We are a couple of geezers, prone to somewhat sedate adventuring. I mean sedate by our sensibilities. Others may find them nuts. This Paris thing is still to be determined. It could turn out to be a breathtakingly bad idea.
We’ve managed to put up with each other for over 50 years, and no, we weren’t married as children (I already said we were geezers). The secret to our success is that at least one of us is a keeper, so choose wisely.
Tom is a retired engineer and is generally the originator of these dumb adventures. Jeri is a retired accountant and acts as a sea anchor in the relationship. We cancel each other out, to some extent, and thus average out to be a normal person.
We’ve lived most of our lives in the Southern California area, Jeri being a native Californian. Tom has tried repeatedly to entice Jeri to other parts of the US, and has failed spectacularly. Tom has given up. Getting Jeri to agree to Paris was a surprise, only possible by being pitched as a possible limited term affair after which she can return to her native spawning grounds. We’ll see.
We’ve had more than our share of adventures. We’ve been to the Antarctic, self supported bike tours of the California coast, Utah, Arizona and Hawaii, cave exploring, rock climbing and multi-day backpacks in the Sierras. It’s all fun and games until Jeri cries. Then it’s time to dial it back.
We tried Retirement 1.0 when we turned 40, quit work and did extensive travelling in the US Southwest in a 4WD camper. We got into all sorts of mischief that I’ll pass on mentioning. That retirement didn’t take, so after a few years of wandering (5??) we went back to our chosen professions and worked until we were 55. At that point we implemented Retirement 2.0 (“This time we damn well mean it!”), and have managed to avoid gainful employment ever since.
Our Retirement 2.0 is where we really started international travel. All over Europe, Central and South America, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Iceland. For a couple years we clocked over 100k miles on American Airlines earning us Executive Platinum status (Yes, we were fancy). We realized we had probably pushed things a bit too far when we booked an overnight trip to Puerto Rice to retain our lofty airline status (Never left the airport hotel!). We don’t do that silliness any longer. But for all that travel, we were more like tourists than travelers. There is a distinction.
We are viewing this “move to Paris” nonsense as our last, greatest adventure. We hope to become travelers at last. It’s likely biting off far more than we can chew, but what the hell.
We invite you to observe our likely tragic efforts from the comfort of your own, cozy homes. If we had any sense, it’s what we should be doing.
Do you think it’s time we started leaning to speak French?