Literally...the view from and of my sleeping facilities for the night. Beautiful, cozy and shared with one of my favorite travel companions, Mack, on the road to Colorado.
As one of my previous posts indicated, recently retired and feeling a strong need to see my sis in Colorado, Mack and I started out going north from our home base of Holton, over the bridge (Mackinaw) and through the UP, around the lower tip of Lake Superior and westward ho! Although our destination was the northeastern tip of Colorado, my secondary goal (photographing something...anything ) propelled my drive through the Badlands and Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the way down.
Our successful maiden voyage in the almost new auto, a Ford, Hybrid CMax Sel, averaging about 40 mpg, combined with the comfy and inexpensive sleeping arrangements, guaranteed it would not be our last.
Paradoxically, if you know me at all, you'd swear I was a 4-star minimum, hotel kind of gal. And quite honestly, I was until the realities of retirement hit me. EEKK...no every other week payday? (And I blamed it on the influx of bedbugs in hotel rooms.)
While I've been planning for it, prepared and anxiously awaiting it, retirement does STILL come as a huge shock. Here it is...I finally have time for my passions...travel and art, but... I have more time. I have less money. I have a career. I have no regular payday (well I really do...retirement and social security) but not from my freelance business. I obsess about the unimportant details encountered in daily living but have time to appreciate life. I have time to write and do art but diminished motivation (have always had to squeeze it in...and with laser-like focus accomplished a lot in a small window of time.)
So...life changes...adjustments are made...and new goals established. What's next? A road trip? I think I'll try either a color tour or a drive by of lighthouses in Michigan...on the cheap, in the car with Mack. My next art project? A pastel painting of poppies.
I'll keep you posted.
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