And So It Begins: Another Retiree Hits the Road
Houston, Texas
I wanted to retire from my corporate job in 2020. As it turns out, that was a terrible idea. A world-wide pandemic threw everything into question. So I pushed it back to December 2022. That was also a terrible idea. I was diagnosed with breast cancer and was afraid to change my health insurance. New plan: January 2024.
The breast cancer scare gave me a new perspective on how and where I wanted to live. Suddenly it felt very important to live near family. The Houston area made the most sense. I could stay in Texas, with no state income taxes, be near my youngest son, and spend more time with two of my grandchildren. But Houston. Hurricanes. Humidity. Traffic. Flooding.
I couldn’t make peace with the property options in Houston. To buy myself some time, I came up with a plan. I’d been talking with friends about an extended visit in West Virginia. The eastern panhandle mountains are beautiful and my friends had a cottage I could use. That germ of an idea led to an offer from another friend to let me use her ski condo in the mountains of Maine. With those two cornerstones, I built a schedule.
I officially retired January 2, 2024. The next four months were a mix of travel and prepping my house to sell. It sold immediately, thanks to the hot real estate market in Frisco, Texas. Nine weeks after I listed it, I was taking one last look at the ducks in the pond, walking around the empty house, and saying thank you for a good 11 years. Most of my belongings were in storage and my car and my son’s pickup truck were loaded with stuff I thought I would need. I drove to Houston and, in the heat of a Texas June, we dragged boxes and bundles of clothes and electronics up to his guest room.
Aside from trying to fit a lot of clothes into the closet, it felt like just another visit with the grandchildren. I was too hot and tired from the move to have any feelings about this new stage of my life. I wondered if a pang of regret would hit me at some point.
A week later I packed up my car again, this time with boxes I thought I would need for the summer: French press coffee pot, smoothie maker, laundry supplies, too many clothes, books, laptop, an extra monitor. Also, a few optimistic bags: SLR camera for improving my photography skills, sketch materials for improving my drawing ability, and books I’d been wanting to read for years.
I planned to decide on one of my many novel ideas, and write, write, write. After a couple of weeks in West Virginia, I would make my way up to Maine. After that, back to Houston, and then on to New Orleans; Nice, France; and Tokyo, Japan. I used to dream of travel during my long, long work days. Now I would satisfy the itch.