as happened in our lives in a very short amount of time.  It was only in April that Ed & I decided that we would really take this leap of faith and make a drastic change in our lives.  Our dream for years was to travel and stay long term (1 to 3 months) in places that intrigued us.  We really wanted to get to know the local people, food and customs in the different places.  Then, the dream/plan seemed to take a life of its own and changed to us living in Cuenca, Ecuador.  We still have plans to travel from there to the places we want to visit.

Now, we are really making this dream happen.  I've had many different opportunities to grasp, understand and "get it" that we really are taking a new journey.  A few of these opportunities to grasp MY new path was during the following times.  The hardest time was while we were driving our two six year old beautiful mini-schnauzers to their new home 9 hours way.  But, I was just very sad to give up our girls to a new home and worried about their adjustment to their new home. 

Next, we held our large Estate Sale and my "treasures" from 44 years were walking out the door to their new home.  Again, it seemed more about memories and all the wonderful places we have visited. It had taken me a lifetime to collect all these things.  I was sad that the items that had meant so much to me really were not wanted by either of my children.  These things weren't their taste or memories!  But, as I was parting with my "prizes" it always was more about the past and not the future that I was heading into.

I should have understood "it" during the signing of the Closing Papers (which we had to do twice) of selling of our home.  I did love this house and our neighborhood.  But, we have bought and sold more houses in our married life than I care to count.  So, again it just seemed to be about the past and doing something we have done many times before. 

I have had more occasions to digest this new path that I'm on, including driving a 27 foot U-Haul truck myself from Tampa to northern Ohio.  Driving that large truck across country gave me plenty of time to think.  The two thoughts that came most to mind was "Can I really do drive this truck all 1,200 miles?" and "Why did I tackle this trip by myself?". 

But, for some reason it really hit about the changes happening to me on Saturday at a business luncheon.  I belong to the National Association of Career Travel Agents (NACTA) and this past Saturday I was attending our bi-monthly luncheon & business meeting.  I had brought a few items that I had saved from my business library to donate to our local chapter of NACTA for their lending library.  I had shared with my associates at the luncheon about Ed's and my new journey to live in Cuenca, Ecuador.  It was then that I first realized that I would not be attending their next luncheon in September.  I was closing this chapter of my life of running a travel agency and being a travel consultant.  I have to keep my agency opened and licensed through the end of the year because I have clients booked.  But, then it will quietly fade away.  I guess I had not really thought about this part of my life.

So, this new journey has changed me ..... what am I now?  I'm no longer the owner of a travel agency and travel consultant.  I will no longer get the joy of helping clients turn their travel destinations into dreams.  I now feel unsettled about all this.  A saying comes to mind, "Old soldiers don't die, they just fade away".  I feel like I'm just fading away and this bothers me a lot, because it is the first time I really addressed the changes to this part of my life.  I just never thought about not being a travel agent while we were making all these plans. 

I'm very use to adjusting to changes in my life.  I was an Army Brat and grew up moving around the world and adjusting to new schools all my youth.  I married an Army officer and we raised our two children in the military life.  Our family has lived in Germany, Korea, and Saudi Arabia.  In our 44 years of marriage, I think we have moved some 32 times.  That's a lot of adjusting for any one person.  I have had many careers because of moving and that was always OK with me. 

So, why does the thought about not having my agency and not being a travel consultant bother me so much?  I'll have to think about this for a while to try to make sense of my feelings ......

Below are some of the pictures I have taken during my travels.  These opportunities have come about because of my travel agency.  I have been very blessed and I am very thankful for all these occasions and experiences....

2008 Volunteer Teaching in Siem Reap, Cambodia "Follow The Leader"

Jan. 2009 - My 1st Cruise on Halong Bay, Vietnam with Bhaya Cruises

May 2009 in Cappodica, Turkey

July 2010 - Moscow at St. Basil's Cathedral

Hue, Vietnam in January 2011

Petra, Jordan in May 2011

June 2011 a 16 day Tour of Italy with my two granddaughters

Oct. 2011 Bangkok, Thailand at the Grand Palace

 

I escorted a clients on a 3 week trip to visit Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam

This picture is of the beautiful Banteay Srey Temple in Siem Reap, Cambodia

 

Dec. 2011 Prague to Budapest - Danube River Cruise Trip

January 2012 - Indonesia and a week on Bali = from my resort balcony

January 2012 - Indonesia - Java Island and from my balcony

So, I guess my question to myself is.... If I'm no longer a travel agent, what do I want to become now ?
Peggy

Pull Up My Big Girl Panties!

Time to Pull-Up My Big Girl Panties!

Things got moving much quicker than Ed or I ever expected on selling the house.  Then, the question was....what to do with all our stuff.  We both agreed that we wanted to simplify our lives and not keep all the belongings.  But, we hadn't come up with a firm plan.  The house had sold so quickly that we had to empty it out by the 29th of June.  I had asked our two children if they wanted any of the big furniture pieces and both had said yes.  So, we had a problem, do we load the stuff onto a truck and put it all into a storage unit, then take it out in six months and put it all back up a U-Haul truck and drive it up to the kids?  I hated the thought of handling it twice.  It just made sense to me just load it from the house into a U-Haul truck and drive it directly up to Ohio.  The next problem was the timing of this trip, Ed has stuff on his calendar already that needed to be taken care of, so that left me driving up alone.

