Travel Archives - Big Guy Tiny Trailer

Changes, Retirement Year Five

Many Changes

Year five of retirement was kind to us. Looking back through 2021 photos emphasized that thought for me. It was a year of changes and some challenges, but those changes enhanced our year and our lives. The Covid pandemic that began in 2020 kept us isolated early in the year, with the exception of camping. However, the Moderna vaccine enabled us to be around people more, starting in May.

A Puppy, Our Biggest Change

Our sweet Sophie came into our lives right at the end of 2020 and became our obsession for 2021. We have not had a dog in decades and never one so fully integrated into our lives. However, it was quickly clear that we did not correctly anticipate the amount of work a puppy would bring.

We had many challenging moments. Potty training was certainly not easy. Puppy biting was not fun. But she is now well over a year old and is the sweetest thing.

One of our changes, a puppy — Our puppy, Sophie

Sophie is very smart and has gone through a couple of training courses, Basic Obedience and Impulse Control. She did a great job at Love Them, Train Them. Our greatest challenge today is that she is still excitable when people come into our home and there is way too much trying to jump on them.

One thing that made our life much easier as puppy parents was having a portion of our yard fenced. It gives her a place to run around when she gets the zoomies and we don’t have to watch her every moment she is outside.

Sophie is a great little traveler. She loves riding in the car and we discovered she especially likes being on a boat. We rented a pontoon boat in Carabelle on one of our trips and she was so happy. We will seek out more boating opportunities in the future.

More Changes, A Much Bigger Camper

Last year, we were content with out T@B 400 trailer. It had all the basic comforts in a size that could fit into any campground. We camped in it for three years, but having a dog in that tiny camper was a different story.

After a six-week trip covering over 6 thousand miles, we were happy to welcome our new and much larger Lance 2075 trailer. It is a good size for our now larger family and we feel it is a real beauty. It’s definitely not as cute as the 400, but is so comfortable in our new puppy world.

Changes in our camper — New Lance 2075 Trailer

Last Major Change, a New Truck

So we got a puppy and then felt we had to get a bigger camper. Once we had the bigger camper, we felt we needed a stronger tow vehicle. Though vehicles were scarce, we located a Ram 2500 diesel. It does a much better job of pulling our Lance than our SUV. An added bonus, we traded my husband’s 2016 Camaro convertible that was mostly sitting in the garage for an excellent amount. Win/win!

Changes with a new tow vehicle — Ram 2500, Our last big chance in 2021

Travel in 2021

We were fortunate to be able to take some wonderful trips in this year five of retirement, including two long ones. Our longest trip was out west to The Great Plains, Our Summer Trip in 2021. We were in our T@B 400 and it was tight with the pup, but we managed. We camped in six new states and visited four national parks and many national monuments. It was an extraordinary trip!

Our Lance arrived in August and in time for our other big trip, Lance Shake Down Trip was a Long One. This time we were headed northeast and we were on the road for three and a half weeks. The Lance made it much more comfortable. That trip included three new states, Niagara Falls, and the Roosevelt Museum and Library. That trip made nine new states for us in 2021.

We also took four smaller trips to meet friends in our T@B camping group and two shorter trips to Florida. Needless to say, we love to travel!

Family

I am happy to say that one constant in this fifth year of retirement was family. Though Covid was still an issue, vaccinations enabled us to spend more time with them. We are very grateful that our immediate family remained healthy and prosperous in this year.

Though they live in another state, we are happy we were able to visit our son and daughter-in-law a couple of times. They are well and recently purchased a new home.

Lori and Mitch live fairly close to us and we were able to freely see them once vaccinations were available. They had a good year overall, but Lori got the flu and we were unable to see them for Christmas. The photo below was taken on Memorial Day.

Angie and Steven live relatively close to us and we are happy we are able to spend time with them. The photo below was taken at a celebration of Steven’s birthday.

The photo below is our granddaughter, Kayla, and her family. It was also taken at our house on Memorial Day. Who knew that Memorial Day would be our big get together with photos? They are all doing well and also moved into a new home this year. I am happy that it is just a few miles from us.

I don’t have photos of several of our grandchildren from 2021. We did get to see them, but sadly, we did not take any photos.

