Prologue:

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.

I had left Manhattan Beach, California, shortly before my 40s for Jackson Hole, Wyoming:
    1) to escape the pleasantly non-challenging, soul-numbing 'la la' vibe of Manhattan Beach's sands.
    2) to escape 25 more years of 24/7 high-pressure, grinding solo law practice.
    3. to seek a more manly lifestyle.
    4. to gain the freedom to push new boundaries of experience & adventure.

When I arrived in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, I would have 5 future experiences I could never have imagined then.

      1. Buy a horse & wrangle (lead) Dude Ranch guests
          on overnight horse pack trips into the Grand Tetons Range. 

      2. Design & build a large native log house

      3. Start Scott’s Garage Doors: selling, installing & repairing
          garage doors. 

      4. Solo hike the Teton Crest Trail of Grand Teton NP.  
         (Note: what was kids’ play for some, but was a scary
         challenge to this ‘city born & bred’ desk-pounding 40 yr old.

Anecdote: Bears: After my 1st solo night camped along a stream I fished my 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 was, “Isn’t it cute?” My 2nd thought came much faster, "Mother bears have an instantaneous, explosive cub-protection 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 very accustomed to human hikers. Grizzly bears… not so much. 
      2) Mom could easily have plucked me off that stump like an over-ripe apple.     

Things were getting ‘manly” real quick.

      5. Go back to college … again to U of WY, Teacher's College  for my high school teaching certification.

 

 

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 National Park along the Snake River.         I wanted a horse.

I bought a beautiful, but professionally rejected, sorrel-cutting horse from Dan Mortensen, a respected, trusted horse seller. 

Riding Russ on my test ride in Dan's corral was like riding a cloud.

But after my ride, Dan said, “Scott, that is too much horse for you.” But being Scott, I respectfully insisted and bought him anyway.

At home, Russ & I went for our 1st ride. About a ¼ mile 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 for our 2nd ride, & started down my road again. No problems! I never again had an issue 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 Range's high country Crest Trail.   Oh, the hours, days, and the few years Russ & I spent riding the Teton National Park’s south trails & a few high mountain overnights.

Sadly, I got a call from the ranch where I kept Russ in the late fall, that he had escaped the ranch & been hit by a car & put down (euthanized) by a passing neighbor. A ranch manager I trusted had inadvertently left the corral gate unsecured. I was devastated. I loved that horse. Still brings tears to my eyes.

Mini-Anecdotes: Moments with Russ: Often, we would ride the silent, seldom-visited southern trails of Teton National Park.  
     -- Often going up a steep hill, I would get off and walk in front, reins tucked in my back pocket, so Russ didn't have to carry me. Silly, I know, it just seemed right between friends.
     -- In the late fall before I shipped Russ south to warmer winter pastures, we'd ride the silent snow-covered Park trails, Russ's ears perked up at the hint of elk in the trees. 
     -- once, after a week or so back visit to Manhattan Beach, I returned to the RLazyS Ranch and stood at the far end of a large pasture where Russ & other horses were grazing.  Within moments, Russ came loping alone across the pasture to say Hello. Like I said, we were friends.
   -- Etc, etc., etc.

  Anecdote: Creating my Jackson Hole reputation: I assumed that my Manhattan Beach, California, reputation was a curious mix of beach bum, occasional drunk, hard-working property owner & handyman, and fancy car-driving lawyer.    

Jackson Hole was my "starting over." I had quit drinking & smoking at 28, worked hard on properties and law school & practice. Now I wanted a normal, humble, noncontentious reputation that might mellow into old age. It was my intent to slowly & gently melt into Jackson Hole ".... like frozen ice cream melting into a dry sponge."

So my couple of weeks morning's I would wander through the shops around the famous Town Square until folks there recognized me and said "Hello." getting a 'feel' for the place.

In contrast, during my first few weeks, I remember seeing a tourist dressed up with the new duds he thought 'made him'  a REAL cowboy, his white hat with colorful hat band, flamboyant shirt, decorative ranger belt with a fancy buckle and, believe it or not, denim trousers with denim chaps, sewn onto the trousers.  I've never seen anything like it.       At 1st I laughed inside at him, but then realized we were both doing the same thing, "Living our dream."

