Itinerary: Fall 2022 to Winter 2023

So many of you may be wondering where are these two running off to in such a hurry? Good question. As long as Lucy and I have known each other we have always discussed travel aspirations: both simple vacations, and the possibility of exploring retirement destinations. Early on we realized we are both not cookie cutter vacation folks. We hate trying to squeeze a month of vacation activities into a 10-day vacation, and then try and rush back to work. Until recently we have even limited our travel so as to save for future travels abroad. Now we are finally at a point in our lives where we can travel slowly, take our time, and travel the way we have discussed over these many years.

 

Lucy is the more well-traveled of us (see previous blog), but I have definitely picked her brain about the favorite places she has visited. Over much discussion we both have come up with a few indicators of desirability: access to local fresh food; wines and spirits; a desire to inhabit a space that fits us (small for just the two of us, larger if we have friends dropping by); access to local cultures and traditions; a pedestrian-friendly location (preferably car free); a desire to stay away from more traditional tourists; and maybe most importantly within our budget. You may be surprised how many places we have come up with that fit those criteria. [Lucy here: also libraries, cemeteries, archaeological sites….]

 

First of course we are going to start by renting a car and traveling the states to see friends and family! That may sound counterintuitive to what I have previously described but we also realized while making our lists that we also wanted to try and see as many friends and family members as we could along the way, so that is where we start. We’ve missed seeing you during the pandemic. Many of us have had plans delayed the last couple of years and Greg and Erica are certainly one of them. We start off heading to Steamboat Springs for their nuptials. After that we plan to spend a few days in Denver visiting Christine. Then we are off to Chicago, via train. Finally, our last stops in the US will be the Eastern Seaboard. We are currently reaching out to folks that range from Maine to Virginia. After 4 more weeks traveling on the East Coast we will finally get to leave the country. Next stop Spain.

 

In November we land in Madrid for a month. After visiting many museums, maybe a Real Madrid game, and all the cemeteries for Lucy, we will head south to Granada for Christmas and the New Year. Sometime in January we will again head south, this time to Morocco. Tentatively we will spend 6 weeks in Morocco and then head back to Spain for the month of March. Early in April we have Lucy’s 36-month checkup for her Long Covid study in Seattle to attend. Shortly after that we expect to head back to Anchorage for the spring and summer of 2023-ish.

 

As with all things these days, these are plans written in jello. But we are sharing our itinerary in hopes that those of you wanting to be visited will let us know, and that those of you with flexibility consider meeting up with us along the way. We definitely have an extra bedroom in Granada, 😉 but it has bunkbeds…

Brian Weighs In

So Lucy has caught you all up to date, right? My experience pales in comparison to what she’s been through. The most painful part? Watching the torture of Lucy being unable to read. If you don’t know already, Lucy is a ravenous reader, all consuming and indefatigable. At least she was until April 2020. Recently she has been able to start taking bigger bites but nowhere near her peak, Olympic class level. We’re hopeful she will be a gluttonous reader again soon enough.

 

Alright, enough with the food metaphors, I’m starting to get hungry! Unlike Lucy lazy bones, I have been working full time for the last two years. Most of it agonizingly. I won’t bore you with the details but working for a utility that is being acquired during a pandemic was not ideal. Day 1 of my new career was October 30^th, 2020. Starting a new career remotely was an experience I won’t hesitate to bury deep in the recesses of my brain. I wish I could say I was mature in handling the adversity but alas I cannot. I subjected Lucy to far too many “you won’t believe what happened today at work” than she would’ve liked, for that I am eternally grateful, and she is such a generous partner for humoring me. On the bright side she probably doesn’t remember many of them? At least I hope so. Either way I could’ve been better. As of July 8^th, 2022 this “work” problem has been remedied as I am now gainfully untethered to the man!

 

I hope to concentrate on being a better human, partner, and kick ass shuffle boarder. Maybe I’m kidding about the last one? Maybe I’m not? I’ve got plenty of time to figure it out now that l no longer have the inconvenience of “office hours.”

 

Seriously though, Lucy and I have been planning our retirement since our first date in 2014. This all didn’t become real until recently though. I have a habit of showing Lucy places we could rent abroad on an almost daily basis. Yeah, I may have a problem, I’m not unaware. Recently I showed Lucy a place in Granada, Spain and for the first time she didn’t say some form of, “that’s nice dear” but she said, “you’re booking that for us, right?” I was a bit taken aback I must say. Since then, we’ve booked out 6 months of travel between October 2022 and April 2023. Our itinerary will follow shortly, and we’ll be in contact with those in the vicinity of our path. We hope to see many of you soon, maybe you can even join us on some of our adventures?

