Hitting Pause on Travel
When we last spoke with Glenn and Bryn...
OK, as much as I would love to write this in the third person, I probably shouldn't. But yes, it's been awhile. However, things have been pretty busy behind the scenes and in real life.
In our last update we mentioned that Glenn was going back to the States to finish out his retirement pension vesting. This is now well underway as we are now working and living in Austin, Texas. Glenn is now the sole help desk person for a governmental entity, supporting around 120 or so employees. He has already attended at least one 'service awards' meeting where his fellow co-workers were receiving recognition for 25-30 years of service! That is one thing that we know we'll never receive, and we're fine with that. At some point in the next 3-5 years we will have fully vested pensions and replenished savings and will likely, finally retire -- for real. It will still be 'early', compared to most people, just not as early as we had originally intended.
In analyzing where we have ended up compared to where we intended to be by now, what we basically did was a combination of mini-retirement and self-employment. In retrospect, we would have been just fine if we had waited two years and taken off in 2013 for our nation-wide camping trip and then left for Mexico in 2014. We'd still be south of the border and have plenty of money left in the bank. But hindsight is always 20/20. While we regret having to go back to 'work' after having lived rather foot-loose and fancy-free for the last four years, we wouldn't exchange any of the wonderful memories and friends we've already made. Looking back, we know we jumped the gun a bit, but we regret nothing.
We've already reunited with some of our friends from Mexico who are temporarily living in Austin, and we keep up with everyone else online. We are enjoying the city while we are here, and Glenn's job is pretty good so far. We meet up with other Spanish speakers regularly to practice. Family is close as well, and we're seeing them as much as possible while we can. We also celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!
Speaking of family, it's about time for the second day of Thanksgiving get-together meals. Bryn has a huge turkey and all the 'fixings' in the kitchen and we'll eat within the hour.
We're still working on image and video updates, as well as reworking many trip reports to more of a true travel essay format. The end result should be a much more enjoyable and readable site. We'll let you know when there is something more to see. Thank you very much for reading, and we look forward to giving you many more things to see, hear and read in the years to come. In the meantime, we hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!