Stanley Hotel

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Stanley Hotel Stairs

Stanley Hotel Stairs

With the National Parks closed I explored Estes Park, Colorado, one of the many small communities that depend upon the parks for their income.  Estes Park is the gateway to the Rocky Mountain National Park.  The biggest building in town in the Stanley Hotel, built by the inventor of the Stanley Steamer.  It was also the setting for the Stanley Kubrick movie ‘The Shining.’  Hey, one guess what my middle initial ‘S’ stands for….  I spent lots of time on these stairs trying to capture their grandeur.  Actual paying guests kept getting in my way.

Garden of the Gods, Colorado

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Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods

We are exploring in the Pikes Peak area, Manitou, Colorado, as the National Parks are shut down.  Basically inside the town limits is the Garden of the Gods city park.  The land was donated by a family in the early 1900 with the stipulation that it always be kept free to the public.

 

 

 

The park is a wonderful maze of walking paths and sidewalks.  I should have come here for sunrise, but not knowing the area very well, I missed a great opportunity for some photographs.

Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods

Welcome to our National Parks…… Day One

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20131003-_ALL8154So today was day one of our tour of 7 National Parks on our circuitous route to San Francisco.  The unnecessary government shut down has closed all of the National Parks.  We are meeting lots of foreigners as well as other retired travelers who are being turned away at the entrance.  It is a major inconvenience to those of us traveling, but much more serious for the towns and businesses located near the entrance to the 59 National Parks of the USA.  Moab and Springdale, UT, Carlsbad, NM, Estes Park, CO and Crescent City, CA are but a few of the towns full of businesses that totally depend upon tourists visiting the National Parks.  Last night we had reserved two nights in the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, but left after only one.  We are now on our way to Estes Park, Colorado to visit the closed Rocky Mountain National Park.  If the recent major floods did not do enough damage to the towns, maybe the government shut down will do them in.  They certainly played no role in the childish squabbles of Congress, but they are among those paying the price. Those working in the private sector will not receive any “back pay.”

These two photos were taken about 50 yards from the back of the Dunes Motel at the entrance to Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Sunset Dunes

Sunset Dunes

Sunrise Dunes

Sunrise Dunes

Truth or Consequences . . . . New Mexico

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Welcome to T or C

Welcome to T or C

??? Did not go in...

??? Did not go in…

Although born and raised in New Mexico, I do not recall ever having traveled to Truth or Consequences, until today.  The town is as funky as the name.  The first store we wandered into was an East Indian meditation shop where customers were discussing shadowing techniques used in their tattoos.  The town is full of laid back people chatting it up with surprised tourists.

The town was originally called Hot Springs but re-named itself after the popular radio and TV show in some publicity contest in the 50’s.  This town is near Elephant Butte, which is a large recreational lake that is in the process of drying up like the rest of the state.  Instead of rushing north on I-25 as most do, we did our best to act like wondering retirees and took all of the side roads.

Hatch Chile

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Rosted, Green?

Rosted, Green?

Red Ristras

Red Ristras

Unique to New Mexico is the close relationship with red and green chile in our recipes.  Most sought after is the Hatch chile from, of all places, Hatch,  New Mexico.  Hatch hosts an annual chile festival that I cannot necessarily recommend unless your relative happens to be competing to be the Chile Queen.   I will certainly miss the great New Mexico chiles and the roasting tradition carried out every fall.  Wonderful aromas and tastes.  Everyone should have a freezer full.

Home Free and Happy

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Acorn Woodpeckers

Acorn Woodpeckers

My Mom moved to Ruidoso, New Mexico in 1995.  She had 15 wonderful years here, enjoying the mountains, friends and working thousands of hours at the local Pink Lady Thrift Shop.  She was known for cleaning up old dolls of all shapes and sizes for resale in the second-hand store, making them available to little girls who may not have otherwise had a nice doll.  The local newspaper ran stories on more than one occasion about the Doll Lady of Ruidoso.  She passed away in September of 2010, and three years later my sister and I have finally sold the house.

Gayle and I are now where we have worked hard to be….. homeless, or home free and able to travel the world where we wish, when we wish.  We do not yet seem to really be into this mode of living.  All we have done is book a one-way cruise from Florida to Rome.  No return cruise and no places to stay during our five months in Europe.  We continue to pursue the re-positioning cruise listings……  Did you know you can cruise from Denmark to Singapore? Who knew?

So good-bye to many good memories, Christmases with my Mom, golfing at the Links, summer BBQ’s and my favorite home-made molasses crinkle cookies.  Our new adventure being homeless begins….

Mom's House

Mom’s House

The photo of the wood peckers was taken off the back balcony at my Mom’s house.

Repositioning Cruise, Florida to Rome

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Celebrity Silhouette Ship

Celebrity Silhouette Ship

 

We took the first big step in our travel adventures by booking a cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Rome.  This is a repositioning cruise.  In the winter a cruise from Florida to the Bahamas or Aruba is very popular, not so in the summer.  Therefore the boat is repositioned to a better location, in this case the Mediterranean Sea.  We will need to book another cruise back to the States in the fall, likely from London to Boston or New York.  An advantage of a cruise vs. flying is no jet lag, since the boat adjusts the time one hour every day.  Also, since we are homeless, or home free, we have no place to hurry back to, plus we get fine room and board for 15 nights.  There are also rules regarding how long you can be in the mainland of Europe, called the Schengen Agreement (90 days), so the additional time at sea is not taking away from our time in Europe.  We booked a room with a balcony and are hopeful it will be warm enough to use for more than tossing our cookies.

