Prologue:

At 39½ I left my 30s and Manhattan Beach, California for Jackson Hole, Wyoming for several reasons:
    1) to escape the pleasantly, non-challenging, numbing 'la la' vibe of Manhattan Beach, California.      A lifestyle many would crave.
    2) to escape the future probability of a 25 year, 24/7 high pressure, constant grinding solo law practice.
    3. to seek a more manly lifestyle, far from the fatuous lifestyle of Manhattan Beach, its Strand biking & bars.
    4. to gain the freedom to push new boundaries of experience & adventure although I didn’t know exactly what.

I was escaping from Manhattan Beach as much as I was running to Jackson Hole. It was perhaps the most important decision of my life, but I did not know that then.

When I arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming months before my 40th birthday,
I would have 5 future experiences I could never have imagined just 6 months earlier.

    1. buy my own horse & wrangling (leading) Dude Ranch guests on overnight horse pack trips into the Grand Teton Mountains,
    2. designed & built a large log house,
    3. Start Scott’s Garage Doors: selling, installing & repairing garage doors. PIK: 80 suburban
    4. solo hike the Teton NP's Crest Trail. (Note: what is/was kid’s play for many, was a scary challenge to this ‘city born & bred’, desk-pounding 40 yr old). 
    5. college, … again .......

 

I. My 1^st horse, "Russ" & dog, "Misty"

Once in Jackson Hole, I soon bought an old rental property to live in & remodel, a home lot on the Snake River and  began researching horses & western gear.

Russ

Anecdote: Learning to ride: I had occasionally ridden pay & pump dude horses in Griffith Park, LA  and ‘thought’ I could ride. My home property bordered the R Lazy S dude ranch with direct access to Teton Nat’l Park along the Snake River. I wanted a horse.

I bought a beautiful sorrel-cutting horse (rejected) from Dan Mortensen, a respected, trusted horse seller. On my test ride, riding Russ, the horse, was like riding a cloud. But after my ride, Dan said, “Scott, that is too much horse for you.” But I respectfully insisted and bought him anyway.

At home, Russ & I went for our 1st ride. About a ¼ mi down my road Russ stopped and refused to move forward no matter what I tried. He would go back, but not forward.

I called Priscilla who teaches young RLazyS ranch guests to ride and asked her if she would give me a few lessons. She spent an hour or so with me and I went back, saddled Russ, & started our 2nd ride. Never again had a problem once Russ realized, “Yikes! He knows how to ride"

Soon I volunteered to wrangle summer R Lazy S Dude Ranch guests on overnight pack trips up onto the Teton’s high country Crest Trail.

Oh, the hours, days and years Russ & I spent riding the Teton National Park’s south trails & a few dude ranch overnights.

Anecdote: Wrangling in the Tetons: I can still remember shepherding ‘ranch dudes’ up a steep canyon trail into the Teton Mountains, decked out in my simple, authentic cowboy costume & a plain, but high quality, working cowboy’s saddle thinking … , “ A year ago I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined I would be here doing this.“

Sad Note: Years later, a ranch person I had left Russ in the care of, left the ranch gate open and Russ was struck by a car & put down. One of my life’s saddest several days. I loved that horse.

Misty

In spring I bought a well-bred female, black labrador, which I named Misty. I can still remember that little black bundle nestled next to my leg as we drove home that day. I loved my father, but I've never had a human or other animal that I loved more than that dog.

She and I were constant companions: she slept on my bed, rode in my truck's front seat, and waited patiently nightly until I tossed her my empty Häagen-Dazs chocolate cup.

Anecdote 1: Trail riding trio: When she was young she ran through the woods beside Russ and me on our rides on quiet south Teton NP trails alongside the Snake River. When it looked like she was getting too tired., I'd reached down & picked her up, placing her on the saddle until she was antsy to race off again.

Anecdote 2:  Cold cross country nights: We slept under the same blanket on bitter cold nights in my Subaru traveling across the country.

Anecdote: Animal stalking: Silently hiking Teton NP's off trail forests, if I or Misty spotted an elk or bear, I'd call Misty softly to my kneeling side as we watched for a while before moving on.

Sad Note:Again, sadly, too few years later, I contracted a horrible body rash of huge, thick hand size welts that migrated across my body/face/scalp all day long accompanied by great emotional anxiety. ( I show a PIK NOT to gross you out, but so you can empathize)

After all the allergy tests the doctor said I was allergic to Misty. I tried 'gutting it out'  it, but it was too horrible. Finally, I asked my friend Dan Mortensen, to arrange a for Misty to live with a small ranch family living up in park. I delivered her there one afternoon and tore myself away. Even now, I cannot avoid the tears.

The bitter irony of losing my horse, and Misty was that I began to believe that the gods would ,. .."give me nothing that I might love, but they wouldn't soon take it away. "Interestingly, this probably made it very easy for me to avoid all romantic relationships sometimes in my latter 40s on.

 

II. Real Estate:

A. Old rental property:  At 41 I bought bought an old 3 unit rental property to live in & remodel which I still own debt free; still generating cash flow.

B. My Log Home:  On JH arrival, I bought a home lot in Yodler Subdivision nestled behind the RLazyS Ranch with direct west views of Jackson Hole Mt. Resort ski area, long north views of Grand Teton Mountain, and ¼ mi hike access along Snake River into Teton National Park.

At 42 or 43, I had designed & started building a 2800 sq ft ‘native’ log cabin on my lot. Other than the logs themselves, I did or participated in the building’s entire construction. Ironically, it was too big a job requiring too much cash flow and I didn’t get it finished before I sold years later to the wealthy.

 

III. Adventurers

By my mid 40s I began seeking more demanding outdoor adventures at least at my skill / fear level.

