Monday, May 05, 2008

46 trips and counting

I finally got around to compiling a list of my trips since my 1996 retirement from the Beacon Journal.

The total? 46 trips.

Trips with Monia before she died: 18.

Trips with Paula: 23.

Trips with other family members: 5.

As many of you know, the trips vary from West Virginia to Florida (a lot of each) to China to Europe (Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, some more than once), Hawaii, Canada, and cruises to Alaska and the Caribbean (Mexico and the usual blue-water nations). We've also taken week-long trips through California and Michigan and New York State and Virginia and New England and enjoyed stays in Fripp Island, SC, and Charleston, SC, and Savannah, GA, and a 3-week journey through Arizona and New Mexico.

And, of course, had reunions with former Beacon Journal co-workers Terry and Cecily Dray, Don Bandy, Dave and Gina White in Florida, and made week-long vacations out of flights to West Virginia University football games (the Colorado game will be the 2008 season's Rockies vacation week or so). The Mountaineer games in Mountaineer Field are not included in the 46 trips (6 or 7 home games per season).

We're looking for another trip (with the economy so bad, the prices are tumbling rapidly, almost by the week) to take as soon as my knee rehab makes it possible for me to get around easily (a lot of these places have hills and lots of steps). I'm doing my PT without an instructor now, but using the same equipment at Akron General's Tallmadge PT place as I did with an instructor. I just follow the sheet she gave me and set the same equipment on the same settings as before. Paula and I also try to walk 1 to 1.5 miles on days when I don't go to the Tallmadge PT, on North Avenue just off the Tallmadge Circle.

I'm determined to enjoy my life till the day I join Monia at Northlawn Memorial Gardens in Cuyahoga Falls. Thanks to Paula, my personal travel guide, it's been a great run.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey John, You got me thinking about trips so I started adding them up. I came up with 37 of a week or more. 21 of longer than a month (up to three months), and 16 of a week or more. There were also too many overnights to remember, Thanks for making me spark my memory. I do believe that if we keep moving we will live forever. I'm going to try and make the next retirees lunch, maybe see you there. Don Roese

Anonymous said...

Wow, Don, that's 74 trips, if my math is right. All since your retirement, as my 46 were? You make me look like a piker.

Wednesday is the Papa Joe's retirees lunch. I plan to be there. You, too, I hope.

-- John Olesky

Anonymous said...

Hey John. Those 21 of longer than a month, and the 16 of a week or more, add up to the 37 of a week or more. My total of trips, other than overnights and weekenders, is 37. So, I guess you are still the trip leader. Keep going.......
Don

pam said...

Geez, you guys! Do you even keep a home in the Akron area any more? You are both truly an inspiration to this newly retired person. I'm planning a trip to see my mom in Fla. in July and my husband and I are going to Hawaii in August. (Yeah, I know I'm going at the hottest, most humid times of the year, but Ken is still working!)
Just finished 33 years of teaching and 35.88 years in the state pension systems. Will I know anyone if I come to the retirement luncheons???