One Year Later

Now that I've been retired for a baker's year, it seems like a good time to take stock of things. I read a lot about people who atrophy after retirement; many even die soon thereafter. They've spent their whole lives working and suddenly find themselves feeling lost and worthless. That has definitely not been the case. It is true that there are occasions, especially recently, winter blahs and all, when I find myself feeling incredibly bored, but other than that, it has been a busy 13 months.

We have done a lot of traveling, probably about as much as I anticipated. There was the wonderful trip to Disney, of course. But we also took a four week trip out west visiting 8 resorts in Tennessee, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, and Illinois and getting our first looks at both the Grand Canyon and the grandbaby. We spent almost two weeks getting a taste of the mountains of New England in Massachusetts, Vermont and Pennsylvania. And we also had return trips to the Smokies in Tennessee as well as Myrtle Beach and Edisto Island in South Carolina. We look forward to doing as much traveling this year, having already gotten started with a trip that took us to North Carolina, Panama City Beach, Orlando and Santee. We already have plans to visit Myrtle Beach (our favorite place) in both May and November. Since I tend to plan most trips at the last minute to take advantage of discounts, I don't know where else or when, but we will go as the spirit moves us.

Here at home we were able to do a number of things with the money I had received at retirement. This included all new badly needed appliances (except the washer and dryer, which, knock on wood, seem to be doing well despite their age). We also did some remodeling and now eat dinner in an actual dining room rather than off of TV trays. This was partly made possible because after the girls moved out we were able to redo the upstairs so that Kim now has a large craft room, and I did some rearranging to allow us to use the old front room as a dining room. We still have a lot more things that need to be done, but feel we've gotten a pretty good start.

One of the best things about no longer having a work schedule is the freedom to go hiking whenever we want, or at least whenever the weather allows. Before, it seemed like we could always count on rain whenever I had a day off, but now, well, if it rains today, there's always tomorrow. So altogether, we hiked several hundred miles last year, not counting treadmill miles this winter. As a result of that and some dietary adjustments, I lost 15 pounds. But the best part is that I have not put any of it back on this winter. If I can lose another 15 pounds this summer, I will be quite happy.

There are some things I thought I would be doing that I haven't gotten to yet. I thought I would be doing more blogging and personal writing. There are some other personal things that I am working on which will be finished sometime this year, and then perhaps those other things will fall into place. But that's actually good news I think. Who would have thought that even after retirement, there are still not enough hours in the day.

Why We Own With Wyndham

My wife and I are preparing to travel back home after a lovely trip that included a visit to Florida where we stayed at a place called Vacation Village, an RCI resort in Kissimmee. Normally we stay in Wyndham resorts where we have ownership, but sometimes we stray in order to have other experiences. We never have any major complaints when we stay with RCI, but there are always little things that remind us why we stay with Wyndham.



Here are a few of the things that happened this week. During the evening of the day we checked in we were quite surprised when another couple opened the door to our unit preparing to move in. Apparently the computer had also assigned them to the same unit, and so they had to drive back over to check in to get it straightened out. While they were doing that, it appears that our unit keys were also invalidated as we discovered the next morning when we tried to get back into our unit after going out for a walk. We had to knock on someone's else's door to use their phone to get new key cards. Fortunately someone answered the phone when we called. I mention that because most of the time when I have called for whatever reason, there is either a recording saying that everyone is busy or else the phone just rings and rings. This has never happened at any Wyndham resort. And I believe this is the first resort we have ever stayed at that actually charges a $25 amenities fee to cover things like wireless internet and use of the pools. In most cases those things are covered by the rental fee.



But the biggest difference I find between Wyndham and other places is the consistency and quality of the, let's call them, products that you get in your unit. The bed, the cabinets, the silver ware, the dishes, the pots and pans, the coffee maker, to name just a few things, none of these things are Wyndham quality. Wyndham doesn't work on the cheap. For whatever faults the company does have (and I could certainly list a few), they do go out of their way to make your stay a pleasant one. And they are willing to spend the money on quality rather than on just getting by. And whenever there is an issue, you dial 0 and the problem is immediately solved.



While we were at Vacation Village, we agreed to sit through their 2 hour sales pitch in exchange for an $80 gift card. During the pitch we learned a little bit about how their point system works and how much it costs to purchase. It's different from Wyndham's but of course they're only going to emphasize the parts they consider selling points, which makes it impossible to discover if their system would be better; i.e. would RCI points that cost the same as Wyndham points get you more vacation opportunities. One thing the guy kept emphasizing was that RCI's maintenance fees are lower than Wyndham's, again a point impossible to prove based on the information they give you.



And that's when it hit me. I didn't care.



I realized that if a little higher maintenance fee is the price we pay to ensure that whenever we go to a Wyndham resort we know exactly what kind of forks and mixing bowls and coffee maker and towels and sheets, etc, etc, that we’re going to have and if something isn’t up to par there will be someone at the other end of the phone who will immediately fix it; well, I’m willing to pay that little extra.



Whoever would have thought that such a cheapskate as me would ever get to that place.