Dave's Retirement Adventure

After retiring a few years ago, and taking a year off for overseas travel, Estelle and I settled in back home to discover our new life in our old home of 38 years. Covid hit and pretty much guaranteed we’d be right here until a vaccine came along. What we weren’t prepared for was discovering the joy of our neighborhood. One would think, after living here all this time, we would know our neighbors well. In reality, my working life as an entrepreneur and Estelle’s drama studio, were pretty much all consuming—leaving home before dark, returning after dark, and working many weekends. So, other than our next door neighbors, we really didn’t get to know many others at all. Then, over the years, there was quite a bit of turnover on the block so we just never connected, particularly with the new families with young children. Our neighborhood around New Natchez Trace, between Golf Club and Woodlawn, is a great walking area—interconnected, quiet, shaded streets among a wide variety of home...

Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present. Find a soulmate to share your life with and experience the joys of making that person happy for the rest of your lives. Be caring and compassionate with your family, friends, and your fellow man Time heals almost everything, give it time. Don't compare your life to others and don't judge them. You have no idea what their journey is like. Stop thinking too much. It's alright not to know the answers. They will come to you when you least expect it. Practice healthy habits of exercise and nutrition. You will be glad you did for the rest of your life. Nurture good friendships early and throughout your life. You can't make old friends when you're old. No one is in charge of your happiness, except you. Smile. You don't own all the problems in the world Have integrity. Success will come and go, but integrity is Forever. To thine own self be true. Be open to new directions in your life and be pr...

Report on January 2020 NBB adventure Canoe trip to Okefenokee swamp. Since we were without our NBB adventure group expert trip secretary Rube, on this trip, I’ll try to substitute. It was a small NBB group this time with Dan, Sam, and I making our respective trips to Southeast Georgia. We were all feeling airplane deprived since Dan and I are both temporarily grounded and so, Dan drove 11hr round trip from Canton, GA, I did about 10 hr of commercial air time, and Sam did about 10 hr of drive time to and from Carrabelle with stops at JAX to shuttle me. It would have been a perfect mission for our airplanes. However, otherwise the trip was a very successful adventure, primarily thanks to Sam’s excellent research and planning, and some great luck with the weather. We met in Folkston, GA on Sunday, and Sam and I had some extra time to verify canoe bookings and plans and do a drive and walk through the Chesser homestead which originally was settled in the swamp in 1858...

Link to photo Album Here We’ve been to many 2 nd and 3 rd world countries. We always struggle with understanding the history of how they ended so far behind the First World countries. Australia is a completely different experience. Here we arrive at a previously isolated, former British penal colony, at the other end of the world, that has created a first world country and has maintained it for many years. “How did dey do dat?” We always thought we’d get a chance to visit here one day, and indeed a good opportunity came along in the middle of our six month stay in South Africa. Here’s the 14 hr route the Qantas 747 took. I’m always interested in relative latitude when traveling and it was very interesting to me that Sydney, Atlanta, and Cape Town, at about 33 degrees, are all the same distance from the equator. One of the immediate differences we notice on this trip, compared to our Egypt OAT trip is the amount ...