It had been a long day of driving along the coast of Oregon. Hotels had very little vacancy, so I hurried and booked one online so that someone else didn’t take it while I finished the last part of my drive. At the check-in counter, the hotel clerk handed me my room key, gave me…
Author: M A K
Goonies Never Say Die!
The Goonies was one of my favorite movies growing up. And is STILL one of my favorites. It’s one of probably four movies that I will watch on TV whenever it’s on, no matter how many times I have watched it! I dare you to try to name the other three! For many years, I…
Hometowns and Holidays
I love holidays! And I love them even more when I’m able to celebrate them in my hometown with family. And that’s exactly how I spent the week for Independence Day. The week started with a family reunion where I learned more about my heritage than I have in any previous years. A cousin has…
Ohio. Check!
I’m on a mission to make it to all 50 states, so when I realized that I had a few days to escape town, I looked for the closest state that I hadn’t been to yet. And Ohio made the cut! The first day of the trip resulted in an unplanned detour. However, this was…
Never Stop Learning
I’ve had an interest in video editing for many many years, but it takes a lot of time to get good at it. With my new lifestyle of being able to decide what my daily schedule will be, I knew that I wanted to use some of my time off to learn new skills and…
Arkansas Flood Relief
Yesterday was the first day that I was able to do some volunteering during my retirement, and it felt great. I went to Fort Smith with my church to do flood relief. I really had no idea what we would be doing, but I knew that we would be getting our hands dirty, literally. The…
Hey Mom, I Like Onions Now!
There are so many things that I wish I could tell my mom right now. I wish I could tell her that I just retired, or that I’m learning to play piano, or that I found a church that I love and I even get to do “video stuff” there. Or I wish I could…
New Journey: One Month Update
I’m one month into this new journey, and the top question I’m now getting is “how is retirement”? So today I will answer that. First of all it’s going great! Like REALLY great! I haven’t looked back once, and definitely don’t regret my decision to leave the corporate world after nearly 23 years. I have…
Carlsbad Caverns National Park
A journey to the center of the earth. That’s what it felt like while walking through the cavern. Just getting to the cave from the Visitor’s Center feels like you are deep within the surface of the earth, and that’s because you are. In order to get to what is referred to as the “Big…
Guadalupe Mountains National Park
Only 30 miles from Carlsbad Caverns, so it’s definitely a good idea to do both parks at the same time. Guadalupe Mountains seemed more like a hiking park to me, because I didn’t see any available scenic drives. So hiking is exactly what I did. The temperatures were in the upper 90’s, so I planned…