Dancing

Dancing was a major part of our retirement life prior to the pandemic. But we danced only a couple of times this past year and none last year. It was so good to dress up and finally get out and see our dance friends.

In Conclusion

I am grateful for so many positive changes in our lives this last year! We are really enjoying the new trailer and tow vehicle. Our sweet puppy was a wonderful, though sometimes challenging change. She is such a joy!

Our family remained healthy overall, which is vitally important in a year where COVID harmed so many. For that, we are very grateful.

Though we are certainly getting older, we remained relatively healthy and able to travel. Every day with my sweet husband is a blessing! We were able to see some incredible parts of our country and meet lots of interesting people. Also, we were blessed to be able to connect with friends.

Lookin forward to 2022 and year six!

Second Year Retirement Highlights

Second Year Retirement

Our second year of retirement was wonderful, except for a couple of months which were quite difficult. We settled into a routine when not traveling that was comfortable and companionable. I can honestly say I do not miss working. We were also able to travel extensively and it was amazing.

I am writing this post primarily for my husband and myself. It is like a journal of our experiences. Because it will likely be boring for those who do not know us, it will not be posted on camping social media sites.

Our first year retirement summary, Retirement: First Year Highlights , is also a blog post.

Daily Routine

The time that we previously spent working is now being taken up by a slow, comfortable pace of living. We start our days later now, with ample sleep. Most of our meals are at home and are generally healthier than before retirement. We work out at the gym about four times a week, me with classes and my husband doing a combination of exercising and socializing. Our days start around 7:00 and we are usually asleep before 11:00. Sadly, we have officially become old folks!

Family Time

We now have much more time for family and we see them every opportunity, but we do try not to encroach upon their lives too much. It is great to know that we can be there for them if they need us without having to worry about working.

I have been working on a family cookbook since I retired and finally finished it. I gave family members copies of it on Thanksgiving. They seemed to like it and the personal notes in it. It is nice to have all my favorite recipes in one spot and on line.

We were able to take a couple of road trips to Tampa to visit our son. Retirement has enabled us to have much more time for trips like those.

I am trying to keep my brain challenged, so I spend a good bit of time doing Luminosity games, Sudoku, and others. For some reason, I find them relaxing and somewhat addictive.

Planning trips and later writing about them is also something I enjoy. I know that one day, we will not be able to go like we do now and I am working to capture our memories. Also, in a small way, I believe I am helping some new campers navigate their way. I have received responses from several who let me know how much they appreciated the blog.

Yardword and housework also take up parts of our days and it is good to be able to devote more time to them.

Lastly, we watch way too much television. We try to limit it and honestly do get a little sick of it, but there you have it.

Our Big Event

Knee replacement for my husband is something we have been working on since we first retired. It was delayed by needed vein surgery that was done in our first year of retirement. Unfortunately, there were complications that resulted in pulmonary embolisms. Then, we had a period of time on blood thinners and testing to see if it was advisable to move forward. It pushed the surgery to August of our second year.

He got through the surgery fine. While he was at a higher risk for blood clots, thankfully there were none! However, his rehabilitation was harder than for most because he had significant swelling related to the vein issue. It was very, very painful for him and challenging for me as well because I helped him with his rehab at home. Wow, it was tough! It was scary too because I wasn’t sure at first that he would even get back to where he was before the surgery.

He is now much better and we are told his knee will continue to improve many months after the surgery. We are so glad to have this behind us.

The Inevitable Decline

We both are very aware of the effects of aging. My husband had the bad knee for several years and though older, I was much more active. Now, his knee is better and we are hoping he will be able to do more. It seems that now I am going to be holding us back. An orthopedist told me that I will eventually need shoulder replacement. Additionally, a hip that was only occasionally an issue before has become quite painful.

Not to be all doom and gloom, but these things make me acutely aware that we had better go and do what we want to do while we still can.

Recreation

Yes, we do have lots of fun! I think it makes it that much sweeter knowing that this is not something that is just going to go on forever.

Camping in the T@G

We have been camping for just over two years now and we both love it. I think we got along better in that small teardrop camper than we do in our very roomy home. There is so much beautiful country to see. There is also the feeling of overcoming obstacles and working together.

