Inaugural Retirement trip – Part 8 – The Set-up and dipping our toes in the Fiesta water
So many things, including RV trips, local adventures, and normal life back at home, have kept me from finishing this series with the final tale of the whole reason for our trip: Our visit to San Antonio and the place that our adventures as a couple began 20 years ago!
Photo credit: http://www.zdnet.com
I have spent almost 30 years in corporate life, with the first ten in the relative security of a large private insurer, and the last 19 and a half in the much more volatile telecommunications industry. Those of you who are familiar will understand living with the quarterly, if not monthly, fear of being impacted by a reduction in force (RIF), lay off, redundancy, or any other fun term you may have heard for losing your job. I was truly fortunate to have survived dozens of these events, plus mergers, bankruptcy, flaming implosion, CEO going to jail, more mergers and acquisitions over almost 20 years. My husband had lived through years of the same in similar hi-tech industries, although in smaller, start-up companies, before finding his calling in the motorcycle business.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog, which was the perfect nudge for me to create a look back at the year that has just passed. My blog stats are nothing to write home about, but certainly more than I ever could have hoped or imagined when I started this blog in September of 2013.
It was during the tail end of this past winter that, in one day, I received multiples calls, texts, and emails, covering various details and options for a girls’ getaway to Puerto Rico from two longtime friends. When I say ‘longtime’, I mean it. G and I were in middle school together, and L and I went to high school together. And of course, we have many shared adventures from those times forward. Not all can be shared in a public forum. 🙂
Set-up: Hub and me, enjoying a late winter ride on one of our favorite curvy local roads.
I finish packing my BMW 1200GS with just the essentials for a two-night getaway and ride north into darkening skies. A fine drizzle persists as I head up into the mountains, but on this late Saturday afternoon, the sweeping curves of US 129 over Blood Mountain are mine to enjoy, nearly free of traffic. The conditions are perfect for clearing the mind, and totally focusing on the flow of the ride. My destination is a rendezvous with my love, and we arrive within minutes of each other for a quick dinner in Blairsville, Georgia, before heading further north to our stop for the night in Dillsboro, North Carolina.
My day to day routine of late has been a fog. I feel like I have been just dragging through the work day, and my other responsibilities, while simultaneously watching the weeks and months of 2014 fly by.
I was gobsmacked recently to learn that one of my fav bloggers, the hilarious and sweet Beth Teliho at Writer B Is Me, honored me with my first ever blog award, the Sunshine Award! If you don’t already know and love Beth, you must visit her ASAP.
curvyroads 