OK, I have driven a U-Haul truck before, so I figured I could just do it again.  What was not taken into my plan was this would be a much larger truck.  I had driven a 14 foot truck once and then a 17 foot truck once each across country.  The size of truck I needed to carry all this furniture and boxes was the largest one made, 27 feet long and very big compared to the others I had driven.  This came to my attention on June 28th, when I my husband drove me to pick up the U-Haul truck the morning our hired movers were coming.  I took one look at the size and length of the truck and thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew.  But, the plan had been put into motion and I just had to pull up my girl panties and got on with driving this truck from Sun City, Florida to northeast (Warren) Ohio.  By the way, that is a total of 1,200 miles!

It was 3:00 pm when the truck was loaded and I started my journey north.  My plans were just to drive about four hours to Valdosta, GA and spend the night.  Now during the first couple of hours it did cross my mind to turn around and get Ed to help me do this..... But, I knew I had choosen to get the furniture up to the kids at this time.  I got into Valdosta and started searching for a nice hotel.  I went to two and both were sold out, so my search then went to just find a room for the night.  The next hotel had a non-smoking room available and the guy showed me a great place to park the truck so I could get out in the morning.  I was able to walk to a restaurant for a bite of dinner to carry back to the room.  The best of the day was the icy cold beer I enjoyed while waiting for my carry-out. 

The next morning it was back on the road and up to north Atlanta.  I have a cousin that I had arranged to spend the night at her home.  I was able to make it up there by noon and had several boxes I wanted to drop off to her.  I even surprised my cousin by the size of the truck, and that it isn't easy to do.  Parking the truck in her driveway wasn't an option, so it was parked down off the street on the side of her home.  I enjoyed great food, wonderful wine and was treated royally.  But, the next morning I was facing the longest day of my journey.  I needed to make it all the way to Columbus, Ohio about 10 hours away.  They walked me down to the truck and I placed my small suitcase in the passenger's foot space and my purse on the seat.  I then went over to climb into the driver's seat.... You guessed it, I had locked the keys in the cab in my purse!  We called U-Haul and they were NO help and just told me to phone a locksmith to open the door.  It was about two hours before the guy showed up on that Sunday morning but took less than 2 minutes to "pop" open the door.  I was then presented with a bill of $170 and he told me he had taken off $20 because it took him so long to get to me.  Maybe, I should look into this profession .... costs more than going to a doctor!

By noon, I was on the road heading north.  The drive was slow going with so many hills in north Georgia and the truck just couldn't get up them going more than 55 miles per hours.  There were a couple times that day, I had to talk myself into going just another 30 minutes and then take a short break.  The truck's front end was out of alignment and kept pulling to the right, so my left arm was getting quite the work out and was hurting.  The truck was a rough ride and I felt like I was being beaten to death just sitting there.   

After ten hours of driving and I was still 90 minutes from my son's house, I just couldn't go any further.  I found a hotel and called it a day.  The following morning I had an early start to arrive there before 9:00 am.  I had hired three guys to come to my son's house to off load the truck.  There was one very large and heavy china hutch to off load and needed all three of them to lift it.  Now, because this trip of dropping off the furniture came about almost at the last minute, my son and his family weren't at home but up visiting his wife's family.  I had carefully marked each box as to which room it would go into at my son's house.  But that still left a mess for Brian & Donna to deal with when they got home.  I felt bad about that but I had to get up to my daughter's home that same day.

I departed Columbus, Ohio at 3:00 pm right on schedule.  I arrived in Warren at 7:30 and parked the truck in my daughter's driveway and never wanted to see it again, much less drive it.  I was pretty tired and just needed a hot shower and a good night's rest.  After the hot shower, I felt human again but still could feel the bounce of the truck while trying to fall asleep.  The next morning, I had three more hired movers coming and off load my daughter's stuff.  That only took a couple of hours and she followed me to the U-Haul place to turn in the truck. 

I had known I was a little low on the gas amount compared to when I picked it up but I wasn't eager to struggle with another gas station and getting in and out for about three gallons of gas.  The agent told me I would have to pay for that amount of gas and I understood.  BUT what she didn't clearly state was there was also a $30 fee for them pumping the gas plus they filled up the tank.  That little misunderstanding cost me $63.00....  had that all been clear to me - I so would have driven that truck to the nearest gas station and put in the three gallons.

So, from this one experience I have learned.... that 

1)  I can pull up my big girl panties and push through something difficult

2)  I am not a quitter

3)  My husband believes & trusts in me - even when I tackle something really stupid

4)  I love Helen Reddy and the song "I Am Woman" and it can get me to the next rest stop

5)  I am a rotten singer but I don't care - singing got me through the most difficult spots on the drive

6)  I will never be a long haul truck driver - even if it means I starve

7)  Being a locksmith in Atlanta is a good career & you could get rich

8)  Always ask questions about IF there is going to be a fee or how much is it really going to cost me

Have a great day and thank you for taking the time to read me blog.  I hope you come back again....