Our retirement goal is to camp in all fifty states. Toward that goal, we were fortunate to take two amazing month-long trips. The first west all the way to California and the second north to the Upper Peninsula. Both were incredible!

Retirement travel — Winter trip out West

Our summer trip included the nüCamp 18 rally in Sugarcreek, Ohio. We also attended the Key Lime Rally in Gulf Shores and the Tiny Christmas Campout in Pensacola. Lastly, we went camping with several friends at Stone Mountain. We have so many wonderful memories of those trips! I feel so blessed that we had this time together.

Next Level Camping

Our little T@G gave us so many wonderful days camping that we knew we were all in for much more. We had been looking for something that offered a few more amenities—a bathroom and a place to be comfortable when inside during the day. The nüCamp T@B 400 was our choice.

We loved it immediately, but felt that the tongue weight on our tow vehicle was under too much strain. So, we traded our tow vehicle for something bigger. Lots of changes in our camping world occurred that week in November!

Bigger SUV — Very much bigger tow vehicle

We were able to use our new toys on our last camping trip of the year to the Tiny Christmas Campout. We did some camping in South Carolina on the way. Another state for our map!

We made quite a bit of progress in our goal of camping in all fifty states. Still a long way to go though!

Big Cities

We were fortunate to be able to travel to two big cities during our second year, Los Angeles in January and Chicago in July. Both cities were exciting to visit—amazing food, interesting museums, and lots to see and do. We like to stay at hotels in the heart of big cities to be able to see as much as possible.

Couple outsid Warner Brothers Studio Tour — Warner Brothers Studio Tour

Dancing

Ballroom dancing has been a big part of our lives for several years. We are members of a dance club and two dance groups. From the sound of that, you might assume we are good dancers. That is not the case, but we do enjoy it and we get to spend time with some truly wonderful people.

The declining knee has resulted in declining dancing over the last few years, but I hope we can dance more in the next year.

Second year retirement was a great for us! We look forward to our third year of retirement and whatever adventures it may bring.

Retirement: First Year Highlights

Our first year of retirement has been so much better than expected in many ways. Living life to its fullest while healthy enough to enjoy it is so important. Carpe diem!

For many years, I did not consider retiring because I really loved working. Without work, it was a mystery how I would fill my time. But I gave it serious thought as I approached sixty-six, full retirement age for Social Security. That rather big number gets you thinking about how many healthy years you may have left. My husband was totally on board with retirement and preceded me by four months. I retired on December 31, 2016.

My plan for retirement was to continue ballroom dancing, which we have done for several years, and to travel while still healthy enough to enjoy it. The problem with travel, as we have done in the past, is that it is quite expensive. We could take a few trips during the year, but there would be lots of down time at home. When we discovered that we liked teardrop camping, it enabled us to fill the time with a cool activity. As an inexpensive way to travel, it would allow us to go as much as we wanted. I was actually excited about taking the retirement plunge.

This first year of retirement has gone by quickly. I feared that I would be bored and I have been at times. I have certainly not felt as productive as when I was working, but overall, it has been good for me.

My Greatest Fear

I love my husband dearly, but must confess: I had concerns about us being together 24/7. When we first married, we got along great until it was time to take a vacation. For the first few years, we had a lot of arguments while vacationing. That leveled out after a few years and we usually had great vacations. Being together all the time, though, was a little scary.

Now that we have a year under our belt, I can honestly say that it was much easier than expected. We do annoy each other occasionally, but I can’t think of anyone with whom I would rather spend time. I think our success comes from my need to express my irritation as it arises and his willingness to hear it. Can’t you imagine what a joy it is being married to me?

A Change in Income

I believe all who think about retirement worry about whether they will have enough money. My first employer had a retirement plan in place and it provided a beginning of retirement funding at a young age. As I changed employers (a few times in my career), I saved a significant portion of my salary in the retirement plans offered. I was fortunate to work for organizations that also made generous contributions to their plans. Still, you worry about abandoning that steady paycheck. I have been relieved to see that we have been financially comfortable this year. We were able to do everything we wanted without having to worry about money. It helps that we have a relatively simple lifestyle and have always preferred to live below our means.

