New Interests
New interests has been the theme of this sixth year of our retirement and at this stage in our life, it is exciting to be doing something new. When I first retired, how to fill the time was a concern. Fortunately, camping and our sweet girl, Sophie, kept us mostly busy and engaged. However, it is nice to have a couple of new interests.
Biking
Biking is one of our new interests and I have to give my husband credit for making it a thing for us. It’s an obsession for him and I was more of a reluctant participant. He has been wanting an ebike for a year or so, but I was always cool on the idea. But, we finally pulled the trigger and bought a couple of Rad Rover 6 bikes.
It was a big deal to figure out how to transport these heavy bikes when camping, but we discovered that they transport quite well on the front of our truck. See Hauling Bikes Camping With Lance 2075 for details on how we carry them. Once we had an easy way to haul them, we have taken them everywhere.
Kayaking
I wasn’t sure that kayaking was something I could do because of a bad shoulder. So, we never gave it a try until a camping trip with a favorite group at Silver Springs State Park. They made it look like so much fun that we had to try it. I loved it and my husband was the one who was not so enthusiastic. He seems to be coming around though and I think a purchase of a couple of kayaks is in our future.
Family
The most important time that we spent this year was with our family. I am happy to say that our children are doing well and we have a close relationship with them.
Our son and daughter-in-law live in another state, but we were able to visit them a couple of times in 2022. They are doing well and have just bought a beautiful condo. We enjoyed their company for several days.
Our oldest daughter lives near us and we are able to see her and her husband more often. She hosted us for Christmas this year and really made it special. She is so sweet and always works hard to make birthdays and holidays nice for us. We really enjoyed seeing them and the grandkids.
Our youngest daughter and her husband live nearby as well, so we are able to see them frequently. They took great care of our pup when we were in Alaska for a couple of weeks. We always have fun with them.
Long Winter Trip
We were fortunate to be able to spend several weeks in Florida during the winter and it was an amazing trip. Topsail State Park, near Destin, was our home for two weeks. The weather was nice and the sea air was good for my underlying lung condition. Our pup loved it too!
Port Saint Joe was our second stop and it was a wonderful week . Our friends from Michigan were also there, so that made it a lot of fun.
Our last stop, was Gamble Rogers State Park. It was a wonderful week that included meeting our friends and having a few days on a beautiful site with an ocean view. We were there for Valentines Day and our friends hosted us for a delicious steak dinner. A day trip to St Augustine and another to Ravine Gardens State Park kept us entertained.
New States
Our summer included a trip to New England. That trip added six new states to our effort to camp in all fifty. We camped in Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. While in Maine, we had lobster on multiple occasions. It was fabulous! If interested in reading about this trip see New England Camping.
A favorite in Newport, Rhode Island was Cliff Walk. It is a gorgeous trail by the sea with enormous old-money mansions on the other side. So beautiful!
Vermont was a standout because of the many quaint covered bridges. Really, each of the states we visited was special in its own way. I hope we get to come back to the area again.
Alaska
Our trip to Alaska included a rental camper and a train trip to Denali National Park. The weather was great, but a little cool on some of the days. We were camping right on the water at Resurrection Bay in the photo below.
Homer Alaska was another beautiful spot and the shot below was taken from the beach below our campground. It felt other worldly with very large rocks on the shore.
Our rental camper was from Great Alaskan Holidays. They were a pleasure to deal with and the camper was a current year model that was in great shape. We highly recommend this company.
A highlight of our trip was seeing the Aialik Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park. The glacier was calving while we were there, meaning big chunks were falling off. If interested in more details about our Alaskan adventure, see Alaska Camping in a Rental RV.
Other Camping
We made it to three camping events with Southeastern T@Bs, T@Gs and Friends. It is a great group and we have known many of its members for several years. They are a lot of fun and they allow us to hang around even though we are in a bigger camper now.
Lastly, there was one short solo trip to Tupelo, Mississippi and Tombigbee State Park. It was a nice campground and Tupelo is a nice city. Elvis tributes are everywhere.
Dance and the Vikings
Dancing is not one of our new interests. In fact, we have been dancing for more than ten years. When in town, we still dance with our Viking Dance Club. There were two Viking-sponsored lead outs this year and we were happy to be able to attend both.
In Conclusion
It was an incredible year for us and we were so blessed to be able to have lived it. At this stage of our life, we are trying to live life to its fullest. Our new interests give us something to look forward to that will be a bit of a challenge. However, we will have to stay as healthy as possible to be able to enjoy them.
Be happy and healthy!