Anecdote: Fear: Once I asked my lawyer friend if he was ever frightened before he began a trial. He responded, "After I had been on Vietnam War’s front line knowing I could be dead a minute later, not much has frightened me since.”

Surviving such risk solidifies your confidence, self-worth & self esteem.    I think most of my solo outdoor adventurers were, in part, driven by the need to TRY to face a similar risk that would help elevate my confidence & self-worth.

    A. Teton Crest Trail hike in Grand Teton NP. (Note: what is/was kid’s play for many, was a scary challenge to this ‘city born & bred’ desk-pounding 40 yr old)

Anecdote: Young bear encounter: After my 1st solo night camped along a stream I fished dinner from, I was following the trail out of a ravine when a young black bear ambled across my path 40 yards ahead. My 1st thought, “Isn’t it cute.” My 2nd thought came faster. Mother bear’s have an instantaneous explosive 'cub-danger' reaction. I was scared. I backed up to a tall stump, dropped my pack and shinnied up about 10’.

Only later as I gained skills would I realize that:
    1) Teton Park black bears are generally non-plussed by human hikers, Grizzly
        bears… not so much.
    2) mom could easily have plucked my off that stump like a over-ripe apple.
                                Things were getting ‘manly” real quick.

    B. Oregon Trail:  At 45, road-tripping around Wyoming,  I became enthralled with the Oregon Trail’s history as it wound across Wyoming. I intensely studied books & old trail maps etc. Then, traveled its Wyoming length in my Roadtrek RV van following the original Trail’s faint 2-tracks & dirt roads across ranch lands sometimes building little rock bridges for my van to cross a creek. Sleeping in those remote boondocks trying to commune with THAT heroic past.

Finally, I opted for a more authentic experience: I would solo horse-pack ride across Wyoming’s Oregon Trail. I rented 2 horses  (Russ had been killed) that could easily be ridden or packed the ‘owner assured me.’ Borrowed the required horse panniers & assembled the gear I needed. Dan Mortensen taught me how to load a pack horse. I even cached supplies along the way beforehand, just in case.    I would do the entire route in multi-year 4-day chunks from Wyoming’s east border to its Western Idaho border.

Anecdote: bucking horses & bnroken ribs:   In preparation, I quickly learned that one horse when packed continually let its lead rope get under the tail of my riding horse causing painful irritation. I figured I could manage that lead rope successfully.                      I was wrong.

Far out on prairie after a couple of days ride & a few minor bucking events, my horse exploded into a bucking frenzy with the rope painfully secured under its tail prompting both horses to explode.  Seeing no way of controlling 1800-2000#’s of frenzied bucking muscle, I literally dove out of the saddle direct to the ground landing between the horses & rolling out of their way.      Unfortunately I broke several ribs perhaps because of the full-day pack I always had on me in case I got bucked off on the open plains & horses ran off. 

After the horses calmed down, I walked them to the corral of a nearby abandoned ranch, provided water & feed, stacked my gear alongside and walked 7 miles out to a hiway motel for help.  Next day horse owner came for me & the horses.

In Jackson docs wrapped my broken ribs & a month later I finished that 1st part by mountain bike.

    C. Jilted solo roadtrip:  Roadtripping alone???: At 46, an ex-girlfriend jilted me 1 week before our planned ‘reconciliation’ camping roadtrip to British Columbia, Canada’s ‘Vancouver Expo 86’. After my early European return from my lonely Dating Game trip, it simply did not occur to me to travel alone.  But, hurt & indignant, I went alone anyway.    Busting Paradyms

The trip was fantastic: the Expo, friends visited along the way, hiking & site seeing en route, but most of all, … I really enjoyed that SIT (solo independent travel) ‘in-the-dirt’ travel mode;  the freedom & flexibility that would thereafter become so precious to me.

I NEVER felt loneliness again. Thereafter, I intentionally & happily traveled ‘solo' independently everywhere. (2 exceptions: 1) an old classmate’s invite to travel with 9 women through Indonesia (Bali) on our chartered restored luxury yacht, & 2) a Baltic Cruise with friends ... to prove I dislike cruises.

    D. US/CANADA Travel: Thereafter, throughout my 40’s, I summer road tripped western US & Canada’s West initially in my Chevy Suburban & later in my ratty old van. In winters I traveled thru the US Southwest ultimately living winters on my 38’ sailboat, Tulip, in Redondo Beach, Cal.    That was a mellow lifestyle.

Anecdote: Taking on water:  I bought a 36" sailboat in Marina del Rey and my knowledgeable sailor friend helped me sail it to Redondo Beach, BUT (with me there is always a ‘but’), ½ way down & a ½ mile offshore, I noticed the cabin was filling with water. Somehow between the emergency pump & me bailing frantically, we made it. Pure terror on my 1st sail.  NOTE: The water drain pipe had no ‘backflow valve’ & was siphoning water INTO the boat.

Winters traveling between Wy & Cal in my RV van, …  I usually took different N>S routes down the Oregon Coast or down thru the mid-west.  In summers usually long road trips thru America & Canada’s northwestern parks and Vancouver Island.

 

IV. Scott’s Garage Door business

Always searching for reassuring cash flow, I bought a faltering garage door business, which I named Scott's Garage Doors. For several years & into my 50’s I sold, installed & repaired garage doors & openers. I had little competition because it is a narrow specialty trade dripping with danger from the powerful springs used to raise & lower heavy garage doors.

In this rich man’s town I still did not feel financially safe. Yet, always what seem to drive me at my core was the need to confirm my self-worth. 

