Retired life is not for the weak

Published on 5 April 2026 at 12:27

The retired travel life is hard.

I know what you're thinking—poor me, right? Before you get all judgmental, hear me out.

 

Pack. Clean. Travel. Unpack. Clean again. Visit friends and family. I run one business, co-run another, and I’m working on building a third of my own. I’m mentoring my daughter, trying to sleep somewhere in there, working a part-time job that somehow turns into full-time hours, being a wife, cooking, planning, grocery shopping… and the list just keeps going.

When Chris and I travel, we usually do both land and sea, and that takes time—time away from working and actually getting paid. Yes, I work while traveling. You can’t read my stories if I don’t work. 

But here’s the thing… life doesn’t slow down just because you have a trip planned.

Most days, we’re living on autopilot. So when I finally get a trip scheduled that’s supposed to be “relaxing,” I try to soak it all in. Chris calls them throw away cruises. I call yhem glorious. Because sometimes that turns into work time. Sometimes it turns into reading. Either way—I love it.

The last several months, though? They’ve been a lot.

 

Even with Chris retired, life hasn’t exactly slowed down. We remodeled the bathroom. My son’s family came into town for a week. I worked. I had my grandson for a week. We spent a week in Cartagena, Colombia, followed by another week on a cruise. Then we came home, cleaned, packed again, and turned right back around to drive four and a half hours to Fort Lauderdale for the next cruise.

And that was just February and March.

So yeah… when I say I’m tired before we even leave for a trip, I’m not exaggerating.

But we go anyway. We always go.

 

Because somewhere between the chaos, the packing, the cleaning, the driving, and the deadlines… there’s always a moment that reminds me exactly why we do this.

And this trip? 

Well… the chaos started before we even made it to the ship.

 

 

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