How do you feel about road trips? Throwing a few things into the car, a change or two of clothes, snack food, loading up the iPod with your favourite tunes, your favourite travel mug, a map, a full tank of gas and GOING somewhere! <\/i><\/p>\n
The anticipation builds the last few days before you start out, imagining not just the arrival point, but the journey itself.\u00a0 New roads, new scenery, new people, stepping out from under the weight of the day-to-day responsibilities and just going into discovery mode. Fresh and full of possibilities around every new corner, and if it\u2019s a place you\u2019ve never been before, every corner is new.\u00a0 It\u2019s invigorating!!<\/i><\/p>\n
Now, imagine that road trip isn\u2019t just for a two-week holiday.\u00a0 Imagine it\u2019s open-ended.\u00a0 And, just to spice it up, you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going.\u00a0 Wait a minute!\u00a0 I\u2019ll need more than a change or two of clothes. Get out the big suitcase! And I\u2019ll need my own pillow, some more shampoo, another pair of shoes, my laptop, more music, a movie or two loaded on my iPad, what else\u2026? \u00a0\u00a0<\/i>And just where are we headed, anyway? \u00a0How will I know what kind of clothes to pack?! \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
With all our \u2018stuff\u2019 safely locked away in a 10\u2019x20\u2019 storage unit in Port Alberni, the ferry would disgorge us onto the BC mainland and south down I5 with one major question bouncing around in the car, to the tunes of Bob Seger (after all, what\u2019s a road trip without Bob launching you down the road around some unknown corner?!) \u00a0The all important, pivotal question?\u00a0 \u201cWhere, in the world, can we live a reasonable lifestyle on our small fixed income?\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
McDean had been doing some fairly extensive research on the growing expat communities popping up around the world, beginning to burgeon with people similar to us: retiring baby boomers who\u2019s retirement funds have been decimated by the Wall Street\/banking gang, or they\u2019re just simply beginning to retire and struggling along on Social Security or CPP \u2013 maybe or maybe not supplemented with miniscule pensions.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
We actually even had the beginnings of a list \u2013 one we had planned to continue researching and use \u2013 some day.\u00a0 Someday just showed up about five years earlier than we expected.\u00a0 The list tended to consist of Latin American countries: Honduras, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, etc.\u00a0 Places where the cost of living is, according to all reports, a lot cheaper than it is in North America.\u00a0 With an unexpected early retirement, all we had to figure out now is where to start. \u00a0How tough could that be?<\/i><\/p>\n
The plan was to narrow down our choices until we were ready to buy the plane tickets, as we visited friends & family and\u00a0<\/i>said our good-byes, since we envisioned giving our grand experiment about a year.\u00a0 We decided to give ourselves the summer to bid our nearest and dearest adieu and figure it out, planning to be at a boarding gate in PDX (Portland International Airport) by the end of August, headed to our next adventure – somewhere. \u00a0\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
Every time we got into the car and headed down another Northwest road, whether in Canada or the US, we were brainstorming. \u00a0Discovering our way as we tried to figure out our next baby step on our journey.\u00a0 Pros and cons, why-nots and what-ifs.\u00a0 The honing down process is a journey all in itself.<\/i><\/p>\n
It\u2019s now the end of July and we\u2019ve finally decided it\u2019s Mexico.\u00a0 We don\u2019t know a lot more than that, but it\u2019s a good starting place.\u00a0 We have a month to figure out which Mexican airport to fly into and take a bus (or buses) to find a good place to plant ourselves for a year.\u00a0 It seems like every day is a new starting place for something, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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