    “…. & then there is  most dangerous risk of all – 
risk of spending your life not doing what you want OR
  betting you can buy yourself  freedom to do it later.”
                                                            Randy Komisar,  The Monk &  Riddle:  Education of  Silicon Valley Entrepreneur

 

V. Teacher

   A.  RV Van Catastrophe - kinda: 

Anecdote: catastrophe struck - kinda: At 48, cruising eastern Wyoming’s Oregon Trail sites in my ratty old 1978 RV van, catastrophe struck - kinda.

I felt a puff of dirt fly into my face from INSIDE my van while I was driving. Moments later WY’s super winds had blown the entire roof canopy off my crappy old 78 camper van spewing a blizzard of papers, personal effects & a stack of carefully hidden $20 bills across the surrounding Wyoming prairie ... Never to be seen again, at least by me.

Strangely, this experience shook up my life.  I drove back across Wyoming to Jackson Hole in my 'topless' van with a howling wind loudly banging a flapping piece of metal adding to the psychological stun of my experience.

Once again, I realized my life was drifting nowhere.  I sought advice from my lawyer friend & wife. What should I do now to gain a new useful direction? 1) join his law firm (he tried to suppress his laughter), 2) run for local judge, or 3) teach high school. I chose the latter.

    B. High School Teaching Certification.  At 49, I enrolled in University of Wyoming College of Education to get my high school teaching certification. Compared to law school, it was a relaxed, enjoyable learning experience, analogous to riding a rodeo bull vs basket weaving.

I spent my free time monitoring various 'fun' science classes AND exploring & hiking the Laramie, Wyoming region & back country areas. A year’s intellectual vacation: education courses, but the far more exciting geography, Roman history and monitoring’ various science classes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wings & Anchors

Wings:
In our 20s & 30s, we make critical career & marital decisions, driving hard to achieve our goals & shouldering our burdens … quite often including mounting debt. 

Entering our 40s, many of those responsibilities may remain, yet we can see the “empty nest’s” redemption ahead on our horizon: free parent time, children have graduated or entered a trade, etc. 

Tho pending relief & a new horizon beckons, future opportunities & issues, perhaps ignored until now, should begin to ignite our optimism AND …  trigger a gnawing great financial warning. 

An empty nest offers free time for new pursuits (arts, hobbies, sports ), but adequate financial literacy & investments MUST be pursued to finance our Quality of Life vision, and secure a safe & pleasant retirement.  

Note: These 1^st 3 “Wings” are are similar to what we discussed in pre-teen, teen, 20s & 30s BIO’s because they are, IMO, innate & natural positive attributes all of us have, but often get dulled by educational institutions, AND work & family commitments.

   1. Unlimited Intellectual curiosity:
         (curiosity that leads to useful knowledge)
        Your Present Status: Perhaps your career’s upward sweep or your children’s unbridled curiosity has naturally expanded your own curiosity giving your life a greater vibrancy, a compulsion to seek out more of your world as your pending empty nest provides the free time to do so & hopefully, is less financially burdensome.

BUT, if your educationally suppressed curiosity remains stagnant in deference to your brain-numbing addiction to the passive manipulative stimulation of Fox News, endless TV sports, etc.  you are squandering a human’s most precious resource — the excitement of the undiscovered,

A passive intellectual life is, IMO, an anesthetizing cop-out to ignorance. Harsh words? Yes, but am I correct?. I am trying to wake you up before you waste your life’s opportunities. No reincarnation or 2^nd shot here!!

Like most unhealthy, addictions, you are in sever danger because the 40s/50s may offer the last reasonable chance to revitalize your career, fortify a drifting marriage, advise your children's adult lives, invest for financial security and escalate your Quality of Life & satisfaction. 

   2.  Unconstrained imagination & creativity.
        Your Present Status: Your curiosity is the ‘drive force’ of your imagination & creativity.   If your career, marital & parental mind is always jumping with new ideas, pursuits & questions then you are mentally alive. You can easily aspire to Leonardo’s “Renaissance Man ideal pursuing all knowledge & experience: hobbies, sports, reading, American roadtrips and foreign travel.

OTOH; if you are ‘dead’ looking forward to the next injection of social media or MSM’s click-bait titillation, you are like a tree branch caught in a great river’s side eddy … lazily, endlessly spinning, … going nowhere. This ‘head in the sand’ mindset can cripple your future’s tranquility & retirement’s financial security.

3. Self-worth & personal character traits: 

Your Present Status: Hopefully your career, family & children’s blossoming success have continually strengthened your self-worth & esteem. *

OTOH, if your career or marriage has undermined your self-respect, or your kids have strayed, you must grab the horse-by-the-tail and face your situation. Either you muster the courage to establish or recapture YOUR self worth etc or you will continue your slow dull slide into eternity. 

Revile my blunt words if you wish, but I have already lived my life. My only challenge is that I motivate you to fully live yours. You can ignore my advice and no one else will know … or care.

Note: Character traits are acquired & enhanced by decisions YOU make in difficult moments.

* Self-esteem & self-worth:  
      Your self-esteem reflects your confidence in 1, 2 & 3 above
       Your self-worth (subtly different from self-esteem) reflects you personal belief that you are a worthy, good human being as reflected in your character attributes & work ethic.

Anchors:

In 40s most must juggle multiple responsibilities and financial pressures.
    1. Knowledge & Experience base: Ideally, you have continually added to your everyday practical knowledge, skill competencies & experiences hopefully aiding your career’s upward trajectory, marriage’s stability, and anexpanding your interests & 'financial literacy’s investment skills.

2. Curated worthy, enduring relationships outside your career & kid -related exposure that will ease your future ‘empty nest‘ transition.

3. Health Concerns: In our 40s overall health is generally good, yet, almost unavoidably, we notice our body functions, and perhaps mental functions beginning to deteriorate; not much maybe, but enough to be noticed —the proverbial ‘gray hair.’

