Do you just "bum around town" as a retired person?

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When I saw this thread it reminded my of the old guys I see walking the aisles at Walmart with no particular intent.
I will not spend my golden years walking around Walmart. I can tell you that.
 
I should do more "local bumming", but somehow do not have much interest. I have lived in the same city for 40 years, and it has grown a lot and I certainly have not seen all corners. But as most people do, I do more research on a new town that I plan to visit than on my own town.

Just a few months ago, my daughter invited us to dinner at a restaurant near the university that's the alma mater for many of us in the family, both my side and my wife's. It was a pleasant visit as the area has changed a lot. How far is it from home? 10 miles!
 
Yes! I moved to the PNW to explore it's beauty but ended up with a job that had me on call every other week and I did a fair amount of weekend work when I wasn't on call. 95% of my vacation time was spent in the mid-west visiting my family, so this is a new playground for me to explore.

Now we're retired and have been busy exploring the towns and wilderness of the PNW. We have an ongoing list of places to see and we keep adding and subtracting to it.

Yesterday we walked three miles to the gym for a yoga class. We forgot that it is closed for five days for the annual deep clean. Since we were up and about we decided to walk to downtown Portland and bum around. We had lunch at the food carts then saw the latest Meryl Streep movie then went to the waterfront to listen to an all afternoon outdoor symphony concert on the waterfront (on a Thursday!). I keep saying that I use to dream about spending a day just wondering and exploring Portland when I was working. What a luxury.

We also joined a local backpacking and hiking meetup group and have had an absolute blast going to gorgeous places for 3 or 4 night trips. We've made a lot of new and fun friends too.

We are leaving after the long weekend to camp and explore the southern Oregon coast for about five days. This is another bucket list item and is something I never had time to do while working.

Oh, and a big surprise is that we are living on about half of what we had budgeted for.

Life is good.

-helen
 
I spend much more time off of the freeways and on the local roads these days.

So much to see what is out there that I missed while working full time.
 
COcheesehead said:
When I saw this thread it reminded my of the old guys I see walking the aisles at Walmart with no particular intent.
I will not spend my golden years walking around Walmart. I can tell you that.
Click to expand...

I just got back from Costco and I think they all migrated over there today for the free samples!

There's a separate discussion on old people languishing in the pubic library and the malls. I'm in the library every few weeks to get books, but get to a mall about once a year.


Still, some of the people who appear to do very little may lack resources. Even a modest road trip takes a car, money for gas, meals out, overnight stays, admissions, etc. depending on what you want to do. We're among the fortunate (and prudent).
 
Athena: one type of vacation that works well when you are alone is taking a cruise. YOu always have tons of people to talk to, eat with, hang out with, etc. Each cruise we meet great people and have lots of fun. Even in port we take tours with other people, etc. It occurred to me this last cruise that if my DH dies before me this would be a vacation I could take alone. I am so very sorry about your husband. Hugs:))
 
We too are "bumming" around in the PNW looking for our eventual home when our 1 year lease is up. It's fun looking around all the small towns and communities with all the time on our hands.
Question: What do you do when you have collected all the free harbor freight items with the 20% off coupons? Does anybody need a flashlght?
 
For sure I do this. I love hanging out interesting places. Read a book, people watch, get something to eat, absorb some history. Going to Bogleheads in September and will take a day to go sit in the Philadelphia Navy Yard as an example. Love going over to Sarnia, Ontario to sit under the Blue Water Bridge and watch the ships go by.
 
I used to do a lot of "follow my nose" rides when I had the motorcycle and DW is less fond of day road trips than I am but will go sometimes. This last spring I had some health issues that kept me at home but that is almost fully healed by now. A 4-cylinder Honda Accord doesn't burn much gas so I'm looking forward to some day trips again.
 
Yeah, we bum around the city and the nearby trails and lakes pretty often. Especially when the weather is nice in spring and fall. We have a 4 year old, so trips are often centered around stuff he can handle and/or enjoy (shorter hikes, swimming, visiting parks or lakes, exploring university campuses, picnics in the woods, etc).

