Go, Go, Go!

Quite often I hear, “It must be just terrible to have your daughters living so far from home.” And then the next comment is, “At least Northern California and New York City are great places to visit.” I must agree to visit Sonoma, Napa, and Amador County for wine tasting and/or cooking schools is fun as well as taking in Broadway Shows, touring museums and galleries, and enjoying amazing restaurants with a personal tour guide is not a chore. Until George retired, our vacations were mostly limited to these locations as of course, we love being with our family. BUT after retirement, time and more financial FREEDOM helped open more possibilities. As I once heard said, after retirement, it is GO GO, then SLOW GO, then NO GO.

In preparation for our GO GO years, George purchased a lifetime passbook for all U.S. National Parks. Yes, we have started to collect Stamps from each of the parks we visit. We have experienced some tours, cruises, and road trips.

Thoughts and perspective from the last few years of GO GO:

  • Travel alone or with old friends can both be enjoyable

  • We did travel fairly extensive with our daughters but this time is special in many ways…we are still making memories that only we can share

  • Being dropped off at the front of the line at the Vatican makes a Senior Tour attractive

  • Noticing that we are often the youngest on a cruise or tour, we soon learn that many have waited to “grow up” before traveling

  • When seeing some amazing scenes and hearing sounds like enormous ice chips breaking from a glacier, I thought, wow this sight would have made geography lessons much more interesting

  • Airbnb is often an easy way to learn about daily life in a new area

  • Running into neighbors as enjoying lunch at Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy…Yes the world is small

Back in the day…when we walked miles to school in the snow, families often took road trips. We took very few road trips with our daughters as time and patience was a big factor in choosing air travel. Late summer, George wanted to catch the fall colors in New England. We decided…maybe he decided we needed to be more spontaneous and not make any reservations. He checked to see the best dates to see the most color and I checked the calendar to know the dates of all Ohio State Football Home Games. Yes, we all have our priorities in the fall.

As we started out, I remembered an article I had read in the Columbus Monthly Magazine about John and Annie Glenn taking a road trip across the country when they were in their mid-90s. The article ended with a quote from John Glenn, “You’ve got to keep going to keep going.” We packed our car with very comfortable clothes, some snacks, a picnic lunch, and of course some water and wine. We packed some CDs, knew we had SiriusXM, and I needed a laptop to keep an eye on my real estate clients. We really didn’t have a predetermined stopping place or timeline. No whining, some great singing, even whistling, and yes, frequent bathroom and stretching stops.

Now coming from Southern Ohio, I have seen some beautiful fall foliage on some rolling hills so I must confess, I really didn’t think I would see anything too spectacular but would enjoy the time with George. I soon learned I was wrong. As we experienced some traffic on back roads, meeting people in small towns we soon learned we were called “PEAKERS” touring Vermont at the PEAK Time of Fall Foliage.

Loved touring the Green Mountain Nations Forest. Little did we ever imagine…out of nowhere…in front of our eyes, A Polish Food Truck. Chef from NYC brings his truck to Vermont for all the Peakers. He prepares the Polish Dish to your order as you wait. Food was very familiar to The Original Grandma Yanok’s Holiday Cooking. I could just imagine her in this very convenient kitchen with everything at your fingertips to make the best Polish Food. It might have been a wonderful Encore Career for her a few years ago. Traveling and making everyone happy!

One other story, we still laugh about happened in Troy, New York. We heard in the news that there was an amazing Chowder Festival nearby. We both love chowder as George is often working on a new variation. We got to this small town and walked a few streets enjoying the sights. As the morning passed, we discovered where to buy our tickets for 10 tastings of different chowders from local restaurants. As we stood at the ticket station, we noticed more and more people were getting in line and decided to stay put to not lose our place... As time went by, a couple behind us were explaining they had been first in line for this event since the beginning of time. It seemed to be a tradition that was very important to them. I offered to let them in front of us…why not. As they moved to the front of the line, they said, “You must not be from here. You are two nice.” They grinned with agreement when I shared, I was from OHIO. They knew I couldn’t be from New York. It made me chuckle as I hear that quite often when I am helping families move to Ohio.

This is the beginning of more road trips, memories, and stories to remember.

Family, Growing UpEmma Yanok