Chronic conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes often emerge magnifying in 50s if not wisely managed. (Note: I wasType II diabetes diagnosed at 52)

If wise, we more closely monitor our body’s well being, proactively exercising etc to hold back the natural decline. If NOT, we ignore it, and settle deeper into our couch & Doritos.

Anecdote: Tragic irony, I have friends & acquaintances who passionately dedicated themselves to success & financially well being, yet knowingly, visibly allowed their bodies to deteriorate into degenerative obesity & its compounding complications. effectively squandered their health, undermining the very early retirement & foreign travel goals they worked so hard to achieve. So illogical, so insane so sad.

Anecdote: woman’s smoking & diabetes: A friend’s wife smoked constantly for years & openly ignored her diabetes therapy (pills), until too late, dying rapidly long before her healthier husband. Intentional suicide?

4. Lifestyle complacency: 

In 40s we are burdened with a peaking career’s long hours & greater duties coupled with similar increased family duties & maturing children while sandwiched between ‘aging’ infirm parents care demanding more financial support & investing. You may figuratively cry out, "enough is enough” & simply try seek out some relief by simply coasting.

Ironically, you are also on the brink of the ‘empty nest’ dynamic of the 40s & 50s when your last child leaves home to college, start a new job, or move on their own, 

This is a risky junction because it can beguile you with the reward of relaxation & self indulgence addictively lulling you into denial of aging’s future risks & opportunities.

So, are you trying to break new ground with new physical & mental challenges to stave off the FOMO prompted by a ‘mid-life crisis’?Have you a gnawing desire to explore new hobbies, interests, sports, reading, American roadtrips  and ‘foreign travel’s unknowsn?           It costs nothing to explore.

OR, have become too comfortable in your secure, uninspired, passively titillating, curiosity-dead Fox News predictable lifestyle perhaps wishing no change. 

Your life, your right to decide. 

5. Work complacency:  You may be either 1) lazily content with your job or career status, all your critical financial needs satisfied; devoid of further ambition, OR, 2) bored & antsy for more challenge, even a different field?

Anecdote: One day I was driving down an eastern WY highway researching the Oregon Trail, the howling winds rocking my ratty old 1980 butchered Ford van RV back n’ forth, when I suddenly felt a puff of dirt blow into my right eye. 

But before I could react the entire top of my van blew off, like the defective fighter jet’s canopy might do. All my papers & personal belongings stored in its overhead compartment plus a pack of $20 bills went flying eastward across the plains never to be seen again. The event fundamentally shocked me into re-evaluating the direction of my life.

This experience shocked my highly predictable & comfortable lifestyle with no on-going demanding challenges. I spent the 4-5 hour drive back to Jackson Hole with the winds loudly flappimng a loos e metal piec in the entire open top. 

Later at home I pondered 3 options, 1) resurrect my law background by a) running for local judge or b) try to ‘con’ my best friend into letting me join his law firm (he chuckled respectfully dismissing that option) OR become a high school teacher to ‘put my money where my mouth had always been.” 

That fall I enrolled in University of Wyoming College of Education and the following spring I graduated with my High School Teaching Certificate and later that year, I began teaching part time then full-time for the next 10 years.

6. Financially illiteracy’s Investing: 

Hopefully, you have increased your financial literacy and invested in real estate, stocks etc, OR, you have remained financially illiterate. 

If financial literate you are constantly exploring personal finance initiatives (pay off credit card debt) & investment options (rental property, stocks, etc.) to enjoy & protect your retirement vision..

If still financially ILLITERATE having buried-your head-in-the-sand —: 1) content with your current standard of living in spite of rising taxes & prices & 2) willing to work into & thru your retirement years until finally becoming a burden on your kids?    

Am I too cynical, cruel & sarcastic?
You sure?

Anecdote 1: Bedroom rental: 75 years ago my Dad rented out a bedroom to a gentlemen to supplement our family's income.

Anecdote2:  Tucson Sheriff Sergeant bought a laundromat which his entire family operated until kids paying for college.

Anecdote 3: me: 1) owned rental properties, 2) leased & remodeled a defunct laundromat, 3)bought antique oak furniture along NY & PA border, restored sold in my laundromat and finally, 4) operated a small Home Handyman repair business.

7. Intellectual complacency: Again, You are either:
    ONE, addicted to passive entertainment (manipulative MSM & redundant football) &  redundant free time chores (lawn mowing) OR, ….

    TWO, Your curiosity & ambition drive your thoughts & actions compelling you to:
        a. to seek the excitement of new knowledge (each Nat’l Geo mag, Curiosity Stream’s documentary VIDs), the arts (classical music, History on Fire podcast.AND American roadtrips thru national parks, small town museums & historical sites. 
        b. to imagine foreign travel’s near infinite variety of amateur super-intense, unlimited exposure & exploration of our Earth’s culture’s, archeology, geology and environments.

(Please remember, this is a travel website, after all😀)

8. Relationships: have curated relationships that are worthwhile that will continue to be enduring positive influences.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
           Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”                 
                                 Omar Khayyám

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Important 40s Questions

At 40, What does YOUR future look like to YOU?

     Optimistic or uninteresting & frightening or in denial?

What would you TRULY like it to be?      

      Balance passionate pursuit of interests with financial retirement comfort or status quo.?

 

 

 

Career Questions:
1. Does your career fulfill your current & future ambitions & financial needs OR do you need more $ & a greater challenge OR a brand new career?   Have you ...
    a. defined your 'greater challenge' & begun advancement process? (more education, pro-active w/bosses)
    b calculated your retirement's financial needs realistically?
    c. consider alternative visions? (sell high value house for small condo & $ in investments, additional partime $ work)

2. Can you guarantee a career change will be better or successful? Of course not. Everything is a risk /reward calculation.