Lesson learned -- I vowed to outfit myself with the most authentic, real cowboy's daily gear.
Using as my example, Sonny Clemens, head ramrod of a local, super wealthy family's ranch, whom I got to know when he drove the dike alongside the river behind my property. 

His hat was a top brand silver belly premium-felt hat with a simple hat band, a simple patterned western shirt, a plain leather belt with a western buckle, Levis, of course, and Justin or Lucchese cowboy boots. 
        I bought the same.

After I bought my horse Russ, I bought a plain hand-crafted, high-quality working saddle. 

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 authentic cowboy costume & 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-papered female black Labrador, which I named Misty (after Johnny Mathis' song). I can still remember that little black bundle nestled next to my right leg as we drove home that 1st 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. (ay 52 I was diagnosed Diabetes II. Surprise!)

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 or a coyote was dogging us to close, I'd reach down & pick her up, placing her on the saddle in front of me 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 while 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-sized welts that migrated across my body/face/scalp all day long, accompanied by great emotional anxiety. ( I show a 'aunthentic' 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 for Misty to live out her life with a small ranch family living up in Teton Nat'l Park. I delivered her there one afternoon and tore myself away. Even now, 40 years later, 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, that they wouldn't soon take away. " Interestingly, this probably made it very easy for me to avoid all romantic relationships sometime in my later 40s onward.

 

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 my Jackson Hole 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 views north of Grand Teton Mountain, and 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 would never get it finished before I sold years later to the wealthy.

 

III. Adventures

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.”  I envied that "Trial by Combat" confidence.

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

    A. Teton Crest Trail hike in Grand Teton NP. (Note: what is 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 bears have an instantaneous explosive 'cub-protection' 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 nonplussed by
                human hikers.   Grizzly bears… not so much.
    2) Mom could easily have plucked me off that stump like
               an 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 'open-range' 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.

Anecdote: Riding the Oregon Trail across Wyoming: 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 & broken 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 the prairie, after a couple of days' ride & a few minor rodeo 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 directly to the ground, landing between the horses & rolling out of their way. 

Unfortunately, I broke several ribs, perhaps because of the stuff in my shirt's chest pocket and the weight of my full-day pack I always had on me in case I got bucked off on the open plains & the 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 highway motel for help.  The next day, the 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.         Bikes don't buck as much and I can lay them in their side and drag them under a fence. Horses don't like that.!

    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 Paradigms

The trip was fantastic: the Expo, friends visited along the way, hiking & sightseeing en route, but most of all, … I really enjoyed that FIT (free 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 free & independent 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 Chevy van. In winters, I traveled through 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 my  berth at Redondo Beach Marina, 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 every time we rocked back & forth.

Winter Roadtrips traveling between Wy & Cal in my RV van, …  I usually took different N to S routes down the Oregon Coast or down through the Midwest.  In summers, usually long road trips thru America & Canada’s northwestern parks and Vancouver Island; kayaking Washington State's San Juan Islands.

1999 Van roadtrip: Civil War Sites (Gettysburg, Antietem, etc), DC trip, Okeefenoke Swamp , FL paddle 

 

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 Door Handyman (I figured if the garage doors failed, I could make it doing home repairs. TIP: Always have a backup; a back door!) 

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 AND my work was fast & guaranteed.

I worked hard for contractor's trust. One contractor allowed me to follow his multi-unit project's progress, then order & install the garage doors without his approval. One less thing he had to worry about. 

My Scott's Garage Doors Suburban... after 30+years of hard labor & Wyoming weather en route to the recyclers.  'Bye' old girl!!!

YET, in this rich man’s town, I still did not feel financially safe AND always had a 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 that  my life seemed to be 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 basket weaving vs riding law school's rodeo bull.