 

Booked room with Balcony

Booked room with Balcony

You can zoom out on the map to see the ports of call for this cruise.[codepeople-post-map]

The next task is to start booking places to stay in Europe through VRBO.com, which stands for Vacation Rentals by Owner.  One can type VRBO Rome in the Google search bar and find many places available for rent from the owner.  We are doing this since we plan on staying our maximum allowed 90 days in the countries of Italy, Spain, France and Portugal.  We then head to the UK and Ireland for 40 days, as they are not Schengen countries, eventually cruising back to Boston.

This is just a plan so far.  I remember our last cruise 15 years ago, we said never again.  Part of the deal was the rocking boat made one feel a bit queasy for two weeks straight, which is no way to spend a vacation.  We have high hopes of exercising every day and relaxing on the ship.  We will see.  No European accommodations are yet booked.

 

Here is the itinerary:

Celebrity – Celebrity Silhouette, departs 4/20/14, 15 nights

Day Date Port or Activity Arrive Depart
Sun Apr 20 Fort Lauderdale, FL 5:00pm
Mon Apr 21 At Sea
Tue Apr 22 At Sea
Wed Apr 23 At Sea
Thu Apr 24 At Sea
Fri Apr 25 At Sea
Sat Apr 26 At Sea
Sun Apr 27 At Sea
Mon Apr 28 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal 9:00am 6:00pm
Tue Apr 29 At Sea
Wed Apr 30 Gibraltar, UK Territory 7:00am 4:00pm
Thu May 1 At Sea
Fri May 2 Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy 7:00am 4:00pm
Sat May 3 Messina, Sicily, Italy 10:00am 8:00pm
Sun May 4 Naples / Capri (Sorrento), Italy 7:00am 6:30pm
Mon May 5 Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy 5:00am

Storage Wars

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Chicago Living Room

Chicago Living Room of Rented Apartment

 

We are not the type of people who collect or shop anywhere near the amount most people do.  My wife has never ever gone shopping for entertainment, she hates shopping.  Our houses have always been uncluttered.  We thought we were minimalist, but somehow we now have two storage lockers full of stuff, one in Illinois and one in the Southwest.  We have already had the locker in Illinois for two years, at $114 per month.  Our second locker, big enough to store the truck when necessary, is $100 a month.  If we now travel around for five years, we will have incurred $15,800 in storage fees.  I can assure you that we could come close to replacing our ‘stuff’ for that price, I think.   But we have some pieces of art that mean a lot to us, like Pedro there with the big glass head and basket of blue eggs standing watch over our living room in Chicago.

So if you are contemplating extensive travels, start now to pare down your belongings,

you will still Storage Warsend up with toooooo  much  stuuuufff….

Affordable Care Act … (NOT)

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Affordable Care Act - NOT

Affordable Care Act – NOT

This is a website dedicated first to my photography and then a blog to provide family, friends, workers stuck in cubicles and commuters everywhere some insight into our travels around the world and what it takes to travel extensively.  Keep in mind we are still in the USA and have gone nowhere.  However, it takes some long-range planning.

This is not a political site and I will refrain from stating opinions regarding both worthless groups we have in Washington.  (oops)  However, it is a huge irritation to me when Obama Care is referred to the Affordable Care Act when thus far, it seems to be anything but affordable.  The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into legislation March 2010 though not all aspects of the law immediately into effect.  In November of 2010 I received the following from the BB&T Bank Benefits annual enrollment guide.  Keep in mind, BB&T, the company I retired from, is headed by Kelly King, a democrat and a supporter of both Obama and the ACA. We know this from his numerous guest appearances on CNBC.  My annual notice in part states:  “While we appreciate some of the goals of the Health Care Reform, there is a general consensus that this legislation will be ineffective at controlling health care costs.  It adds additional bureaucracy and mis-regulates the various players in health care.”

Upon retirement, we had a choice of two retirement healthcare plans.  I appreciate this fact as many people do not get such opportunities.  Since we are both relatively healthy, we chose what I call the $10,000 deductible plan as it is the cheaper option.  So we basically have catastrophic coverage only.  We are 100% responsible for the first $5,000.  After that, we pay 80% until we spend another $5,000, then we pay less. These deductibles reset every year.  This all changes if you go outside of the ‘network’.  It is way tooooo confusing and I am only wanting you to see we do not have a Cadillac type plan.

Medical Care

Medical Care

Here are our monthly insurance premium costs and how they have increased under the Affordable Care Act.

2011  $426 a month

2012 $516 a month which is a 21% increase

2013 $645 a month which is a 25% increase over 2012.

UPDATE:

2016 $18,000 a year for a $12,000 deductible policy!

How am I to budget what my costs will be in five years??   People over 65 need to buy some additional insurance as Medicare does not cover foreign visits as I understand it.  So here is yet another difficulty in calculating travel plans, the cost of healthcare.  I will continue to update these costs annually.