3. Should Medical issues stop you? Maybe, maybe not.
       Anecdote: Physically handicapped kids at Athens hostel. 

4. Pets?
 Anecdote: AZ visits Arizona home briefly because aging eastern cat must be returned to. OTOH another pet jumps up and down with excitement when they arrive at the pet care facility. One apparently waits for pet to die the other lives their life.

Relationship Questions:

 Should you & spouse proactively evaluate your relationship? 
     Individuals are always assessing their relationship, but may not share thoughts which may strengthen or prompt correction. Mutual honest communication is path to harmony, or not.

IMO, (bachelor) marriages are endured, perpetually self-restricting, increasingly LESS-communicative, increasingly more accommodating, reducing each's individual ambitions, reducing the sum of each to a small common denominator. Many results in divorce, I have met only a few that allow /promote a easch spher of ambioin/goals while actively constructin a sphere of common ambitions. 

Anecdote: She authority on native Amereican music, he mediacl pathology professor Alasklan wildreness trip solo with others, but sharring anture -related courses in YNP. They exuded the ideal. 

Is divorce a viable option. Of course, if necessary, butb each should be equally accomodated financially. IMO bachelor's opinion 'marriage contract' is a legal construct , NOT an inherent, natural one designed to fullfill Moter Nature's 'need'for procr4eation of alllliving things. 

 

Investing Questions:     pplk

1. Does your career fulfill your current & future retirement financial needs?
     Have you ...
         a. Realistically calculated your retirement's financial needs?
         b. considered alternative visions?
              Less expensive lifestyle? (sell family house & buy small condo & invest balance; used cars for longer
         c. additional part-time work income to invest
         d. inexpensive SIT (solo independent travel)  

2.6) What, right now, at could I begin to change for path to greater rteire net worth?

procrastinatioon,  no money, so, NO reason to invest in stocks. 

3. Financially literate & investing or frightened away by other's ignorance & failures?
    chosen an investment direction: stocks, real estate rentals, index funds(S&P index fund) . (Note: bank savings lose money)

Anecdote: In 1979 immediately after moving to Jackson Hole I bought 3 ½ acres of beautiful property for $65,000 on the Snake River looking north to the Grand Teton mountain & west to the Jackson Hole Ski Area. 20 years later I sold it for $1.25 million. Today it would be worth $3-5+ million.

Anecdote: Apple (AAPL) stock: once: On 3/11/2010 I bought shares of Apple company at $8.01 which today are worth $168/share.3. Eliminated credit card and other 'bad'  debt

   Good investments 'as America goes so goes to stock market'

4. too late?  (repeat) or pplk

      2) My father worked for Eastman Kodak when once a viable company & accumulated their stock without deeper thought. His Kodak & family home were investments by default, not thru investment literacy. Obviously he never discussed investing with me.

Travel Questions: (This a travel blog after all 😃)

1.  Have you mistakenly waited too long to travel?

2. What, right now, could I do to start or plan to travel?  (domestic & foreign)
     a. probe your travel passion, if any
     b. adjust finances: reduce expenses & debt costs, 
     c. plan a hypothetical trip pplk

3. Am I too old to foreign travel? 

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

6) finances: Anecdote: price of van's gas

Could I have left my rental propertty for a monmth or so at a time? 

 

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”                 
                                 Omar Khayyám

 

 "“And then there is the most dangerous risk of all -- the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later.”–  risk of spending your life not doing what you want on  bet you can buy yourself  to do it later.” - Randy Komisar, ar, The Monk &  Riddle:  Education of  Silicon Valley Entrepreneur

 

 

I. My 1^st horse, "Russ" & dog, 'Misty"

Once in Jackson Hole, I soon bought an old rental property to live in & remodel, a home lot on the Snake River and  began researching horses & western gear.

Anecdote: Learning to ride: I had occasionally ridden pay & pump dude horses in Griffith Park, LA  and ‘thought’ I could ride. My home property bordered the R Lazy S dude ranch with direct access to Teton Nat’l Park along the Snake River. I wanted a horse.

I bought a beautiful sorrel cutting horse (rejected) from Dan Mortensen, a respected, trusted horse seller. On my test ride, riding Russ, the horse, was like riding a cloud. But after my ride, Dan said, “Scott, that is too much horse for you.” But I respectfully insisted and bought him anyway.

At home, Russ & I went for our 1^st ride. About a ¼ mi down my road Russ stopped and refused to move forward no matter what I tried. He would go back, but not forward.

I called Priscilla who teaches young RLazyS ranch guests to ride and asked her if she would give me a few lessons. She spent an hour or so with me and I went back, saddled Russ, & started our 2^nd ride. Never again had a problem once Russ realized, “He knows how to ride"

Soon I volunteered to wrangle summer R Lazy S Dude Ranch guests on overnight pack trips up onto the Teton’s high country Crest Trail.

Oh, the hours, days and years Russ & I spent riding the Teton National Park’s south trails & a few dude ranch overnights.

Anecdote: Wrangling in the Tetons: I can still remember shepherding ‘ranch dudes’ up a steep canyon trail into the Teton Mountains, decked out in my simple, authentic cowboy costume & a plain, but high quality, working cowboy’s saddle thinking … , “ A year ago I could never in my wildest dreams have imagined I would be here doing this.“

Sad Note: Years later, a ranch person I had left Russ in the care of, left the ranch gate open and Russ was struck by a car & put down. One of my life’s saddest several days. I loved that horse.

 

 

II. Real Estate:

A. Old rental property:  At 41 I bought bought an old 3 unit rental property to live in & remodel which I still own debt free, still generating cash flow.

