8 Year FIRE Anniversary

Guess what popped up in Facebook memories a couple of days ago? My „Last day at work“ post from 8 years ago! Whoohooo, 8 years of FIRE! Whoa!

Yes, yes I’m reporting back for my yearly LeanFIRE anniversary post, LOL! I’m a few days late, luckily not a dollar short 😉 at least not currently.

Last year I left off in the mountains for Colorado, where we were hanging with some friends, recouping from the longer than anticipated Europe trip.

BREAD

During that time my dear friend Carol slipped me a couple spoonfuls of Sourdough Starter and got me hooked on Sourdough baking. Boy has that changed our routines and sent me down a few rabbit holes. I bake bread 2-3 times a week now, in the RV, because I am not a badass like Carol, who bakes her bread in a dutch oven on the camp fire.

We very much enjoy having our own fresh baked bread, being the German bread snobs we are. Maintaining a Sourdough Starter feels like having an extra pet though. This one really works hard and earn its keep… Ummm, not that the others don’t, they do for sure. LOL!

NOSTALGIA and NICK NACKS

When it got too chilly in Salida and Poncha Springs, we made our way to lower elevations via Pagosa Springs and Santa Fe with a few MMC friends. While camped in Santa Fe, TDA and I headed over to Albuquerque to pay a visit to my Dad’s boyhood friend, Gus. Gus is now in his mid eighties, just like my Dad would be if he were still with us. I wanted to make sure I go see him while both of us are still around. He used to call my dad in Germany a couple of times a week, usually to go over Soccer results and latest gossip in our little town. He still calls my Mum at least once a week now. Chatting with him in person about his memories and seeing all the quirky memorabilia from the little town in Germany I grew up in was truly enjoyable. He even kept old reunion pics that included my dad, I had never seen before.

MAGICAL MOAB

We had planned to head to Texas in October, but it was still too hot down there, so we decided to make a little detour to Moab. We attended the MMM Meetup in Moab and also spend some time with MMC camping friends, who have come off the road to live in Moab. We already had planned to do this a couple of times, but for one reason or another never were able to get around to it. I was able to catch up with my friend Heidi, whom I had met at the inaugural Camp Mustache, back in 2014 and kept in touch with over the years. It was super fun to finally meet a few people in person, that I only know from discussions in the forums. I don’t check the forums much anymore since we hit the road, but there was a time in my life, when these message boards were a big part of my day. Especially on those long work trips, spending evenings in hotel rooms.

BECOMING TEXANS but heading “HOME” to AZ

After Moab the weather was finally cool enough to head down to Texas, to become – gasp – Texans…ummm, yes…because: REASONS.

Well howdy there, TDA and I are „Texans“ now. We are using the Escapees Mail Service, which so far has proven quite efficient. Maybe I’ll write more about this some other time, or maybe not, we’ll see.

After Texas we headed to our „Winter Quarters“ in Mesa, AZ, so I could reconnect with my friends there, volunteer and get a few things done. We enjoy the little community that we are staying at now. It’s not as fancy as the big RV resort we used to spend a couple of months in the winter, but it has a real community feel and we do like the people there a lot.

We stayed in our little park through late March, forgoing the January and February Quartzsite and Yuma gatherings. These are still fun for sure, but we also enjoy being part of this community too. Having a bit more time in Mesa gives me more opportunity to contribute to causes I care about, volunteer, see my local friends etc.

SEEING FRIENDS AND FAMILY

At the beginning of our 2024 travel season we visited our friend Chris, whom I have known from the very early days of the FIRE meetups in Phoenix. We also met on the MMM Forums back in 2013 or so and have been keeping in touch over the years, following each others FIRE journeys. It’s funny how back then there was usually the same 3-5 people at the meetups and now the local groups are just huuuuge. We attended a meetup in Tempe this Winter, that Pete, aka MMM himself, organised, with at least 50ish people in attendance.

Anyhoo, Chris purchased some land in AZ where he is building out a homebase to use when he’s not travelling and we finally got to see it. He also purchased a 70ties Argosy camper to live in, that we checked out. It’s so awesome to see things, you have been chatting about for such a long time, coming together.

After that we headed to Texas to see the Solar Eclipse with some of our MMC friends. Many of the MMC folks have come off the road recently, so when we get to catch up with the group, it usually is much smaller. Spending time with everyone is always awesome though: thought provoking discussions, board games, music and a ton of fun is pretty much guaranteed! Oh and poetry 😉

One of our MMC friends invited the group to come stay at his family member’s property that was right in the line of totality. We had a fantastic time and got super lucky with the weather. I made a cake to commemorate the occasion, winging it in the RV as usual.

