The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

The last 6 weeks has been loaded with activity! For myself, life back at GET is busy, busy! Bookings are still slow with the down economy but I’m having to learn two new reservations systems within company and then last week we also changed over to a different airline computer system. My brain is a bit fried but..they say knowledge is power right?! Jim’s work is also keeping him busy. With he & Mike now the only 2 employees at their location they constantly on their toes. However, for both of us it sure makes the days go by quickly.

We’ve been having amazing weather, although very changeable from day to day. We have gone camping twice in the last 6 weeks and then spent Labor Day weekend at Ron & Dario’s mountain cabin with them and some other friends. It was rainy & chilly but that was perfect for eating too much, drinking too much, and reading by the fire. Nice!

Sep 11 -13 we headed off for camping at Cape Lookout, on the Oregon Coast. We hadn’t been to that campground before and arrived on Friday at noon to find the most perfect day imaginable. For anyone who hasn’t been to the Oregon coast, well, let’s just say it’s not always shorts & tee-shirt type weather! However, on that day it was around 75degrees, sunny, and miracle of miracles, no wind! We got camp set up and spent the afternoon playing on the beach with Maddy…wonderful time. After heading back to get jackets and some drinks we had a fantastic sundowner on the beach with a glorious sunset. Sometimes, things just all come together!

The next day, alas, wasn’t quite as nice, although fairly warm and no wind. We took several long walks on the beach, bummed about, and headed into Tillamook to get Jim a new beach chair, his finally having bit the dust after being ripped for over a year.  A storm blew in late that night and we had to get up around midnight to batten down the hatches, throw some things into the car and tent , stack everything down a bit better.. I fear the sunshade may not survive that wind. No worries.. up Sunday to head home fairly early and were shocked to find brother in law Ken home from deployment for the week!! Amazingly enough, pretty much EVERYONE else knew but us (they were getting us back for surprising them when we got home from our RTW) and no one spilled the beans.

Obviously, with that new development, Sunday night turned into a welcome home party and Monday morning was messy to say the least. Lucky me, I got to sit through 7hours of training on the new airline system. Oh joy! However we survived and started a busy week, dinner together, the boys taking a camping trip for 2 days with Ken’s brothers, and my pulling out my back a bit unloading the new keg (well, we had to have a new keg you know!) Friday night commenced with enchilada night at our house and what seemed like gallons of tequila. Ken was off again Saturday morning but, fingers crossed, may not have to actually leave to Afghanistan until October.

We have decided to go to Puerto Vallarta for our 20th anniversary next year. Jamaica was becoming a bit complicated trying to use miles, the hotel we wanted wasn’t availabel, etc. and when we started talking about it we realized that, although we do still want to get to Jamaica, Puerto Vallarta has such meaning to us we should go there. We’ve been there more than a dozen times. it’s sort of our place of refuge at moments like after my mom passed away as well as where we go to really just get away and relax. So, planning is going full force. Can’t wait to see our old friends on the beach.

As far as other travel goes, I spend my lunch hours drooling over other peoples blogs at bootsnall.com. We are still planning our next getaway for 4-5 years down the road and I’m honestly not sure we’ll last that long. Whenever I read a blog about a couple who has decided to NOT follow the path everyone expects them to and decides life should be about more than working 40-60hrs a week just to get by I remember that  is what we want too and we’re already straining at the bit. We really want to lead a “life less ordinary” and while we made a good start with our RTW, we’re not done!

One good thing about being back at work is that I’m writing a lot of catalog and webpage copy and even did a couple short blurbs for our ads in AARP so maybe I can get some travel writing thing going, even just freelance every so often.. that would certainly help keep us on the road longer. Until then, we’ll keep doing our thing, still enjoying spending most of our time together and dreaming of past and future travel and plotting the next departure. Until next time,Still living the Dream!

Cheers, Jim & Rhonda

Boy, the last month has been completely unexpected. First of all, the job I left Dosha Spa for, Direct Travel World, turned out to be a complete bust! I give the owners credit for building a company but they are very unorganized, I was offered literally no training tools and they decided to completely change the structure of the company between the time I was hired and when I started so nothing was as I’d been told. I spent lunch hour of day 1 crying in my car and telling Jim I wasn’t sure I could do it. However, as always, once we discussed options and had a plan I felt a bit better. Since the job was only 4 days a week (not 5 as I’d been told) and from only 7-2:15 we just decided at least it was a consistent schedule and I’d suck it up and hit job hunting for something else full force.

I spent 2 weeks sending out dozens of resumes, calling on jobs, filling out applications and going door to door to drop resumes. Nothing much was coming of it in this tough job market but at least I was feeling productive. Then, miracle of miracles, I got an email from an Elizabeth at Grand European Tours (where I worked for  10 years prior to our RTW for anyone new to this blog) saying she got my email from my friend Jo and she was moving to Italy for 1yr and wanted to know what travel insurance we had on our RTW. I responded to her, of course, but also to Jo saying who is this person and can I have her job??? Within 24hrs I was on the phone with my old boss talking about options and the next day was offered a position back at GET. I was never happier than to walk into Direct Travel and give notice.

After a long weekend I started back at GET 2 years to the day I was last employed here. It was like an amazing homecoming, they had 2 boxes in storage of some of my old files, the computer desktop was my same old photo I took at the Melk Abbey, all of my old friends were there, etc. Just fantastic. I wasn’t able to come back at quite the same position and, unfortunately had to start over with being low man on the seniority totem pole.  Apparently, HR in California doesn’t think 2yrs is an acceptable “leave of absence”. LOL, but I guess I can’t blame them there. However, starting benefits at GET are vastly superior to anything I’ve had since we’ve returned and, for that matter, to most jobs out there so I am content. I am here in my super-sized cubicle, surrounded by photos from our RTW and looking forward to more travels to come.

Because of the job change we were also able to move our horse, Bug, back to the barn where we had boarded her while we were traveling. It’s more money but I was just not as comfortable with where we had been boarding her for the last 4 months. She had dropped quite a bit of weight and when I brought it up the woman said “oh yes, I had noticed she was having trouble chewing her food well” but she had never brought it up to me. That started warning bells ringing. So, back she went to Sunshine Farms in Oregon City to hang out with her old pasture friends. We’ve all sort of come full circle… Jim in a new industry but working with his friend Mike, me back at GET, and Bug back at her old farm. Dear Maddy is really the only totally new change going on! I guess the phrase “the more things change the more they stay the same” is accurate.

We’re starting to plan our 20th Anniversary trip to Jamaica for 2010 and hoping we’ll be in Europe as well, now that I’m back at GET. We’re also renting a beach house for my birthday in Nov. Since my 40th in Australia was such a bust we decided we’re doing a “redo”.  Can’t wait to walk on the beach, have hot toddy’s in front of the fire, and just chill. For now just enjoying the summer now that our heat wave has lifted, going out on the boat and camping.

Other than that, I feel as though a huge weight has been lifted. Jim says he feels he’s got his old wife back, and things are just easier than they were one month ago. Life certainly threw us curveball when we came home and now things are changing again. It certainly keeps things interesting.

With that said, we’d still rather be on the road! But, reality bites sometimes, and for now we’ve got a good place to live, good jobs, a great new dog and life is good. We’ll just keep rolling along and see what tomorrow brings. We’ll enjoy all that we have and start planning and saving for Central & South America. Best wishes to everyone we love who has been so supportive both during our high & low times. As always, Living the Dream! Cheers, Jim & Rhonda

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