Back on the Road after nearly two years

2,000 Miles - Route 66!

Things can occur that make travel difficult or impossible. This post will be different and will be about how my life's plans were altered. In fall of 2022 I suspended trekking. This is a summary of my experience.  I became aware that I had a serious illness, and RV travel became impossible. However, after a long and difficult treatment I was able to resume trekking in late Summer of 2024. Treatment continues, but my medical leash is now longer and the risks are fewer. So, with doctor's approval we took a 4,000 mile round trip in our Roadtrek. 

We returned to our summer "cabin", which is actually a 30 ft travel trailer on a campsite in Michigan.  We had used this as a summer retreat. It is at the eastern shore of Lake Michigan and that location  allowed us to kayak on that lake, and to enjoy the farm stands, local restaurants, the Michigan wine country shoreline, and travel as far as the UP, etc. 

Our Michigan campsite

However, we had to suspend travel because I was diagnosed with an inoperable stage IV cancer.  It is a rare cancer, and only about 15% survive.  My hemoglobin (HGB) bottomed at 3.6 and blood infusions were necessary.  We relocated so I could get treatment, and a medical team was assembled.  In 2023 aggressive treatment began. It included chemotherapy, but the drug of choice was unavailable to me because of short supply and my age; it was being rationed to younger patients.  There were blood transfusions to raise my HGB to 7.0 (normal is 11.5-13.5), and chemo could not be administered, nor would I be released from a hospital visit if my HGB was below 7.0.  One doctor suggested I consider hospice care, but I declined.  Using a walker I was mobile, etc. so I wasn't ready for that. There were many sessions of radiation therapy, additional blood infusions, multiple cycles of chemotherapy and finally I began immunotherapy.  

I'll complete one year of immunotherapy in October. One of my kidneys was collateral damage and ceased to function properly.  I was given first one, then a second nephrostomy tube. These require replacement (exchange) every 2-4 months.  That was the end of water and other sports for me. The tubes make certain movement impossible, and any quick twists, bends, etc. tug at the sutures and could displace the catheter in the kidney. That happened, once!  Even stubbing a toe, as occurred today can be painful, if the sutures are pulled.  Bouncing in an RV or car seat can also be painful. 

Typical Nephrostomy tube Exits through the back

Nephrostomy Diagram - tubing exiting through the back

It has been a very difficult two years.  However, my doctors have been incredible.  There have been issues of course.  The disease is debilitating, and my body weight dropped from 170 to 135 lbs. Strength and stamina took a hit. I was on a strict diet. There were and remain some side effects to deal with. At one time I had a pseudomonas infection, and I've undergone seven hospital stays from a couple of days to a week in duration, as well as the many procedures. Each treatment can require a couple of hours, or four or more.  I had radiation treatments 5 days a week for many weeks.  My radiologist told me "you are made of Stern Stuff" as the dosage was increased. A port was installed for infusions; my body had a reaction to this, but I resisted removal, pending the outcome of cultures to determine if there was infection (there was none). There were four chemotherapy cycles; each cycle was nine treatments, one per week. I had reactions to the drugs, but overall, my reactions could have been worse than they were. I'm currently completing a year of immunotherapy.  Throughout I have attempted to avoid being a burden to anyone, but with limited success. I undertook mental exercises to assist me in dealing with this and facilitate healing. 

The financial cost for this has been staggering.  I'm fortunate that my insurance has paid for most of it.

The treatments have been effective.  My weight has recovered to 150 lbs., which my primary care physician tells me is acceptable for my height and frame Most recently I have been on a very short medical leash, with an immunotherapy infusion every other week.  This made travel difficult.  However, because of my response to the treatments it has been possible to occasionally delay an immunotherapy session so that one occurs every four weeks.  That interval permitted some travel.  MRIs and C-Scans do not currently detect the presence of cancer, and my blood work is good.  I'm "stable". However, it is likely there remain a few cancer cells in my body.

Throughout, I received a lot of moral support and prayers. I really didn't know how many people cared about me. I'm on the planet today because of the grace of God, many prayers, my spouse, my incredible team of doctor and nurses, my tenacity, and the assistance friends.  I had led an active lifestyle and dealt with an unusual amount of adversity over the years.  My doctors tell me that these things contributed to my positive response to the disease. I never thought those earlier problems would train me and give me the fortitude to deal with this.