We did spend a good bit more than anticipated on healthcare. My husband and I had much more illness this year than ever before. An October 2017 post, “Retirement: in Sickness and in Health” describes some of our challenges.

My concern going forward is the financial stability of our current sources of income. The stock market has been good for us for several years now, but that is certainly no guarantee for the future. Social Security and Medicare are also important to our financial stability they are to all Americans.

Time with Family

Retirement has enabled us to have more time available to be with family, which is important to us. We feel that we can be there as much as they need or want us to be. We have a son who lives several hundred miles away that we were able to see more because we have more time to travel. We attended a grandchild’s soccer events that we likely would have attended anyway, but it would have been more challenging while working. Our daughter had surgery. We would have been there anyway, but not working made it easier.

We have always strived to make time for family, so we have not greatly exceeded the amount of time that has occurred in the past. Our children love us, but they don’t want or need to spend a ton of time with us because they have busy lives of their own. I think they like that we are keeping busy and not just sitting home waiting for them to visit. My hope is that we can stay healthy and not be a burden to them.

Loss

My much younger sister passed away suddenly this year. She had lupus for many years, but it was still a shock. We were not as close as I would have liked. There was a large difference in age and we had different mothers, but I wish I had made more of an effort. It does give me some comfort that we got together for a family lunch not long before she died. It saddens me that she left a husband and two sons who are young adults. Her passing is a stark reminder of how fragile our lives are.

Recreation—Our Dance Groups

Ballroom dance is well represented in our area and we are members of a dance club, and two dance groups. This has given us abundant opportunities to dance to live bands and associate with wonderful people. We have been dancing for approximately five years but, I am sad to say, our skills have been declining. My husband has a bad knee, which limits our activity. We also may go several weeks with no dancing and what you don’t use, you lose. I think that goes double for dancing! It is still fun to dress up and spend an evening with great friends dancing—as best we can.

Recreation—Travel

We were blessed with an abundance of wonderful trips this first year. We took a cruise with friends to the Western Caribbean in January. What a great way to begin retirement in that cold, dreary month!

Most of our travel was in our tiny trailer and each trip was special in its own way. The teardrop camping was more than just travel though. It challenged us to adapt to new circumstances and ways of doing things. It offered us a way to actively work toward the common goals of figuring out how to do this type of camping and to have good trips.

For me, the planner in our family, time was spent researching where to go and what to do when we got there. Blogging about our adventures offered technology challenges and a creative outlet. There is also a bit of work before and after each trip.

Road trips were also a part of our year with trips to Houston, Texas; Redington Shores, Florida; and Monroeville, Alabama. They were great fun as well.

Healthy Lifestyle Efforts

One thing that I adore about retirement is the ability to get enough sleep. I believe I was sleep deprived for most of my working years and to be able to sleep as long as I want is such a luxury.

We go to the gym most weekdays and it sets a bit of a routine for us. I have been doing Body Pump and Spin classes for many years and have been able to add a session or two a week in retirement. The exercise helps so much to keep my back from hurting and my energy level up. Also, exercise is a great stress reliever, which I think has helped to make us both easier to live with.

We try to eat healthy and succeed a good bit of the time, but significant weight loss eludes me. Perhaps next year.

Projects

Our yard was devastated last year by poor weed control by our lawn service and drought. We must have pulled a million weeds! There has also been a lot of soil erosion because of flooding from neighboring yards. Though mostly ignorant to gardening methods, I designed and we installed a rain garden. It was moderately successful. I have a post prepared, but have not yet published it. I was definitely out of my element!

We also had our family room painted and replaced some of the furnishings. Though we are Maw Maw and Paw Paw, we don’t want our house to look the part.

A Missing Piece

I would like to find some way to do something on a routine basis to help others. I do not want a job that would limit our flexibility to travel, but it would be nice to find a way to use my skills and abilities in a way that benefits others. I know there are many ways a person can volunteer, but I would love to find something for which I could feel passion. I worked for years and felt I was really making a difference in my small piece of the world and want to feel that same sense of fit in my retirement efforts. I will have to search for that answer.

Wishing Everyone a Wonderful 2018!