It took me awhile …. quite a while and maybe more as I trolled the web, scouring searches of international living, overseas relocation, retirement overseas, life overseas, top ten lists and Panama retirement before I stumbled upon RSI. I knew I wanted to live on extended stays in various countries and catch up on my bucket list. Living in a country is very different from travel as a tourist. After several conversations with the team at RSI I think they will serve me well as my great enabler on my journeys.
Some background on me as before I attempt to put down my thoughts would be prudent. Here goes; at close to sixty, I have 35 years or more with a fortune 20 company and a steady rise in responsibilities in my niche which is ( or was ) business development. I have seen good years and not so good ones; good bosses and bad ones over the years. As I reminisce on my first sixty years and my career, it does appear my life has been very much one of a nomad as I traveled extensively on business.
I googled further to understand the true definition of these labels and am finding that wayfarer comes closer to where I am in my life. The definitions garnered from my cursory research are as follows;
NOMAD; a member of a people who have no fixed residence but move from place to place usually seasonally and within a well-defined territory. An individual who roams about.
VAGABOND; leading an unsettled, irresponsible, or disreputable life.
WAYFARER; a person who travels from place to place usually by walking.
Enough said on the definitions, context and my background for now. Wayfarer rolls off my tongue rather nicely and to be absolutely clear no, I do not plan to walk across the planet.
Having retired comfortably and in good stead, I am now exploring the next adventure, to take the time and the energy needed to fully explore my deep seated curiosities. I appear to be in agreement with the RSI folks that the planet is indeed a small one. With my creative juices in full flow, I plan on regular monthly blog updates as I embark on my adventures soon after a full recovery from my recent knee replacement surgery. I guess I can write about that too at some point.
My short posts are probably going to touch on how I am getting my affairs in order; optimizing my health ( and therefore the knee surgery ! ) the process of discovery on which parts of the planet I want to experience; exactly what I plan to do when I get there; how long I plan to stay in each location etc will probably fill many pages in my travel journal and I will plan on sharing my experiences on blog postings as well. I would welcome all responses, comments and suggestions and advise triggered by my posts.
As it stands I will be visiting Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka on the first leg and probably spend several months before a break back home in the US prior to subsequent stages. These will include Ireland and Scotland. More to come on this as it does change frequently.… Any and all input on concierged stays in Australia and NZ are welcome as I will not have RSI available to smoothen out the rough edges in these countries.