Three Rights Make a Left

Retirement Is Supposed To Be For Travel

Now that my Wahini, Lori and I are retired and the Covid lockdown is subsiding it’s time to look at vacations. Not the vacation we plan with our grandkids but a vacation just for us.

Lori has always wanted to go to Canada and that is certainly a possibility. It occurred to me that she is only 3 states short of seeing all 50 states, Maine, North Dakota and Alaska, and I am only missing North Dakota. I thought I had a brilliant idea. That is to fly to Portland Maine. Go up to Halifax Nova Scotia and take the train, all the way across Canada. I thought that when we got to Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada we could rent a car and drive 70 miles south to Pembina, North Dakota on the Red River right at the Minnesota Border. Then we could continue on the train to Vancouver, British Columbia and fly from there up to Juneau, Alaska.

The plan went well right up until the time Lori asked how long the trip would take. You should have seen the look on her face when I told her it would take four days not including side excursions. That would be almost 96 hours on a train. It was then my idea crashed and burned. I do still plan to catch all three states but it looks like that will have to take place in separate trips.

A few years ago, at Yellowstone I bought my “Golden Age Passport” after the price had gone way up. That allows us to visit all of the National Parks we want to, but so far, we haven’t used it since I bought it. We love to camp but the really great camping destinations are pretty much booked up for years in advance. However, one of our best holidays was when we pitched camp in a California State Campground called Bass Lake just outside Yosemite National Park.

We have enough airline points to go to Europe again and there are places we would love to see there, so that might be an option soon. The last time we were in Germany and Austria Lori really wanted to go to Neuschwanstein Castle (otherwise know as the “Fairy Castle” in the German Alps). But when we were there, it was still too early in the year for it to be open. On our last trip we had planned to stay in Switzerland but it would have meant a lot of time on the train and a short amount of time actually seeing the country. That is definitely on our “to-do” list for a trip in the near future.

For right now it seems a lot easier to dream about going than to actually go.