Retirement
Talk for Boomers, Seniors and Retirees
What to
do with the Rest of Your
Life? |
Episode 110 Road trip Part 3 – Lodging
When it came to sleeping, our
host, Joe Pop, the Baboon Man in Kenya that year, told us to, “bring
our bags”. Late that night we walked out of the main house and into the dark.
He opened the door to a small round building – maybe 15 feet in diameter. We
shinned our flashlights around the inside. There were gecko, or animals like
them, spiders and other creatures scattered around the walls. They all darted
from the glare of the light. It was late and we had drunk a lot of wine. We
entered and threw our bags on the floor. I remember hearing the familiar sound
of leopard and lion. I’m glad he had told us about the leopard bars on the
windows. We slept soundly. I was 37 then and on the Serengeti Plain in Kenya. As we
approach our extended road trip in the US thirty years later, I want to
take a bit more care selecting lodging for the evenings.
This is Retirement Talk. I’m
Del Lowery.
Traveling always presents the
challenge of finding comfortable and affordable lodging each evening.
Possibilities vary from tents, RVs, Interstate motels and then there are the 5
star hotels in major cities. What to do? When you are going for several months
the challenge is not to be taken lightly, or else the trip can become one long
grind of physical discomfort.
We have decided on spotting major
basis spread out along our route. We first determined the general route and
vague time table. Then we started to schedule bases every five hundred to
thousand miles. Our moving goals were: the Sacramento area – Sutter Creek to be exact - where
our daughter lives. Then Scottsdale,
Arizona where we have a home
exchange arranged. When we leave Arizona,
we will be three weeks into the trip and will have had to pay for
accommodations perhaps four nights.
The next phase of our trip
will take us to Ruidoso, New
Mexico on our way to Big Bend
National Park in Texas. We may stay with friends in Ruidoso
or we may be looking for hotels during those four days. Our next major stop
will be in Austin, Texas where we have arranged a great home exchange
for a condo right downtown. We are looking forward to that one as well as the
one in Scottsdale.
We will leave Austin and spend one or two nights on the road before our
next base which is New Orleans.
We have again arranged a base home exchange in a Victorian styled home in
Algeris Point which is a short 5 minute ferry boat ride straight across from
the French Quarter. It is suppose to be a great place to stay and a great place
to bike. This will provide us a base from which to see the city for four or
five days.
I should explain this home
exchange thing for some of you who are unfamiliar. You can go on line to
Homeexchange.com and join this internet based network of people from around the
world. I think the fee has now escalated to $100.00 per year to be a member. We
have been members for several years and have found it a great way to travel and
meet people. You just agree to exchange your place for someone else’s. You can
pick from countries around the world.
When you find something you
like you just contact them via email and see if they might be interested. Of
course, they may not be, but then again, they very well might be. Sometimes the
exchanges are simultaneous and sometimes they are not. We have exchanged with
several people under both conditions. Some people have second homes they
retreat too, or perhaps exchange. We have done six exchanges so far and they
have all worked out storybook perfect. There is no money exchanged. You just
trade straight-up. A description and pictures of all places are listed on the
website. You can browse as if looking through a travel magazine.
It is exciting to get emails
from around the world. People make suggestions that may entice you. They live
in someplace you perhaps never thought of going but of a sudden you find
yourself looking at pictures from their part of the world and reading of points
of interest. It brings a bit of serendipity into your life.
Trust is the guiding
principle of the Homeexchange.com. It is amazing how quickly one can establish
a rather close relationship with people. You trust your house and all of its’
possessions to complete strangers. You just send them a key or leave one under
a rock and let them have total access. They do the same for you. Everyone has left
our condo in perfect shape – clean and tidy. We have done the same with their
places. I have never heard of a bad experience. You may want to try it.
Our next major base will be
with a friend in Sarasota, Florida. He used to live in our town and then
moved to Florida
perhaps ten years ago. He returns to our part of the country every year and
stays as a guest at our place for a week or two. We will return the favor this
year. He has already talked about taking us to explore the Everglades.
We plan on taking a few days
to amble along southern part of the East Coast. Our next base will be in Durham, North
Carolina. We have again arranged a home exchange in
the famous triangle area. This time we will be in house in the woods with a big
forested park next door. We then intend to work our way north as far as Washington DC.
Brenda has a brother that lives just 90 minutes from DC so we may use that as a
base to explore the city. We have a couple of months scheduled so far and we
will be using free lodging most of the way. It is not only free but it will be
very nice.
Lodging for the return home
is open. We don’t know if we will want to “hurry” home, or if we will want to
wander a bit more casually. It will be winter and we may want to stay south on
our return. Or, we may want to brave the north winds and just drive straight
across the country seeing a few old friends and relatives as we go.
There are many ways to travel
and I am not sure about our chosen method, but there it is. I like the idea of
have a base in which to stop and explore the cities or areas. I like the idea
of having a real house or condo in which one can relax a bit more than a
commercial establishment. We will see. I will be sure to share with you the
pluses and minuses.
This is Retirement Talk.