01.17.25
(We’ve been sending out our new Travel Younger newsletter since August and have gotten great feedback from some of the postings. We will add them here)
As a nomadic traveler for many years, I find that sometimes the “reality” of what I think will happen is much different than what really does happen. Case in point.
When Kat and I get to a new town, we identify the attractions and places we want to see. Generally, we do not visit most of them, either because of changing interests, or lack of desire. In Kuala Lumpur we planned on going to a rooftop bar for sunset, but since it rained almost every night at that time, our interest waned. But the side trip we wanted to take to Merdeka? Well, that was important to us, so we made it work. And SOOO glad we did. For a two-hour, $3 bus ride, and two days in a new place, it was totally worthwhile.
It’s all a matter of priorities. We hit all the tall towers we wanted to visit, plus Chinatown, food tours, and a few other side trips, along with some of the parks. So that’s all good.
I communicate with a lot of nomads with similar or greater experiences in different places. Some say, “oh when you get to … you must visit the blankety, blank,” or “don’t miss the such and such,” and we DO take those suggestions into consideration, but many times we just do our own thing.
Fantasy Life versus Real Life: events, festivals, music.
In my Fantasy Life, I visualized us attending all kinds of concerts; going to cool places (many times at night), and maybe doing some adventurous things. But in the Real World, neither of us are Night Owls, and even when we were just dating, back in 2018, we were usually “home” by dark. And, truth is, at ages 70+, there are lots of things that are just not that important any more!
In August 2018, six months before we permanently left the US, we spent six weeks touring Spain and Portugal. At that time, the nomadic life was just a fun conversation, and neither one of us was REALLY sure if we could—or SHOULD- pull the trigger. We had only been together as a couple less than a year, so that was another unknown, and our first overseas trip six months earlier did not go as planned. But we loved both Spain and Portugal, and explored via motorbike, train, and bus, and hit lots of major cities from Madrid west to Lisbon, and south to Gibraltar. Portugal really made us giddy since it was so amazingly beautiful, and it fueled my imagination! We took an overnight train from Madrid to Lisbon, and stayed a few days in Cascais, a small tourist town about an hour away, and rented a bike and drove up the coast, which reminded us of California.
One of my favorite things about motorcycles is that I have freedom to think, and I consider it my “man cave on wheels.” Since I don’t have a cave, and usually no wheels, my mind wanders to a lot of places. On this trip I started visualizing what it might be like to LIVE on that coast. To see those views. To eat that amazing food and drink the beautiful wine. I fantasized about having another set of wheels: a bicycle, and cycling the hills, getting in top notch condition; losing my belly fat, and looking lean and mean. Maybe even growing a few inches, finally hitting that elusive six foot mark!
Alas, some of my fantasies did come true, since we did become full time travelers, and we have ridden motorcycles in many countries, but we have yet to return to Portugal. I did not get that bicycle. I didn’t get leaner OR meaner, for better or worse, and of course, that six foot mark is still far off…
But the good news is that other fantasies did come true!
I can’t say that I had a “bucket list,” but if I did, seeing the Acropolis in Athens and the Great Pyramid of Giza would be on it, as was spending time in Australia. We’ve visited over 50 countries so far, and countless cities and attractions, plus lots of ruins, cathedrals, and churches. We’ve met scores of really cool people from all over the world, aside from our home country, and made lifelong friends. We lived by the beach in Mexico during COVID, and ventured into South America and stood on the northern/southern hemisphere line in Ecuador. I rode motorcycles there, plus lots of other countries, including spending three months on a bike with Kat during the summers of 2022 and 2023. My fantasy of bike touring Europe came true, and we are doing it for the third time in April—for five months—so I’m fulfilling that dream, which I didn’t even have on my list.
Dreams start somewhere, and maybe they turn into goals. From there some may manifest into fantasies that come true.
Make a list. Dream it. Make it happen. Think young. You won’t be sorry. Frank Sinatra said it even better: Young at Heart.