A year’s intellectual vacation of easy education courses, a few exciting elective courses (geography & Roman history), monitoring’ various science classes AND exploring & hiking the Laramie, Wyoming region & backcountry areas.

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 & retirement 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 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 similar to what we discussed in pre-teen, teen, 20s & 30s BIOs because, IMO, they are innate & natural positive attributes all of us have, but which often get dulled by educational institutions, AND work & family commitments.

   1. Unlimited Intellectual curiosity (leads to useful knowledge)
        Your Present Status: Has your career’s upward sweep or your children’s unbridled curiosity expanded your own curiosity, giving your life greater vibrancy & compulsion to learn more of your world as your pending 'empty nest' offers the free time & hopefully, less debt?

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 2nd shot here!!

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

   2.  Unconstrained imagination & creativity.
        Your Present Status: Your curiosity is the driving 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 social media injection or MSM’s click-bait titillation, you're like a tree branch caught in a 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 base practical knowledge, skill competencies & experiences, hopefully aiding your career’s upward trajectory, marriage’s stability, & expanding your interests & 'financial literacy’s investment skills.

          IN Contrast — failure to keep learning, accumulating new knowledge

The failure to acquire new knowledge - intentional or otherwise - in some measure may stifle our learning ability, problem-solving skills, our useable knowledge base and most importantly IMO, our individual Quality of Life… bringing life to a slow grinding slog. 

Historically, a person could stop enhancing their work skills without any consequence because the expansion of knowledge & the skill base was so slow.. A hammer was a hammer … until today’s compressed air gun hammer arrived. A phone, radio & computer were 3 separate devices until Steve Jobs’s iPhone melded them together, but even then, the increase in skills required was relatively minimal.

Such a contented but uninspired vocational mindset may well bleed into our personal lives, strangling any desire for new excitements and achievements until our predictable, comfortable lifestyle becomes a deadening habit, against change, against curiosity itself. 

Perhaps work or family responsibilities have left you too tired, preoccupied, or worn out to reach beyond Fox News, Netflix, or the NFL for entertainment.

Perhaps your public school experience destroyed your intellectual curiosity, made learning equal to boredom, and assaulted you with excruciatingly frightful testing of seemingly useless information.

Learning became eating ice cream with shards of glass.

I am not trying to frighten you ….too much.      Rather, I want you to awaken now before it is too late.

    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, our 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 worsen in 50s if not wisely managed. (Note: My Type II diabetes was diagnosed at 52. Managed effectively with daily drugs, exercise & diet)

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: Health/body abuse: Tragic irony, I have friends & acquaintances who passionately dedicated themselves to success & financial 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:   (jlk: )
In our 40s, we are burdened with a peaking career’s long hours & greater duties coupled with similar increased family duties & maturing children while sandwiched between care of ‘aging’ infirm parents' demanding more financial support & investing.

You may figuratively cry out, "Enough is enough,” & simply try to seek out some relief by simply coasting.  Ironically, you are also on the brink of an ‘empty nest’ dynamic of 40s & 50s when your last child leaves home for college, starts a new job, or moves out 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 road trips and ‘foreign travel’s unknowns?

                          It costs nothing to explore.

OR, have you become 'too safe' in your secure, uninspired, passively titillating, curiosity-dead, MSM 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?    (jlk: )

Anecdote:  Fighter jet canopy: 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 a 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.

I spent the 4-5 hour drive back to Jackson Hole in mild shock with a loosely flapping piece of metal banged loudly against the van's gaping open top. This experience shocked my highly predictable & comfortable lifestyle devoid of any demanding challenges.

 

1800#s of 'bucking dynamite' somewhere on the Oregon Trail

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

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

    6. Financially illiteracy’s Investing: (jlk: financial literacy)

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

If financially literate, you are constantly exploring personal finance initiatives (paying 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 & through 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 he had created in the attic to a single gentlemen to supplement our family's income.

Anecdote 2:  Tucson Sheriff's Sergeant bought a laundromat, which his entire family operated. His kids learning work ethic & skills that paid for their college.