We don't really set out with nowhere specific to go, but rather find a place to head for the day and don't get in a rush once there.
 
Some years ago we were returning home from a trip to the Black Hills and went by George McGovern's hometown, Mitchell, SD. It's also home, of course, to the World Famous Corn Palace!

DW and I decided to hang out in town for a while. Got off the superslab and pulled into town ... and looked in vain for a parking place. Streets were blocked off. It was the 90th-anniversary Corn Palace celebration! I still have the T-shirt.
 
I wrote down on one of my goofy "maybe I'll do this one day" lists to draw two circles on the map, centered on my house, but 50 miles different in diameter. Then, on nice days, take my quad copter out to a random town in that swath and shoot some 4K video of whatever I find there that's interesting (or whatever I find along the way). Seems like no matter what I've shot so far, the footage is stunning, and I've only seen it in 1080p (I don't have a 4K tv).
 
A "Senior Pass" in Los Angeles is either $20/mo or $2.50/day--unlimited bus and subway (metro rail).

Downtown LA is quite the experience. Subway goes to Pasadena, Long Beach, and many great destinations.

The best part of these trips is realizing how much I enjoy being home.
 
We also love road trips! DW and I recently volunteered to drive the second car of relatives to San Antonio from their former home in DC. We have wanted to visit the Mississippi gulf coast area and were waiting for a good excuse (and free gas money!). Spent a day and a night checking out Buloxi, Gulfport and the Pass Christian areas, while on SR 90. Great oceanfront scenery plus found a really nice seafood restaurant (Aunt Jenny's Catfish, in Ocean Springs). Spent a night in San Antonio, then flew home. Really nice "mini" vacation. Relatives think we are good Samaritans! Win-win!
 
COcheesehead said:
When I saw this thread it reminded my of the old guys I see walking the aisles at Walmart with no particular intent.
I will not spend my golden years walking around Walmart. I can tell you that.
Click to expand...
Sometimes they are killing time while their old gals shop!

In Mexico, the Walmart is next to The Autozone, so we just set a time to be back at the car. At Costco, there is a nice grassy area with big trees in the parking lot.
 
I lived in Seattle for about 2.5 years recently and loved walking through all the neighborhoods that I'd never visited growing up there in the 60s. So many lovely parks, quaint shops and great restaurants. Riding the ferry to Bainbridge and walking on the beach trail was wonderful. Getting a bus pass allowed me to explore areas that I couldn't walk to from our Ballard neighborhood, although 12 mile days were the norm for me. Great exercise, too. I got so I was able to walk up Queen Anne hill without breathing heavily. So, yeah, bumming around town can be a lot of fun.
 
COcheesehead said:
When I saw this thread it reminded my of the old guys I see walking the aisles at Walmart with no particular intent.
I will not spend my golden years walking around Walmart. I can tell you that.
Click to expand...
Then why do you spend time there now? You'd probably be better off staying away from that place, given your above report of what you see there. Sounds pretty awful to me.

I don't doubt what you are saying at all, although I have no idea of what goes on there these days. Personally I don't like the ambience so I don't go there. There are other stores, both bricks'n'mortar and online, at which to shop and prices at Wal-Mart just aren't low enough to persuade me that I want to go there.
 
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When I first retired I did a lot of bumming around. Mostly local, but I live in a tourist destination, and I now had the time to do the touristy stuff with non-weekend/summer crowds.

I don't do as much bumming around anymore... tending to repeat the things I enjoyed that first year.... Free museums on Tuesdays, free beach walks with the dog most mornings, low cost community college classes that are interesting to me (but not career enhancing in any way.)....
 
W2R said:
Then why do you spend time there now? You'd probably be better off staying away from that place, given your above report of what you see there. Sounds pretty awful to me.

I don't doubt what you are saying at all, although I have no idea of what goes on there these days. Personally I don't like the ambience so I don't go there. There are other stores, both bricks'n'mortar and online, at which to shop and prices at Wal-Mart just aren't low enough to persuade me that I want to go there.
Click to expand...

What an odd response.
 
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