 When the full nature of the disease was revealed, I told a doctor that I wanted the cancer (this "thing") out of my body, although it was inoperable. I had decided to do everything possible for myself, and to empower my medical team.  I reasoned that if they won, I won. I became an advocate for myself.  I studied the illness and became educated about it.  I asked questions when it was prudent to do so and kept notes and a photographic record.  

We had been living in a 41+ ft. 5th wheel, but that became unsafe and impossible to navigate using a walker. We lived in a hotel for a month while we looked for a ranch style house to live in. With the help of friends in the area, we found a suitable home. When we moved in, we purchased a bed and moved some lawn furniture inside.  We began with a clean slate.  The decision to purchase was very difficult, because we (my spouse and I) were dealing with the illness. The future was an unknown.

I progressed from a walker, to using a cane, to walking unassisted. I can take a walk of a mile or so, and I do use a stationary bicycle.  I no longer trust myself on an untethered one.  I've gained 15 lbs. and hope to gain more, although my primary care physician tells me my weight is good for my height and frame.  

We are waiting for the completion of this year of immunotherapy and hope we'll be able to travel regularly.  I've been striving to live a normal life, but I realize it is a "new normal" and may be short. It is likely I'll have the nephrostomy tubes for the rest of my life.  

Note: in March 2024 we drove 7.4 miles to the Pima County Fairgrounds for the annual FMCA RV convention.  I don't consider that to have been a "road trip".

(c) N. Retzke

Surf is up at Weko Beach

 

 

I wrote this in mid-September, but delayed posting.

Some people tell us that we are lucky, and we are. However, I also tell them that we began planning this in 1999. It took many years to get the many pieces into place. We traveled by automobile checking out some possible locations, but other obligations limited our travel including work.  And, of course there are financial constraints. As we got close to putting all of it into real action we rented a Class B RV in 2013 to test the plan. We then purchased a Roadtrek so we could explore the remaining places we had researched, experience the lifestyle and visit National Parks and other things we were interested in. We jumped at the opportunity to get an annual site at a campground in Michigan although the plan was to first deal with the southwest U.S. location.

 I did spend thousands of hours on this research, including deciding which Class B to purchase so we could plan our escape and explore many "lily pad" locales. But, there are no guarantees. LOL. I am a firm believer in the philosophy that "life is short" and "today is the best day of my life". In other words, it is all downhill from here. So, while I plan and prepare it is all about shifting constantly from thought into action. 

For those who don't know me well, it all appears to be serendipity, luck and hip shooting. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yet, I am so fortunate that things have turned out as they have. That is part luck and by the grace of God. My favorite expression is "God loves us, but the universe doesn't care". I consider that to be life-affirming, it empowers me and I act accordingly.

I do hope everyone is doing well in "the year of covid-19".  We decided to hunker down for a good part of the summer on the eastern short of Lake Michigan.  Politics kept the restaurants locked down but they have gradually opened. We had a good summer but there was less travel than normal; the governor of this state was issuing punitive punishment against businesses which were deemed to be in non-compliance of the governor's orders, which were found to be unconstitutional. LOL.  

 

We had a lot going on.  One thing was to prepare the condo which we seldom use for sale.  We have two other "lily pads" so the condo has become superfluous.  I got a large dumpster and got rid of a bunch of old business stuff, some furniture and I also gave away a lot of Steelcase and Mayline office furniture. In all, I carried more than 3 tons to the recycler or into this dumpster. LOL. 

Original material:  https://roadtrek210.blogspot.com/

Working, Volunteering, Planning and Trekking

This post is a summary of how I/we got to this point in our trekking. In our case it took years. Others might get to this point more rapidly and this post might be an aid in accomplishing that.  Later in the post there is some planning information.

