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The Great Retirement Roadtrip
  • Anita Tobin
  • Paul Tobin
  • Anita Tobin
  • Paul Tobin

The Great Retirement Roadtrip

Paul hung up the work shirts for a camper. We are off to Houston, NO, Key West, Cape Canaveral, Graceland and stops along the way. Read more
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  • Trip start
    February 17, 2026
    The Great Retirement Roadtrip
    1

    Day 1

    February 17 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 36 °F

    Pretty uneventful day. We drove south down I-5, shooting for Eugene, but found a place to stay halfway to Grants Pass. Perfectly functional and a bit chilly. Tomorrow, Thursday and Friday are mostly travel day till we get to Phoenix and get to our son’s house. Time to call it a night in our cozy little trailer.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Day 2

    February 19 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 41 °F

    There hasn’t been any snow at home, but we ran into some in the Siskyous of southern Oregon - Northern CA. The roads were clear though, so we got to enjoy the view.

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip
    2

    Miles and Miles of Almonds

    February 19 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

    Yesterday was down CA. We concluded that America eats A LOT of almonds. For about 200 miles the both sides of the highway was lined with almond trees in bloom. There was an occasional field of grape vines and a couple stockyards, but other than that beautiful almond blossoms. There were also pretty trees along the way and a peak at a rainbow. Today is another long day, then we spend the weekend in Scottsdale with our son and his family.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Family time

    Feb 20–22 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    Spent time with Eric, Kiley, Bella, Onyx and Mozzie. Not much new in Phoenix since we spent half a life here. We ate good Mexican Food and learned a new game, Uno Flip. As Kiley said…”a new twist on an old favorite. “ Now on to New Mexico.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Loooooong Day

    February 21 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    We knew it would be a long day, but thanks to LA traffic and a couple traffic stopping accidents that added 1-2 hours to the trip, we were in the truck for 11 hours. Thankfully, today is a down day with Eric, Kiley and Bella. The lush green hills are going over the Grapevine (I-5 hills north of LA.) It reminded me of the lush green hills of Ireland. Most of the time, these hills are brown as the vegetation gasps for water. For a few weeks each year, they are beautiful. The other pics are…the desert and a sunset while we were stuck in traffic.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    On the Road Again

    February 22 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 45 °F

    Today was about driving. We started the day by watching Team USA Men win Hockey Gold!!! 🥇 Well Done to all the Team USA athletes. Then we headed east, but first had to go through Tucson and Picacho Peak and had to take a pic of the UofA exit for our daughter. After that, lots of empty space. There was a cool section of rocks, but other than that lots of driving to Las Cruses, a quick overnight while we watch the Closing Ceremony. We’ll see where we end up tomorrow.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Sonora, Texas

    February 23 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 55 °F

    There is a line in the movie Castaway where the lady with angel wings on her truck is giving Tom Hanks character directions. She looks at desert all around and points and says, “…and that way you’ll find a whole lotta nothing all the way to Canada.” Well, in West Texas, there’s “a whole lotta nothing.” All day and the most interesting thing we saw was a pretty scary “truck stop”. I use the term loosely because, most are actually, pretty nice. We ended up in Sonora, Texas, (population 2,000) and did have dinner at Pit Stop BBQ. It is rather the 23rd Best BBQ in Texas. It was quite good. Tomorrow…Houston.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    San Antonio

    February 24 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    We did the tourist things…the Alamo and the River Walk. Both cool. We learned a lot of history and ate Texas food. Now we’re back in our home on wheels, did a couple loads of laundry and are kicking back with the screen door open, smelling something smoking. This was a fun day and really, vacation day 1.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip
    21

    Johnson Space Center

    February 26 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    While walking to brekky, day began reminding me we are in Gator Country. Then…Johnson Space Center. JSC has been on my wishlist since we went to Kennedy Space Center 20 or so years ago. It did not disappoint. We geeked out over space stuff from Mercury missions to Artemis (the current space project to the moon.) it was a full, fabulous day. On our way home we get to go to Kennedy Space Center again!Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Bayou Days

    February 27 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    We are spending time with our friends Justin and Courtney and lots of family. Good times, great people and southern hospitality. Yesterday a birthday party, today a Crawfish Boil. Tomorrow New Orleans.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip
    22

    Leaving Louisiana

    Feb 27–Mar 3 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    Leaving here brought a few tears. Our friends’ family is so warm and welcoming and we never, not for one minute, felt like strangers. We now have ‘family’ here. We saw NOLA, the bayou and swamps and ate lots of good food, but the love we felt will make us come back. Thanks Courtney and Justin for the love and the memories!Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Bugs…bugs…bugs

    March 4 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F

    And I think they all bit me. Little tiny bites, mosquito sized bites and monster welts and they all itch. Benedryl and hydrocortisone are my friends. And it wasn’t on the bayou, although they had a bunch. It is Florida. No pictures because we traveled the last 2 days. Tomorrow we will be in Key West. I wonder what bugs they have???Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Margaritaville