In May I went to Germany for my Mum’s birthday among other things, while TDA stayed back to take care of the kitties and get some work done. After my return we finally resumed our quest to visit as many of the National Park Service Units as possible, heading right to Oklahoma from Texas.

There were still a lot of units we hadn’t seen in the Midwest so we filled in the gaps from Oklahoma to Kansas, to Missouri, to Illinonis, to Wisconsin, to Michigan, to Ohio…

In Milwaukee we caught up with our friend Dennis, whose poems I also shared on this blog before. Dennis is one of the investors in a Maker Space, that has currently two locations in Milwaukee. He gave us a tour and I am totally intrigued. What a cool way to build community! Almost made me want to spend more time in Milwaukee if it weren’t for the cold winters. I learned that there’s one near where we are staying in Mesa, so I’ll have to go check it out next winter, when we are back in AZ.

We were even able to get together with Jane and JL Collins, almost 10 years after meeting Jim at Chautauqua in Ecuador. A meeting that was instrumental on my path to FIRE. When he congratulated me on my first day of freedom 8 years ago, I promised I’d buy him a drink, when we cross paths again. I really thought, we’d make it somewhere close to him much earlier, but you know what they say about best laid plans and such. It did take way way too long, but I finally accomplished it. It was such a privilege to catch up with him and also meet his amazing wife, Jane. We were so busy chatting that we totally forgot to snap a picture.

From there it was up to the UP on the West Side of Lake Michigan, to Lake Superior and down on the East Side Of Lake Michigan. Then a little side trip to Cincinatti, OH to see my best friend from High School who was visiting family in Cinci. A visit to The Mothership in Jackson Center, OH and back up on the West Side of Lake Huron.

NATIONAL PARKS

We are still in the middle of our travel season right now and are bouncing around the Great Lakes area accomplishing the goal to put our feet at least once in each of the Great Lakes and into some of the smaller ones as well.

I was very positively surprised by Michigan, a state I wasn’t too interested in to be honest. It has turned out to be such a fun place to discover. My favorite area this year has been Apostle Islands National Lakeshore in WI though, followed closely by Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in MI.

At the time of this writing we are up to 216 National Park Units visited, out of which 47 were National Parks. This means there’s not that many National Parks in the lower 48 left for us to visit, unless new parks are added, which is always a good thing. Right now the NPS manages 431 units out of which 63 are NP’s, but out of the 63 several are not easy to travel to in our current setup.

BOOKS

One of my favorite books this past year was probably  The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker. It was a gift from my nephews wife, Natalie and I liked it so much, that I immediately got the two other parts of the Triology, while I was still reading the first one. I also enjoyed the second book, A Well Tempered Heart, but the third book just wasn’t as captivating anymore.

MONEY

Although August is not quite in the books yet, looking at our 2023-24 numbers (barring any unforeseen circumstances) our 8th year expenses appear to be on par with the previous two years, give and take a couple hundred dollars. We still track expenses, but still don’t budget and I haven’t done a Networth update in a long time. After 8 years things seem to be working out, even without extra side hustles and such. I would of course feel a bit safer with additional streams of income. I am also still not willing to seek employment or otherwise invest time into that at this point. I’d rather volunteer and spend my time as I see fit. Nothing has changed on that front, I guess.

Yes, I am a little nervous about the current state of world affairs and what that may mean for life, the universe and… yes, „The Market“. Even talking to the mighty JL Collins, doesn’t change that. But that’s just who I am: always a worry wart. I’m not planning on making any investment changes based on that fear though.  I will however be starting a Roth Conversion ladder this year, something I have been meaning to do for a while, but have been postponing….too busy living life and such.

HEALTH

The kitties and I have experienced a few health challenges in the past year. Nothing major, thank cat, but still enough to slow us down sometimes. My beloved furry owners, have turned 16 and 13 this year. I want to make sure I get in all the snuggles with them while we can. Several of my friends have lost furry family members in the past few months and my heart is breaking for them. So I am definitely not kidding about kitty snuggles having a high priority in my daily life.

CONCLUSIONS

Conclusions? Oh well, nothing NEW really…

I’m very grateful for the time I have to spend with the people (and pets!) I love.

I’m grateful, I can make time to see the ones I want to see, even if it means a little a detour or an extra trip.

I am grateful I get the time to do things that are meaningful to me.

I am still figuring out what I want to be, when I grow up, having fun in the process.

Physically challenging activities become harder as we age, so it’s good to do whatever it is that we want to do, while we can and also work on preserving our strength.

I wish everyone had these options and this freedom, even if their choices may look different from mine.

What about you?