Peggy

Are we really crazy?

Are we as crazy as our friends and family think we are?????

We have sold our "perfect" retirement home in Sun City Center, Florida.  We have lived six years on the best street with the greatest neighbors.  We enjoyed our pool, covered lanai and lake view everyday.
 

We have given stuff to our kids, sold, donated and thrown away the rest.  We kept very little of our 44 years of collecting from around the world.  The treasures that I kept now all fit into 20 medium size boxes, several large pieces of my favorite art work, and a few pieces of furniture that are now stored at our daughter's home.  I (myself) even drove a 27 foot U-Haul truck from Tampa to Warren, Ohio with-off loads in Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio.

Ed, I and our two children had spent our first 22 years traveling the world, thanks to the United States Army.  My father was also an Army officer and I had spent my first twenty years traveling with my family.  Ed's next career was with IBM and it just meant more moves for us.  We have figured that in our 44 years we have moved 32 times.  So, when we came to Sun City, we both said it would be our last move and they would have to carry us out of that home.  So, what has caused this madness with us?

Ed and I have been traveling much more internationally since 2007.  I opened my travel agency in early 2008 and became a Southeast Asian Specialist right away because of our love for that part of the world.  But, even after an eight week trip, we would come home and say what we really wanted longer stays where we could live like the locals and truly experience their culture and lifestyle.  That was our dream, a more in depth experience of a foreign country.  But, we knew we had our 'perfect' home and the two best mini-schnauzers, Maggie & Scarlett.  We just didn't see how we could make our dream happen.

This past December, we escorted a small group to Prague then on a week Danube River cruise from Nuremberg, Germany to Budapest.  The topic when we came home was again how can live our dream of longer travels and not have our feet anchored to a house.  We had to decide if it was a dream worth going for or letting it go. 

In January, I had to make a business trip to Indonesia and spent a week on Bali doing research on the best resorts and local sights to visit.  I also found time for some quiet in-depth thinking about our dream and how to make it happen.  When I returned, the topic for the next three months was IF and HOW to make the dream happen.  Neither, Ed nor I, had any real problems selling the house.  We did know it could take up to 12 months to sell, so would renting be a better option for us.  We decided against renting...so... 

We decided to take this wild and crazy life to it's next adventure and live our dream.  So, at a neighbors party on Thursday, April 26th, 2012, we announced that we were putting our house on the market the end of May and would travel the world.  We figured that a month would give us plenty of time to sort through the house, pull furniture out of rooms to better stage the house and get ready for a very large "Estate Sale". 

Like so much of our life, it was about to get really crazy.  We had a phone call the next morning from friends that had friends staying with them.  This visiting couple wanted to see our home before they left to return back up north.  Well, Ed and I got very busy moving furniture out of rooms and into the garage, cleaning up our clutter and making the house look more like a model home.  It must of worked because three days later the first people to see our home bought it and wanted it closed by June 29th!  We had pulled the trigger and had set things in motion and we had to step into high gear and make some really big changes to our schedule. 

I first had to find a home for Maggie & Scarlett and I had been putting off that tough decision.  I phoned our breeder and told her what we were doing and that I had to place both girls in the same home.  She called me back in a hour and had found the perfect home for them.  A couple that had a two year older male from this breeder had very suddenly lost their dog.  They were thrilled at taking Maggie and Scarlett.  The toughest day in my life was on May 9th and driving the nine hours to their new home and leaving them, I thought my heart had broken many times over.  It has turned out that Maggie and Scarlett are in a perfect new forever home and loving it with their new mommy & daddy.  We get to see pictures of them and they look so happy.

Ed and I kept talking about how and where to start our new journey.  We decided that we each would make a list of our top 10 places that we each wanted to visit and share that list with each other three days later.  Our journey would include the top three from each list and if any were the same than we would go further down the list to cover more of our wishes.

 After 44 years of marriage, you would have thought we could have selected one of two of the same countries .  Ed's top 5 selections never made my list....Oops!  The first place on his list was Ecuador and I had to grab a map to find out exactly where in South American it was located.  Ed shared with me all the reasons why it was his first selection and that got my curiosity up to do more research on the county.  The more I read the more I wanted to visit that country.

The pull to Cuenca, Ecuador is very strong for both of us.  It became our first destination to visit.  Then, somewhere along the road to learning everything we could about the country, it became more.  We now have plans on becoming residents and will just make plans to travel from there. 

Why Cuenca..... Ed was raised in a town nestled in a valley surrounded by Rocky Mountains.  He is totally a person who loves the mountains but would never return there because of the extreme cold winters.  We are both burned out of the Florida heat and humidity and have talked about finding a better climate where to live.  We have enjoyed five trips to Spain and have fallen in love with that country and believe we have found a city that will offer us a taste of that but closer to home.  This is a new journey that we will travel together and take as it comes.  We have learned that we are flexible and can bend with life so we greet this new experience with open arms and hearts.

This is just the start of this journey - please come back and see what happens next.

Peggy