≡ Menu

Announcing One Month Travel

by on September 24, 2013

My Apologies

There hasn’t been much activity at Ralph Carlson Blog the past few months but it’s not because I’ve been lazy. As you can observe, Ralph Carlson Blog has shifted focus over time as I explore and refine my retirement lifestyle principles, objectives and mission. My retirement lifestyle passion is outrageous travel; living local and low profile while experiencing the delights of life in beautiful places and doing it on a limited budget.

My wife and I started eighteen months ago with a trip to Venice that changed our lives. Since then we have made two more trips (Buenos Aires and Rome) and are preparing to make a trip to Peru this December.

On the job in San Telmo, Buenos Aires

On the job in San Telmo, Buenos Aires

Travel is never cheap but we have learned how to have a great trip and still keep the costs within our budget. We don’t go on tours. We don’t go on cruises. We use Frequent Flier Miles for travel. Whenever possible we rent apartments with enough space to spread out, cook meals and even take a day off from time to time. We spend one month in one place so that we have enough time to understand the places we visit. We love the experiences of our outrageous travel lifestyle and so we have decided to share our knowledge and experience with people who think that travel is too expensive and tours are too constraining.

Introducing One Month Travel

We are launching a new website focusing on outrageous travel lifestyle- One Month Travel. This website will contain information and resources for retirees who long to make serious travel trips. The goal for One Month Travel is to remove any barriers keeping you from making serious travel part of your retirement lifestyle. One Month Travel will provide help with saving money on airfares, finding and evaluating apartment rentals and packing for a one month trip among other things. We will share the lessons we have learned from our trips and answer questions. We would love to build a community of outrageous retirement travelers sharing their excitement and experience with others through our blog and a forum. The structure of One Month Travel is still fluid but there will be a blog for providing current information, a resources page to lead readers to information, inspiration and mentors for specific issuers. We expect to launch in December.

If you like the idea of One Month Travel then I recommend that you do two things right now.

1. Sign up for the One Month Travel email list to receive information about the launch and special offers.

2. Leave a comment below with your impressions or questions about One Month Travel, retirement lifestyle design or our experiences.

Ralph Carlson Blog will continue to be the place where I post personal experience about my retirement lifestyle. If you like the personal side of outrageous travel and retirement lifestyle design then you will want to sign up for the Ralph Carlson Blog email list in the sidebar. During the creation and launch of One Month Travel, posting here at Ralph Carlson Blog will be light but I do expect to complete the ten lessons from Buenos Aires and some observations as we complete the planning for our Peru trip. If you have any questions about Peru or our other trips, leave a comment to let me know.

 

 

{ 6 comments }

My Christmas Spirit Checklist

by on September 7, 2013

Life is more than big plans.

christmas 2007

Image by paparutzi via Flickr

Building a retirement lifestyle means taking care of the big decisions and issues but that is only the start. It also means living on a minute to minute basis and making sure that those minutes count. The clock is ticking and no one knows how many of those precious minutes are left. That is a big problem for me and so I’m going to address it. I get really caught up in the big plans, the ones that take months or years to accomplish and while I’m working on them the short term enjoyments get forgotten. I have to schedule small trips like museums and local sights because on a day to day basis, I’m always too busy to be spontaneous. It is still a problem for me but not so much as before I made it part of my plan.

Short term is important.

These is another dimension of working in the future that I struggle with as well. You could call it enjoying the moment. In this case, the moment is Christmas and I’m fighting the impulses that tell me to just forget about it. The kids are out of the house and there are no grandchildren so it is easy to say bah humbug and keep working. I’m fighting that too because each day is a step on the path to my future and if I wait to enjoy myself until I’m there, it may be too late.

So what am I doing?

Last week I asked about five of the ways we celebrate Christmas: music, food, cards, a tree and lights. I asked you to vote your view about them and their importance to you this season. Well, my own indifference surprised me. I don’t have much Christmas spirit yet and the big day is closing in. I decided that maybe you don’t do those things because you have Christmas spirit. Maybe you have Christmas spirit because you do those things.

So I started doing.

English: Beef Wellington.

Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday I sent Christmas cards. It felt good but it was only a start. Today I started researching food for our Christmas dinner. I found a Christmas special from Gordon Ramsey The best part of it was his own version of Beef Wellington. I re-watched the video today taking notes. I’m starting to get a bit excited. I can already smell the mulled wine and the roasted nuts. I have to call the market to make sure I have the right cut of meat but there is still time. I’ve never done Beef Wellington but it is already seeming more like Christmas.

What else?

There is still the Christmas music to play. It’s in the back of the CD player cartridge. I just need to play it instead of the news while we fix dinner. I plan to pick up a tree sometime this week. Since they start trying to move them, I’m thinking I will get a good deal but that’s not the real point. Sure it is a hassle to put up the tree and even worse taking it down. The point is that that effort and commitment gives purpose to the season.

There won’t be any Christmas lights at the Carlson manse but that doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate Mike across the street and the rest of lighted houses.

I’m beginning to feel the spirit moving and I like it.

{ 8 comments }
Next Posts Previous Posts

Click here to join my mailing list

Email Marketing You Can Trust

Tell me more about One Month Travel.

* indicates required

This site rocks the Classic Responsive Skin for Thesis.

WP Admin