Here We Are Now

Little Manny on one of his many van adventures.

Looking back at the blog recently, I was reminded of what I planned to do here. As James and I retired early, we hoped to create a space for a travel log focused on slow travel and a transparent strategic guide based on financial independence.

The site would be dedicated to documenting the full cycle of our journeys, from spontaneous observations to the comprehensive planning that made them possible. If you were looking for specific breakdowns of destinations, we’d have Guides & Itineraries. For the philosophy behind our approach, including gear and planning methodology, you’d explore Strategy & Systems. And for transparent financial data on our travels, there’d be Budget.

At the time, I was excited about this approach. I was just coming off my career in higher education, most of which included administration and leadership, and the sort of slightly distanced, kind of formal tone seemed comfortable. James and I were both really interested in the how of retiring early. We’d be tracking things meticulously; why not share what we learned with others? Then we took a cross-country road trip from Idaho to North Carolina, our third such trip. We realized we just weren’t interested in van camping anymore. When we reached North Carolina, we sold our Winnebago Solis 59PX and never looked back. After wrapping up 2025 in North Carolina, we spent the first three months of 2026 slow traveling through Spain. It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, a true blessing. We realized that we loved the adventure and Spain, but we loved the spending time with our family even more.

I wasn’t even sure I’d come back to this. I thought it’d be another abandoned blog of mine, like MySpace and early Facebook and so many experiments for classes and the professional blog I started just before I retired. But then I started taking photos and writing about them. And then just writing.

And so here we are now.