 

Brian

The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley…. -Rabbie Burns

There it is. You’ll note the dates. We created this blog with such hopes and plans for 2020. Then the world changed. Then we changed. Here’s the scoop:

 

Brian and I planned to retire in July 2020. We would sell our little condo, become nomads, and merrily go our way around the world. We had been working towards this goal for many years now. Our nest egg was in place. In January 2020 we even travelled to Monterey, CA to get Brian’s gallbladder out and clean up the medical decks before launching. On the flight home some people were masked, the airline was already taking measures to minimize individual contact.

 

February seemed quiet, but by March that was it. Lockdown. We were perfectly happy in our little home. We had food in the pantry. Puzzles. So many books on the To Be Read shelf. Yoga to do. Briefly, it was a bizarrely contented time.

 

Then April hit. On the 10^th I had a rare headache. We’ll never know how I got infected with Covid. We’d been isolating. But we live in a condo building with shared lobby, stairwells, elevator. Who knows? In fact, with the lack of available testing we can’t even prove that what I had was Covid. Our doctors say it was. But it developed into a weeklong fever. When that broke we were sure life would go back to normal. Week after week we thought that was the case. It wasn’t.

 

I have been sick ever since. The “long hauler” experience is different for everyone but it is never simple or easy. In some ways it has been harder on Brian. I don’t remember many months in 2020 and 2021. Huge chunks missing. Luckily, I have journaled since I was 14. I can look back and see 2-3 scrawled sentences. Sometimes only 2-3 words. Those days passed.

 

On one hand I am aware how very lucky I am. I was never hospitalized. I was never in pain. My breathing irregularities resolved within a few months. My work has been very understanding and I was put on long-term disability insurance (wrapping my head around identifying as “disabled” has been excruciating). Brian and I are financially stable. No one can take away our home. We weren’t trying to homeschool children through this pandemic. My medical providers have never expressed any doubt as to my veracity, which is certainly not always the case. I have a supportive family and partner. In some ways, this is very easy. 

 

On the other hand, this is very real. The symptoms are varied but the main ones are exhaustion, tremors, brain fog, and short-term memory issues. The minor ones are a range of bizarre – covid toes, stinging tears, and hiccups. Reading has been almost impossible which just kills me. All this time, and I can’t crack the To Be Read shelf. People kept recommending podcasts, but I could barely focus enough to consider one. I made the rounds with every specialist in Anchorage – rheumatoid, neurological, cardiac, pulmonary. The good news is that I absolutely do not have an underlying autoimmune disorder, nor have I had a stroke. Most of the testing has identified anomalies, but nothing that they can treat (or even understand). I do best when my heart rate doesn’t go above 150 bpm. Over that, and all hell breaks loose. My doctors are learning about this disease at the same rate I am, slowly. I am improving. Just at a rate that is so slow that turtles and snails whiz by me.

 

While long Covid still has no treatment, our doctor recommended I join a study so as to have benchmarks and feel a sense of contribution. I have since joined two online-only studies and now a 4-year in-person study looking at all possible factors (https://www.swedish.org/classes-and-resources/research-studies/org-20192-isb-uncovr). This will necessitate regular trips to Seattle, which is no hardship.

 

Initially being ill led to many feelings of shame, frustration or guilt. By now I have worked through most of that. A big part was having several honest talks with my boss about hiring someone to take up the load. With my memory issues, I couldn’t ethically talk to clients and give them advice….that I didn’t recall giving. The exhaustion meant that just checking emails took everything I had for the day. It left me nothing else. I have been working about 4 hours a week for the last year. This is not the way I intended to wrap up my career. Our doctor gave me the useful guidance: everyone wants to dismount, no one wants to be bucked off. But the buck has happened. As of today my notice has been turned in.

 

The path forward is far more tentative than our 2022 plans. We still hope to travel. We plan to keep our little condo (for now). I don’t think that we’ve seen our last pandemic. And we saw how quickly borders can be closed and people expelled. Having a landing pad makes sense. In the meantime, we are reaching for the joy we can. We find that in our relationships with family and friends, and discovering the world. A silver lining in all of this? Our bond is as strong as ever.

 

Lucy