vag·a·bond/ˈvaɡəˌbänd/noun – A person who wanders from place to place without a home or job.
Yup, sounds about right!
I’ll bet we’ve been talking about the prospect of living outside the U.S. for over 20 years and now it’s right around the corner.
We’ve rented our house, sold all but one vehicle, packed up all but what will fit in two travel trunks and given away or donated everything else. It’s hard to express our feelings, they’re a combination of melancholy, exhilaration, and frightened all rolled together.
It’s a little funny how we have gotten to this point. I used to be one of those guys who couldn’t understand why someone would want to travel abroad, after all, there’s so much to see in the U.S.!
But, about 30 years ago I met this lovely young lady who simply said: “If you want to be with me you better get a passport.” I did and it changed my life… for ever and for the better!
So, every vacation for these last 20 years has held one question… Is this destination a place where we might like to retire? And now, after all these years, we’ve narrowed down our choices. Over the next 9 months to a year, we plan to live abroad and explore three main locations: Spain, Portugal, and Mexico. After that, it’s anyone’s guess as to where we might travel or eventually settle.
WHY
People are often a mix of bewildered, concerned, and inspired by our intentions. But it makes perfect sense to us. Technology has made the world smaller and after traveling the globe for 20 or 30 years you come to appreciate how much you grow when you try new things.
More importantly, when you compare the cost of living and quality of life that people enjoy elsewhere you start to get an idea of what’s important in your third phase of life.
THE PLAN
So simply as an opportunity to document our travels we’ll be blogging here, posting on social media (mostly Facebook) and hopefully making a few videos and putting them up on YouTube. No particular goals or aspirations, but along the way we hope to answer some of your questions about expat life and more importantly show you what the journey holds.
Through our travels, we plan to cover all the ups and downs of living in a foreign land: language, customs, bureaucracy, but also give you a glimpse into the beauty of the people and the countryside while enjoying good food, music, and art.
We’re sure we’ll stumble from time to time, but with any luck, we’ll all learn from our mistakes, because… that’s just part of the adventure. We hope you will join us.
ACTIONS
So, stay tuned to this bat channel because we want to:
Show you great places.
Help you learn about EXPAT LIFE nature, cities, food wine and music.
Inspire you to maybe do the same.
Other sites where you can follow us:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/richard.solosky
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClm7QcX84d8mWV0a3ltnQtA
Twitter – @rsolosky
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/richardsolosky/