Early Travels
For a good part of my life I decided to take "The Road Less Travelled" (Note 1). Since 2013 we've trekked 29,000 miles while working.  Prior to that I have driven all over the U.S. and parts of Canada. About 600,000 miles total, and hundreds of airline trips with destinations ending in cities, towns and villages. A lot of the driving was local, but an awful lot was long distance for business purposes. I've had mid- to long-term business stays in CA, NY, OK, IA, IN, MO, IL, AL, GA, LA, FL, MI, CT, UT, TX, PA, MD, OH, WY, WI, NE, SC and elsewhere, while driving or flying in between.  There were also business trips outside the U.S. and a few non-business, too.  I would work during the day and drive in the evening or at night.  I slept in the back of a car, in a truck or wherever. Froze at more than one rest stop.  I lived weeks and months in a variety of motels. Work was frequently 12-18 hour days, and frequently 6 or 7 days a week. At one time I got through this by saying "I'll sleep tomorrow".

No matter where I was, I always maintained a "home base" somewhere, so I had a place to hang my hat, a place I could call "home".  Sometimes there was family waiting for me, and sometimes not. While travelling I paid attention to the communities I was in. Not much sight seeing was possible, but I did visit State Parks, etc. when I could. I checked out the local places, diners, museums, etc. I got to know the locals, as we worked together.

In 2000 I began serious investigation into places in the U.S. I might like to live. My many business travels were very useful to me. There were observations made while on a lot of automobile and airline trips, mostly for business purposes. Then as of 2013 via RV to get a closer and longer look at the top choices from my list.

Home Bases
We used all of our travels after 2000 to investigate locations we would be interested in living for longer periods of time. We used our treks after 2013 to set up several "home bases" in the U.S. which will provide me and G with the life we want to live in retirement. I also used them to get to client locations, as well as do exploring for where we would like to live for the next 10 years. We have friends and family scattered from the Northwest to the Northeast, the Southeast and the Southwest. There is also a very large group in the midwest.  Trekking is a good way to visit. But that is not guaranteed. For example, in the spring of 2017 we headed from the Southwest to Florida to visit family and friends. That was a 2,000 mile trek, and we had arranged to stay in a campground in FL. This had been pre-arranged but on arrival the family in FL cancelled our visit. After a couple of days of hovering and enjoying the area, we trekked on to the Florida Keys and visited some wonderful friends.

Obviously, being flexible is helpful for a trekker.

Planning my "escape"

I began planning my "escape" from a life of work at the age of 55. At the time and I had some serious obligations, such as young adult children who were in their early 20s at the time. That meant I was dealing with the financial consequences of their college educations. All obtained their degrees at "out of state" schools, and one attended a private college. The costs were not trivial and they shared in the burden. With freedom to choose comes responsibility and obligations. 

So I first had to deal with my financial obligations.  

Another issue was my civic duty. "What's that?" you may ask. I've been a volunteer of one sort or another over the span of about 25 years. Currently, one of our home bases is a condominium.  I am a HOA unit owner, and these associations run with a board, which makes all of the critical decisions. I've been on such a board for 7 years. Not a hobby, I assure you. That association is 40 years old and spends about $1.3 million each year. 75% of that is on "maintenance". I have "worked" as a volunteer for up to 700 hours in a single year doing this (that was 2010-2011).

I used the period from 2001 to the present to develop a plan. Patience, I have been told, is a virtue.

Creating a portal to another world
If we choose to trek we'll need something to accomplish that in. In my experience, successful trekking requires a significant amount of planning and preparation. I've done a lot of backpacking and ground camping over the years, and so I approached trekking in a RV the same way.  We decided we wanted to be nearly "full time trekkers" and that upped the stakes a bit.

To go "full time" or "much of the time" requires a lot of logistics. One can travel continuously, or one can hop from one geographical area to another.  We chose to hop, and do a lot of exploring in between. That decision required that we determine what "base" areas we wanted to live in.

As I had never been in a RV but at a show, I had absolutely no practical experience. But then, I learned to camp as an adult and so I approached this as merely another learning exercise.

Establishing the Location of a Base or Bases
With a map, we drew a series of circles with 400 mile radiuses. The centers were locations we might choose to base or live for longer periods. These were chosen with several criteria:

• Proximity to things we wanted to see or spend time visiting (400 miles distance max).
• Weather. Moderate temperatures in winter or fall or summer (multiple base locations required).
• Resources. Water is a necessity. 
• Reasonable costs and stable communities in viable states. (Not CA, IL, or other financially strapped states or areas; avoid financial time bombs). 
• Nice people. Rather a broad category, but in some areas we have found that attending even a diner can be a wonderful experience, while at others it isn't. Sometimes the staff would prefer to be elsewhere and makes it obvious. In fact, going to such places is a wonderful way to determine the mindset of the locals. Anywhere that doesn't want us is a place I choose not to be. 