Anecdote 3: me:
   1) owned rental properties,
   2) bought antique oak furniture along NY & PA border,    
   3) bought,  remodeled & managed a defunct laundromat that       
      handled dry cleaning & sold restored antique furniture.
   4) operated a small Home Handyman repair business.

    7. Intellectual complacency: Again, You are either:
        a) addicted to passive entertainment (manipulative MSM & redundant football) &  redundant free time chores (lawn mowing) OR,     
        b) your curiosity & ambition drive your thoughts & actions
            compelling you:
            (1) to seek the excitement of new knowledge (each Nat’l Geo mag, Curiosity Stream’s documentary videos), the arts (classical music, History on Fire podcast AND American road trips thru national parks, small-town museums & historical sites. 
            (2)  to imagine foreign travel’s near infinite variety of amateur super-intense, unlimited exposure & exploration of our Earth’s culture, archeology, geology, and environments.

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

   8. Relationships: have curated worthwhile relationships 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 are you in denial?

What would you TRULY like it to be/do?      

Balance passionate pursuit of interests with financial retirement comfortorstatus 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 the advancement process? (more
        education, pro-active with bosses)
    b. calculated your retirement's financial needs realistically?
    c. Considered alternative visions? (sell high-value house for small condo &
        monies invested, additional part-time income work)

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

 “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.” - Randy Komisar, The Monk &  Riddle:  Education of  Silicon Valley Entrepreneur

3. Should Medical issues stop you? Maybe, maybe not.
       Anecdote: Handicapped kid travelers: At my Athen's hostel a group of 10-15 physically handicapped kids were traveling.

4. Pets?
 Anecdote: Cat's welfare 1st: An Arizona neighbor visits her Arizona home for a few weeks and then must scurry back east because of her aging cat. OTOH, another friend's pet jumps up & down with excitement when it arrives at the pet care facility. One apparently waits for pet to die, while the other finds options and lives their life.

My best life's best friend, man or beast, was my black Lab, Misty, which I had to give up for medical reasons, so I make no judgments here.

Relationship Questions:
1. Should you & your spouse proactively evaluate your relationship? 
     Individuals are always assessing their relationships, but may not share their thoughts, which may strengthen or prompt disharmony. Is mutually honest communication the path to harmony?

IMO, (bachelor) many marriages are endured, perpetually restricting and reducing each's ambitions, increasingly LESS-communicative, reducing the scope of each life to a small common denominator. Many result in divorce.

I have met only a few that allow/promote the individual sphere of the other's ambitions/goals while simultaneously creating a sphere of common pursuit. 

Anecdote: A 'good' marriage: She is an authority on Native American music, he a medical pathology professor. She does 'her thing' while he does an Alaskan wilderness trip with others, but they share nature-related Yellowstone NP educational courses. They exude the ideal, IMO.

   2. Is divorce a viable option? Of course, if necessary, but each should be equally accommodated financially. In my bachelor's opinion,  'marriage contract' is a legal construct, NOT an inherent, natural one, designed to fulfill Mother Nature's 'need for the procreation of all living things.' 

 

Investing Questions:     pplk

1. Does your career's income fulfill your current & future retirement financial needs?

2. Have you realistically calculated your retirement's financial needs?

3. Have you considered alternative income & financial visions?
    a. Less expensive lifestyle? (sell big, empty family house & buy small
        condo & invest balance; use cars for longer)
    b. additional part-time work income to invest
    c. inexpensive FIT (free independent travel)  
    d. Eliminate credit card and other 'bad'  debt

 4. Is it too late to start investing?    
    a. Can you become financially literate?
    b. Can you invest in stocks, real estate, index funds? (yes, pursuing the
        above.)

Anecdote: Home property: 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, but in the interim I traveled the world.

Anecdote: Apple (AAPL) stock:  On 3/11/2010 I bought shares of Apple company at $8.01 which today are worth $168/share (2100% return.    "As America goes, so goes the stock market', Warren Buffet

 

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

1.  Have you waited too long to travel?  Too old?

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

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Can't remember where this goes now, maybe later

 

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