B. My Log Home:  Soon after my arrival, I bought a home lot in Yodler Subdivision nestled behind the RLazyS Ranch with direct west views of Jackson Hole Mt. Resort ski area, long distance north views of Grand Teton Mountain, and ¼ mi hike access along Snake River into Teton National Park.

At 42 or 43, I had designed & started building a 2800 sq ft ‘native’ log cabin on my lot. Other than the logs themselves, I did or participated in the building’s entire construction. Ironically, it was too big a job requiring too much cash flow and I didn’t get it finished before I sold years later to the wealthy. 

 

III. Adventurers

By my mid 40s I began seeking more demanding outdoor adventures at least at my skill / fear level.

Anecdote: Fear: Once asked my lawyer friend if he was ever frightened before he began a trial. He responded, "After I had been on Vietnam War’s front line knowing I could be dead a minute later, not much has frightened me.”

Surviving such risk solidifies your confidence, self-worth & self esteem.    I think most of my solo outdoor adventurers were, in part, driven by the need to face a similar risk that would help elevate my confidence & self-worth.

    A. Teton Crest Trail hike in Grand Teton NP. (Note: what is/was kid’s play for many, was a scary challenge to this ‘city born & bred’ desk-pounding 40 yr old) 

Anecdote: Young bear encounter: After my 1st solo night camped along a stream I fished dinner from, I was following the trail out of a ravine when a young black bear ambled across my path 40 yards ahead. My 1st thought, “Isn’t it cute.” My 2nd thought came faster. Mother bear’s have an instantaneous explosive 'cub-danger' reaction. I was scared. I backed up to a tall stump, dropped my pack and shinnied up about 10’.

Only later as I gained skills would I realize that:
    1) Teton Park black bears are generally non-plussed by human hikers 
    2) mom could easily have plucked my off that stump like a over-ripe apple. Grizzly bears… not so much.      Things were getting ‘manly” real quick.

A. Oregon Trail:  At 45, road-tripping around Wyoming,  I became enthralled with the Oregon Trail’s history as it wound across Wyoming. I intensely studied books & old trail maps etc. Then, traveled its Wyoming length in my Roadtrek RV van following the original Trail’s faint 2-tracks & dirt roads across ranch lands sometimes building little rock bridges for my van to cross a creek. Sleeping in those remote boondocks trying to commune with THAT heroic past.

Finally, I opted for a more authentic experience: I would solo horse-pack ride across Wyoming’s Oregon Trail. I rented 2 horses  (Russ had been killed) that could easily be ridden or packed the ‘owner assured me.’ Borrowed the required horse panniers & assembled the gear I needed. Dan Mortensen taught me how to load a pack horse. I even cached supplies along the way beforehand, just in case.    I would do the entire route in multi-year 4-day chunks from Wyoming’s east border to its Western Idaho border.

Anecdote: bucking horses & bnroken ribs:   In preparation, I quickly learned that one horse when packed continually let its lead rope get under the tail of my riding horse causing painful irritation. I figured I could manage that lead rope successfully.                      I was wrong.

Far out on prairie after a couple of days ride & a few minor bucking events, my horse exploded into a bucking frenzy with the rope securely under its tail prompting both horses to explode.  Seeing no way of controlling 1800#’s of frenzied bucking, I literally dove out of the saddle between the horses rolling out of their way.      Unfortunately I broke several ribs perhaps because of the full-day pack I always had on me in case I got bucked off on the open plains & horses ran off. 

After the horses calmed down, I walked them to the corral of a nearby abandoned ranch, provided water & feed, stacked my gear alongside and walked 7 miles out to a hiway motel for help.  Next day my horse owner came for me & the horses, doctors wrapped my broken ribs & a month later I finished that 1st part by mountain bike.

B. Jilted solo roadtrip:  At 46, an ex-girlfriend jilted me 1 week before our planned ‘reconciliation’ camping roadtrip to British Columbia, Canada’s ‘Vancouver Expo 86’. After my early European return from my lonely Dating Game trip, it simply did not occur to me to travel alone.  But, hurt & indignant, I went alone anyway.

The trip was fantastic: the Expo, friends visited along the way, hiking & site seeing en route, but most of all, … I really enjoyed that SIT (solo independent travel) ‘in-the-dirt’ travel mode;  the freedom & flexibility that would thereafter become so precious to me.

I NEVER felt loneliness again. Thereafter, I intentionally & happily traveled ‘solo' independently everywhere. (2 exceptions: 1) an old classmate’s invite to travel with 9 women through Indonesia (Bali) on our chartered luxury yacht, & 2) a Baltic Cruise with friends to prove I dislike cruises.

C. US/CANADA Travel: Thereafter, throughout my 40’s, I summer road tripped western US & Canada’s West initially in my Chevy Suburban & later in my ratty old van. In winters I traveled thru the US Southwest ultimately living winters on my 38’ sailboat, Tulip, in Redondo Beach, Cal.    That was a mellow lifestyle.

Anecdote: ITaking on water:  I bought the sailboat in Moreno Del Ray and my knowledgeable sailor friend helped me sail it to Redondo Beach, BUT (with me there is always a ‘but’), ½ way down & a ½ mile offshore, I noticed the cabin was filling with water. Somehow between the emergency pump & me bailing frantically, we made it. Pure terror on my 1st sail.  NOTE: The water drain pipe had no ‘backflow valve’ & was siphoning water INTO the boat.

Winters traveling between Wy & Cal in my RV van, …  I usually took different N>S routes down the Oregon Coast or down thru the mid-west.  In summers usually long road trips thru America & Canada’s northwestern parks and Vancouver Island.

 

IV. Scott’s Garage Door business

Always searching for reassuring cash flow, I bought a faltering garage door business, which I named Scott's Garage Doors. For several years & into my 50’s I sold, installed & repaired garage doors & openers. I had little competition because it is a narrow specialty trade dripping with danger from the powerful springs used to raise & lower heavy garage doors.