Steps for Success
We decided we'd need to formulate a series of steps. Money is the grease or fuel for living, but it isn't the goal. We decided we really needed to focus on finances while developing our plan. Here is what we did, and it worked for us so it might work for others. So what are the steps?

• Step 1

Develop a long term plan. If you think I'm a "just wing it" person, or that you can simply "wing it", then brace yourself for some real upsets. "Retiring early" or full time trekking may allow you to escape from today's "daily grind." But it won't solve the problems you will face 2, 5, 10 or further years into the future. 

IMHO retiring early requires some real planning, or perhaps winning the lottery.   I concluded that I could not retire early, and did not.

• Step 2

Begin a budget, NOW. The longer you keep one the more you will know about your spending habits and what it actually takes to live. If you can, purchase Quicken and plug in all of your expenses, itemizing credit card expenses, debt (auto, credit card and mortgage). Track your current living expenses and develop a budget. You will also need one while trekking, so you might want to know how you are doing today and compare that to the future "plan".

• Step 3

Consider a plan that will allow you to live "debt free". Using your budget information, determine how many months or years it will take to achieve this. Then use that time to develop your plan and to prepare for it.

• Step 4

Live a life in balance. Consider living a life in moderation. That means balancing today's needs, wants and desires with those future expectations. Save rather than buy the toys. Drive that automobile a few years longer, etc.

• Step 5

Focus on health. One's health is an important criteria. A healthy lifestyle is helpful. However, as we age we may find we lose abilities and our health will decline. We decided we'd have to do whatever it was we were interested in prior to the age of 85. We'll monitor and assess our abilities annually in "retirement" and that will determine the future. However, health issues do occur. Include such things in your plans.

• Step 6

Save significantly for retirement. Social Security was only designed to provide a portion of one's retirement financial needs. "Most financial advisors say you'll need about 70 percent of your pre-retirement earnings to comfortably maintain your pre-retirement standard of living." According to SS, if you have average earnings, your Social Security retirement benefits will replace only about 40 percent." " Most recipients receive between $700 and $1,800 per month in Social Security benefits." There is some evidence that future benefits may not be as generous as today's benefits. 

• Step 7

Develop some idea of how you would like to live while trekking, and where. Where do you want to go? Where do you want to spend the majority of your time? Doing what?

• Step 8

Try it. Rent an RV for a week or so. Rent something that you think you would like to own and trek in. Use it under the same conditions you think you would like to spend in your own RV. Learn from that experience.  Keep track of all of the costs.

• Step 9

After trying a RV, review your plan. Adjust it if necessary.

• Step 10 

Do additional long term planning.  Decide how much a RV may cost, and determine how much the lifestyle may cost, using the experience gained in Step 8.

Look seriously into the costs of food, gas or diesel, maintenance, health care, ownership insurance, entertaining, dining and so on.

Go online and pick a few places you would like to stay while trekking. Plug in the site rental costs. You may dream of boondocking, but that may not be a realistic lifestyle. We decided it could be a part of our trekking style, and it has been.

So how many days a year will you be trekking as in moving from place to place? Every day on the road uses gasoline or diesel and consumes a portion of the useful life of the engine and chassis of your rig.  The more you travel, the more fuel you will use. Travel also does consume the tires and accelerates the maintenance interval.

Take all of these numbers and determine your startup costs, annual costs, and add in a 15% "contingency".

• Step 11  

You will now have sufficient information at your finger tips and the knowledge to execute the plan you develop.

Working in Retirement or while Trekking
If that is something you want to do, the I'd suggest looking into "workamping". There are ample online resources about this, including groups on social media. One of the issues of trekking is costs. Workamping provides the opportunity to stay in one location for a time; that means no gasoline or long distance travelling expense. It also provides the opportunity to explore an area. Finally, it may provide "free" rent and electricity while providing  free services and/or utilities in exchange for the services you provide. Do your own research into the benefits and problems of workamping and see if it might be for you.