    March 5 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 75 °F

    We arrived in Key West yesterday. Met up with Javonne and Derek and the girls. Today we will spend exploring and spend the rest of the time hanging out. A few days of Island Time and a Margarita or two…. The last two pics are the view from our campsite. 🌴🌊Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip
    1

    Shave Ice and Pizza

    March 7 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 81 °F

    Today we started the day with breakfast at Harpoon Harry’s, saw some beautiful beaches, had some huge, shave Ice and ended the day with a homemade Pizza Party. We brought the pizza oven with us so we could share it with our friends. We had an early night and tomorrow are headed to overnight in Hollywood, FL before heading to Cape Canaveral.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Heading to Cape Canaveral

    March 9 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    We left this morning and are almost to Kennedy Space Center. One of our bucket list things is to see a launch. There is one going up at 11:15 tonight and our Campground advertises you can see them from their front lot. It’s kinda cloudy and we’re hoping it clears up. But…being from the PNW, we are used to sky stuff being obscured by clouds. Rockets do take off from the ground, so we should be able to see a little bit of it. Hopefully, we will have pics tomorrow!Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Rocket launch

    March 10 in the United States

    We checked this off the bucket list last night. When the bright light starts falling, that is the first stage separating. The trajectory was straight out to sea so we couldn’t see the second stage burn. Its satellite was deployed 35 minutes after launch. If you have DISH, you might have better service today.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Another Geek-out Day

    March 10 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F

    Today was Kennedy Space Center day. We went about 20 years ago and it became my favorite museum in the world. Hands down…it still is! It has been expanded and updated with all the latest rocketry. SpaceX, Blue Origin and Amazon all have huge buildings with a bunch of new launch sites and buildings going up. We had a wonderful day!Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Georgia on our Mind

    March 12 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 61 °F

    Overnighted in Cordell, GA and we are heading to Chattanooga, TN to stay tonight. We are hoping to get there early enough to take a cog railway up Lookout Mountain. We survived a line of thunderstorms that is battering the US, from to Deep South all the way to Chicago and points east. Our little trailer kept us comfortable and dry.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Not exactly a Choo-Choo

    March 13 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 46 °F

    We pulled into Chattanooga in time to do the Lookout Mountain Incline. When we got out of the car we were surprised by how cold it had gotten. It was about 45* and we quickly dug through the clothes for our PNW sweatshirts. After bundling up we took the Incline to the top. The view of the Chattanooga Valley was beautiful. If you find yourself in Chattanooga, we would recommend it.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip
    1

    Graceland

    March 15 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 63 °F

    When in Memphis you must see Graceland. It was pretty cool, and we aren’t even huge Elvis fans. The Mansion wasn’t that big, but the property is huge and beautiful. It was cool to know the reason he bought it was for his parents. He knew they had a hard life and wanted to give them a beautiful, comfortable place to live. I also didn’t know he was a twin, but the first baby was stillborn. The gold and platinum record/album wall was massive and his clothes couldn’t fit in my entire house!Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Where the wind comes sweeping

    March 16 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 25 °F

    Yesterday was a travel day, but it was anything but boring. I have liked weather watching all my life and this has given us a great lesson in the jet stream and storm fronts. There were Wind Warnings all day and night from Memphis to Chocotah, OK where we overnighted. We started early and missed the rain, but the wind was a challenge all day. After the storm fronts passed, the temp dropped a lot. It was 26° when we woke up this morning. I am sure we will miss this in a couple days when we pull into Lake Havasu!

    Fun fact - Carrie Underwood is from Chocotah, OK and Troy Aikman is from the next town over Hennriettaville.    Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    Amarillo in the rear view mirror

    March 17 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 41 °F

    Happy St Patrick’s Day, everybody!☘️ We have to find an Irish Pub this evening in Albuquerque. On the drive to Amarillo we saw ‘Leaning Tower of Water’, the biggest cross I’ve ever seen and LOTS of windmills. The cute little mariachis met us at our campground. We went to dinner and learned about the Cadillac Ranch. That is the sculpture with the Cadillacs, buried nose first in the ground taken from far away. On the way to the campsite, we stopped at its sister ranch, the Slug Bug Ranch. Much more colorful and interesting. We didn’t take any spray paint so we couldn’t add to the art, but it was fun to see. It reminds me of Seattle’s Gum Wall.Read more

  • The Great Retirement Roadtrip

    St Pat’s Day in Albuquerque

    March 18 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 59 °F

    We got to Albuquerque and the first thing on the agenda was finding an Irish Pub there. After a quick Google search we found 3 - 2 with so-so reviews and Two Fools Tavern. Excellent reviews. We ventured out early thinking we would miss the crowd. We were wrong. We waited about 45 minutes to get in. It was wonderful. A traditional Irish Pub with real Irish food. I’ve been to a lot of Irish pubs in the states and this is the first one that served Boxty. Paul got the Boxty with Guinness Stew and I got Corned Beef and Cabbage. I know corned beef isn’t traditionally Irish, but I like it. 😉. The food and a couple pints of Guinness and we called it an early night. Tomorrow…Winslow and Meteor Crater.Read more

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