In this rich man’s town I still did not feel financially safe. Always what seem to drive me at my core was the need to confirm my self-worth. 

    “…. & then there is  most dangerous risk of all – 
risk of spending your life not doing what you want OR
  betting you can buy yourself  freedom to do it later.”
                                                            Randy Komisar,  The Monk &  Riddle:  Education of  Silicon Valley Entrepreneur

 

V. Teacher

A.  RV Van Catastrophe - kinda: 

Anecdote: catastrophe struck - kinda:  At 48, cruising eastern Wyoming’s Oregon Trail sites in my ratty old 1978 RV van, catastrophe struck - kinda.

I felt a puff of dirt fly into my face from INSIDE my van while I was driving, moments later WY’s super winds had blown the entire roof canopy off my crappy old 78 camper van spewing papers, personal effects and a stack of carefully hidden $20 bills across the surrounding Wyoming prairie. 

Strangely, this experience shook up my life.  I drove back across Wyoming to Jackson Hole with no van top, the wind howling, psychologically stunned to the core.

Once again, I realized my life was drifting nowhere.  I sought advice from my lawyer friend & wife. What should I do now to gain a new useful direction? 1) join his law firm (he tried to suppress his laughter), 2) run for local judge, or 3) teach high school. I chose the latter.

B. High School Teaching Certification.  At 49, I enrolled in University of Wyoming College of Education to get my high school teaching certification. Compared to law school, it was a relaxed, enjoyable learning experience, analogous to riding a rodeo bull vs basket weaving.

I spent free time monitoring various 'fun' science classes AND exploring & hiking the Laramie, Wyoming region & back country areas. A year’s intellectual vacation: education courses, but more exciting geography, Roman history and monitoring’ various science classes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wings & Anchors

Wings:
In our 20s & 30s, we make critical career & marital decisions, driving hard to achieve our goals & shouldering our burdens … quite often including mounting debt. 

Entering our 40s, many of those responsibilities may remain, yet we can see the “empty nest’s” redemption ahead on our horizon: free parent time, children have graduated or entered a trade, etc. 

Tho pending relief & a new horizon beckons, future opportunities & issues, perhaps ignored until now, should begin to ignite our optimism AND …  trigger a gnawing great financial warning. 

An empty nest offers free time for new pursuits (arts, hobbies, sports ), but adequate financial literacy & investments MUST be pursued to finance our Quality of Life vision, and secure a safe & pleasant retirement.  

Note: These 1^st 3 “Wings” are are similar to what we discussed in pre-teen, teen, 20s & 30s BIO’s because they are, IMO, innate & natural positive attributes all of us have, but often get dulled by educational institutions, AND work & family commitments.

   1. Unlimited Intellectual curiosity:
         (curiosity that leads to useful knowledge)
        Your Present Status: Perhaps your career’s upward sweep or your children’s unbridled curiosity has naturally expanded your own curiosity giving your life a greater vibrancy, a compulsion to seek out more of your world as your pending empty nest provides the free time to do so & hopefully, is less financially burdensome.

BUT, if your educationally suppressed curiosity remains stagnant in deference to your brain-numbing addiction to the passive manipulative stimulation of Fox News, endless TV sports, etc.  you are squandering a human’s most precious resource — the excitement of the undiscovered,

A passive intellectual life is, IMO, an anesthetizing cop-out to ignorance. Harsh words? Yes, but am I correct?. I am trying to wake you up before you waste your life’s opportunities. No reincarnation or 2^nd shot here!!

Like most unhealthy, addictions, you are in sever danger because the 40s/50s may offer the last reasonable chance to revitalize your career, fortify a drifting marriage, advise your children's adult lives, invest for financial security and escalate your Quality of Life & satisfaction. 

   2.  Unconstrained imagination & creativity.
        Your Present Status: Your curiosity is the ‘drive force’ of your imagination & creativity.   If your career, marital & parental mind is always jumping with new ideas, pursuits & questions then you are mentally alive. You can easily aspire to Leonardo’s “Renaissance Man ideal pursuing all knowledge & experience: hobbies, sports, reading, American roadtrips and foreign travel.

OTOH; if you are ‘dead’ looking forward to the next injection of social media or MSM’s click-bait titillation, you are like a tree branch caught in a great river’s side eddy … lazily, endlessly spinning, … going nowhere. This ‘head in the sand’ mindset can cripple your future’s tranquility & retirement’s financial security.

3. Self-worth & personal character traits: 

Your Present Status: Hopefully your career, family & children’s blossoming success have continually strengthened your self-worth & esteem. *

OTOH, if your career or marriage has undermined your self-respect, or your kids have strayed, you must grab the horse-by-the-tail and face your situation. Either you muster the courage to establish or recapture YOUR self worth etc or you will continue your slow dull slide into eternity. 

Revile my blunt words if you wish, but I have already lived my life. My only challenge is that I motivate you to fully live yours. You can ignore my advice and no one else will know … or care.

Note: Character traits are acquired & enhanced by decisions YOU make in difficult moments.

* Self-esteem & self-worth:  
      Your self-esteem reflects your confidence in 1, 2 & 3 above
       Your self-worth (subtly different from self-esteem) reflects you personal belief that you are a worthy, good human being as reflected in your character attributes & work ethic.

Anchors:

In 40s most must juggle multiple responsibilities and financial pressures.
    1. Knowledge & Experience base: Ideally, you have continually added to your everyday practical knowledge, skill competencies & experiences hopefully aiding your career’s upward trajectory, marriage’s stability, and anexpanding your interests & 'financial literacy’s investment skills.

2. Curated worthy, enduring relationships outside your career & kid -related exposure that will ease your future ‘empty nest‘ transition.

3. Health Concerns: In our 40s overall health is generally good, yet, almost unavoidably, we notice our body functions, and perhaps mental functions beginning to deteriorate; not much maybe, but enough to be noticed —the proverbial ‘gray hair.’

Chronic conditions like high blood pressure or diabetes often emerge magnifying in 50s if not wisely managed. (Note: I wasType II diabetes diagnosed at 52)

If wise, we more closely monitor our body’s well being, proactively exercising etc to hold back the natural decline. If NOT, we ignore it, and settle deeper into our couch & Doritos.

Anecdote: Tragic irony, I have friends & acquaintances who passionately dedicated themselves to success & financially well being, yet knowingly, visibly allowed their bodies to deteriorate into degenerative obesity & its compounding complications. effectively squandered their health, undermining the very early retirement & foreign travel goals they worked so hard to achieve. So illogical, so insane so sad.

Anecdote: woman’s smoking & diabetes: A friend’s wife smoked constantly for years & openly ignored her diabetes therapy (pills), until too late, dying rapidly long before her healthier husband. Intentional suicide?

4. Lifestyle complacency: 

In 40s we are burdened with a peaking career’s long hours & greater duties coupled with similar increased family duties & maturing children while sandwiched between ‘aging’ infirm parents care demanding more financial support & investing. You may figuratively cry out, "enough is enough” & simply try seek out some relief by simply coasting.

Ironically, you are also on the brink of the ‘empty nest’ dynamic of the 40s & 50s when your last child leaves home to college, start a new job, or move on their own, 

This is a risky junction because it can beguile you with the reward of relaxation & self indulgence addictively lulling you into denial of aging’s future risks & opportunities.

So, are you trying to break new ground with new physical & mental challenges to stave off the FOMO prompted by a ‘mid-life crisis’?Have you a gnawing desire to explore new hobbies, interests, sports, reading, American roadtrips  and ‘foreign travel’s unknowsn?           It costs nothing to explore.

OR, have become too comfortable in your secure, uninspired, passively titillating, curiosity-dead Fox News predictable lifestyle perhaps wishing no change. 

Your life, your right to decide. 

5. Work complacency:  You may be either 1) lazily content with your job or career status, all your critical financial needs satisfied; devoid of further ambition, OR, 2) bored & antsy for more challenge, even a different field?

Anecdote: One day I was driving down an eastern WY highway researching the Oregon Trail, the howling winds rocking my ratty old 1980 butchered Ford van RV back n’ forth, when I suddenly felt a puff of dirt blow into my right eye. 

But before I could react the entire top of my van blew off, like the defective fighter jet’s canopy might do. All my papers & personal belongings stored in its overhead compartment plus a pack of $20 bills went flying eastward across the plains never to be seen again. The event fundamentally shocked me into re-evaluating the direction of my life.

This experience shocked my highly predictable & comfortable lifestyle with no on-going demanding challenges. I spent the 4-5 hour drive back to Jackson Hole with the winds loudly flappimng a loos e metal piec in the entire open top. 

Later at home I pondered 3 options, 1) resurrect my law background by a) running for local judge or b) try to ‘con’ my best friend into letting me join his law firm (he chuckled respectfully dismissing that option) OR become a high school teacher to ‘put my money where my mouth had always been.” 

That fall I enrolled in University of Wyoming College of Education and the following spring I graduated with my High School Teaching Certificate and later that year, I began teaching part time then full-time for the next 10 years.

6. Financially illiteracy’s Investing: 

Hopefully, you have increased your financial literacy and invested in real estate, stocks etc, OR, you have remained financially illiterate. 

If financial literate you are constantly exploring personal finance initiatives (pay off credit card debt) & investment options (rental property, stocks, etc.) to enjoy & protect your retirement vision..

If still financially ILLITERATE having buried-your head-in-the-sand —: 1) content with your current standard of living in spite of rising taxes & prices & 2) willing to work into & thru your retirement years until finally becoming a burden on your kids?    

Am I too cynical, cruel & sarcastic?
You sure?

Anecdote 1: Bedroom rental: 75 years ago my Dad rented out a bedroom to a gentlemen to supplement our family's income.

Anecdote2:  Tucson Sheriff Sergeant bought a laundromat which his entire family operated until kids paying for college.

Anecdote 3: me: 1) owned rental properties, 2) leased & remodeled a defunct laundromat, 3)bought antique oak furniture along NY & PA border, restored sold in my laundromat and finally, 4) operated a small Home Handyman repair business.

7. Intellectual complacency: Again, You are either:
    ONE, addicted to passive entertainment (manipulative MSM & redundant football) &  redundant free time chores (lawn mowing) OR, ….

    TWO, Your curiosity & ambition drive your thoughts & actions compelling you to:
        a. to seek the excitement of new knowledge (each Nat’l Geo mag, Curiosity Stream’s documentary VIDs), the arts (classical music, History on Fire podcast.AND American roadtrips thru national parks, small town museums & historical sites. 
        b. to imagine foreign travel’s near infinite variety of amateur super-intense, unlimited exposure & exploration of our Earth’s culture’s, archeology, geology and environments.

(Please remember, this is a travel website, after all😀)

8. Relationships: have curated relationships that are worthwhile that will continue to be enduring positive influences.

                       Questions
 Questions to ask me or yourself!

I. Family:
    Did I ever consider marriage or family?: 

 

6) What, right now, in my life, what could I begin to change that would help achieve my goals which may or may not include travel?. 

Note: for for timing purposes, I must've quit working after the dating game so either late 28 or 29 and I took over the laundromat shortly after that somewhere between 29 and Erwin Wasey advertising maybe 32 they started law school at 35 so means I started thinking about it in the early part of by 35