I have not yet been a workamper. I've been fortunate that my skill set allows me to earn money while trekking in providing technical services and creative writing. We have discussed this and who knows, it could happen.

It's a big country and even larger continent
If you, like me, are interested in seeing a lot of this country, I think we Americans are fortunate. Lots of wonderful national and state parks, towns of all sizes and types, as well as big cities. A very large, geographically and culturally diverse country. Wonderful to trek in.

We've only trekked about 29,000 miles since December 2013. Less than four years of such trekking. But we've seen an incredible amount of the U.S.  That's because we "base" in certain locations and then travel from there. As a result, we spend a lot more time "seeing" things than travelling to things. It also reduces our actual travel costs. Less gasoline and less wear and tear on the Roadtrek, too.

Furthermore, many large cities have train service from the suburbs. Boston, Chicago and New York come to mind. I have travelled on the BART in San Francisco, but not recently. It is easy to spend some time on the outskirts and then take the train into the city for a long weekend.

In fact, Chicago Metra has a special "weekend pass" which is a wonderful bargain. $8 per person, special rate for children. I'm sure there are other special rates available in other cities. We've travelled by train in New York State, and Massachusetts.

A good Road Book
There are a lot of resources out there. One of my sons purchased a book which has a lot of good road information. I have the 6th Edition. The current edition is the 7th. I'll pass it along. This is a book "Covering more than 35,000 miles of classic blacktop":

• Road Trip USA - Cross-Country Adventures on America's Two-Lane Highways, Jensen.

Road Trip Software
We use Microsoft "Streets and Trips" PC based planning software a 2013 version. MS discontinued this program but there are other approaches. We also use "Allstays" android app and google maps when trekking. The onboard GPS keeps us from making serious mistakes, but one has to check those routes. The "TomTom" I call "DumbDumb" and the Verizon VZ Navigator on the android smart phone provides real time traffic and incident updates.

"Streets and Trip" PC screen, a segment of a recent trek 

When we tire of the 48 States
After the lower 48, there is always Canada and Alaska to visit. We aren't sufficiently adventurous to consider Mexico and South America. But that might change.

Retiring Early - an Escape?
There are many posts and blogs about "retiring early" and travelling, or working while travelling. I'm not here to promote early retirement. It might not be useful to see "retiring early" as a means to escape from a life of work. Doing so may put into play some serious obstacles to financial well being in retirement. Planning a normal retirement at age 65 implies working to the age of 65 and then living in retirement for 30 years. I had great difficulty planning a normal working life of 40 years. There were a lot of detours along the way. That's one of the reasons I worked 52 full time years, delayed retirement and then continued working part time in "retirement".  By doing so I will spend fewer years in retirement. For anyone who has difficulty planning for a month, much less a year, planning for 30 years in retirement seems oddly irresponsible. I can deal with 20 years or so.

Prudence dictates that we consider that retirement may be even more challenging than normal work life. In retirement there are the realities of living on retirement income and dealing with failing health. My golden years may prove to be golden only for the health care and insurance industries.

This post will review a few approaches and will indicate what worked for me. Your experiences will probably be different. However, there are some fundamental similarities.

I suggest that we each:

1. Find our purpose in life and make money doing that. This may extend our working years.
2. Save a lot of that money for retirement while working and honoring our other financial obligations.
3. Continue working beyond social security "full retirement age". 
4. Once at "full retirement age" move into "phased" retirement which is cutting back on work hours each year while continueing to save.
5. Trek while in phased retirement. 
6. Do what we can to balance work and recreation. 
7. Consider volunteering. 

I have done all of the above, and continue to do so to this day. This blog is my journal about some of my discoveries about trekking since 2013, when I reached a formal retirement age, but continued to work, and I do continue to work (earn some income) even as of the date of this post. However, I don't earn from posts, blogs, ads, etc. I actually do perform other "work" which includes creative writing elsewhere and some very technical industrial engineering. 

Note:

1. My apologies to author M. Scott Peck, who is the author of a famous book by that name. I have a copy of the 1978 publication. Peck's book begins with "Life is Difficult."    For more information about Peck and this remarkable book go to:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck