In last year’s Christmas letter I wrote of the possibility of a buyout deal from the university. Well, they accepted my application and on January 1, 2009, I became a “house-husband” with Sue still having to get up and go to work each day. After six months of me cleaning the house, doing laundry, and cooking I finally convinced Sue that she really needed to retire and enjoy life like me, so on June 19th she retired after 37 years of working at Baptist Hospital. And that’s the way 2009 will end, both of us fully retired and loving it.
Our first (but nowhere near the last) trip of 2009 was our annual two-week pilgrimage to Hilton Head in January and a side trip to Disney World for five days on the way home.
We made short trips to visit Beckye and the girls and Jamie and her family in the spring but pretty much stayed around town until summer since Sue was still working. Finally my hints to get her to retire and relieve me of the house husband chores paid off. The day after Sue retired we immediately clicked into “travel mode.” For my birthday Sue treated me to a nice little bed and breakfast stay in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, en route to another visit with Beckye.
In August, we went to the dedication of a B-52 aircraft at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, and took that opportunity to visit with my nephew Ty in Kansas while we were close. It had been a while since we visited him. We made a quick trip to Huntsville to a 60’s Garage-Band reunion in August and enjoyed seeing many of my Lee High School classmates.
On September 2nd, we embarked on the retirement vacation we had always promised ourselves we would take – a trip to Hawaii. We were lucky enough to get a free military hop on a Memphis Air Reserve C-5 Galaxy aircraft that took us to Hawaii and enjoyed a comfortable trip getting there. It’s amazing how much room you have on the Air Force’s largest cargo plane. On our attempt to go on to Guam a mechanical problem on the plane after we were airborne forced us to return to Hawaii. Rats! Stranded in Hawaii! Yeah, tough life, I know. We decided to be flexible and spent the time we had set aside for Guam to expand our Hawaiian visit and stayed in the various military lodgings available to us, including two nights in a private cabin on a beautiful sandy beach. We did all the tourist things including a luau, moonlight walks on the beach, boggie-boarding, visiting the Dole Pineapple Plantation, a trip to the USS Arizona Memorial, a ride in a submarine, visiting the Punchbowl National Cemetery, driving around Diamondhead, taking a dinner cruise, and standing atop Pali Lookout…and relaxing. We never watched TV.
After eight days in paradise, we caught a hop on a military C-17 cargo aircraft to Tacoma, Washington, and after spending the night sleeping in the terminal, got another free hop down to San Diego, where we spent 10 days visiting Tiffany and Greg in their new home. When we left there, we were the only two scheduled passengers on a 131-seat Navy 737 passenger aircraft and felt like rock stars as we relaxed in our private jet to Gulfport, Mississippi. A short rental-car drive back to Memphis and we called the first phase of our retirement vacation a success. Next time we’ll take less luggage!
I had to rush during the next three weeks to get my fifth “We Were Crewdogs” book published and picked up before we were off for the second phase of the Grand Adventure Retirement Trip. We stopped and visited family in Birmingham on our way to catch a cruise ship out of Miami that took us to Key West and then Cozumel, Mexico. When we disembarked from the ship, we spent two nights at the old Homestead AFB, south of Miami, highlighted with an Everglades airboat ride. On a whim, we drove from Homestead down to Key West and spent Halloween there along with 70,000 other visitors for an event called “Fantasy Fest.” It was an eye-opening life experience. The skimpy costumes (and lack thereof) left no doubt why this event is held in the southernmost tip of the United States. Exposed body parts would freeze up North!
We had three days worth of Disney park tickets that needed to be used before the end of the year so we stopped at Disney World again on our way home. We were lucky enough to meet up with our good traveling buddies, the Dempseys, in Orlando, and had a nice, but short, visit with them. That 15-day trip added to the 25-day trip earlier concluded a Retirement Vacation of epic proportions, but in a way we were glad to finally be home and get some rest. Forty days and nights is a long time – just ask Noah!
The University of Memphis football season ended with us having to give away most of our season’s tickets for the games because of our travels, but the basketball games began before we returned and their season looks much more promising.
For the Thanksgiving holidays we had Beckye, Alison, and Caitlin in from Iowa, and Jamie, Brian, Caroline, and Katherine in from White House, and our house that is regularly inhabited by two became a home for nine – but we managed. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed seeing everyone. Though Tiffany and Greg couldn’t make it for Thanksgiving, we look forward to their Christmas visit.
In review, we only missed New England in covering the four corners of mainland USA in 2009, by visiting Tacoma, San Diego, and Key West. Maybe next year! Note: Carry less luggage! That’s why they make washers and dryers.
We hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season and wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Pray for our troops overseas.
In last year’s Christmas letter I wrote of the possibility of a buyout deal from the university. Well, they accepted my application and on January 1, 2009, I became a “house-husband” with Sue still having to get up and go to work each day. After six months of me cleaning the house, doing laundry, and cooking I finally convinced Sue that she really needed to retire and enjoy life like me, so on June 19th she retired after 37 years of working at Baptist Hospital. And that’s the way 2009 will end, both of us fully retired and loving it.
