About pamnormfelton
This is the story of how we became World Nomads.
Norm and I met, fell in love and decided to marry. Pretty much normal boy/girl stuff, except that we aren't boy/girl any more but adult man/woman, actually we could be considered old folks. We had both been married before, had children and had a life full of successes and failures, like all people our age.
As we were making plans for our future together we did the standard, where will we live, how long do we keep working, shall we buy a house, questions. it seemed all so mundane and boring. Here we were at the beginning of a new chapter in our lives and we didn’t have a new punch line.
At this time Norm was in an apartment in Burien, Washington and I lived in a small cabin at Redondo Beach in Des Moines Washington. I had down sized to the 750 sq. ft. cabin about 2 years before I met Norm, when my kids were returning from Hawaii after being in the Marines with two small children. I decided I no longer needed my medium sized 3 bedroom house and that they could use it. I made them a deal, pay me what it costs me to rent a small place and you can live in the house. I was blessed to find the cabin which was a block from the beach and had a good view of the Puget Sound from the front window.
So to begin our adventure together, we decided that Norm should move into the cabin. That was a feat in itself. He had large, heavy furniture and years of collectibles. Most of the large furniture items were sold and the collectibles went into storage. Downsizing is very painful. We all collect things over the years that have meaning but we also collect stuff that is just that, stuff. Deciding which is which can be challenging. We got a storage unit close to the cabin and both of us put things into it. I also had to downsize some more to get Norm and his things into my already camped 750 square foot space.
The cabin was wonderful and difficult. Though it was very picturesque it was small and it had some distinct disabilities. It was built in 1919 and the owner had done virtually nothing on it’s up keep. The floor was uneven and slanted in different directions; the shower was very small; the bathroom was very small (Norm could barely stand front on at the sink); there was no dinning room so no table; and we couldn’t get a standard sized, comfortable couch into the front room space.
Long story short, we knew we couldn’t stay there. It was fun for the time but we needed to do something for the long term.
That’s when we asked ourselves what did we really want to do for the rest of our lives.
We wanted to retire, to have some adventure, to see the world and to complete our bucket lists. We started with the bucket list. What did we want on it? When we made it we found that most of it was experiencing different places in the world, starting with Machu Picchu. So we took our honeymoon in Peru and Ecuador, but that’s another story.
We found then that travel was very expensive and we weren’t going to have the budget in retirement that could afford to do much of it. We had to figure out how that could happen.
Fortunately, Norm loves to research things, plan things and figure things out. He found a site called “ Senior Nomads” and that is when our plan began. We couldn’t afford to live in the US and travel but we could afford to live while we traveled.
After much research on Norm’s part, much looking at finances and much discussion on how to make it work, we found we could live abroad and travel for the same amount a month as just living in the US.
It was an audacious plan. It would mean more and serious downsizing because we wouldn’t have a “place” in the States. It would mean living out of a suitcase. And it would mean being away from “home” for months at a time. It got more exciting and more terrifying as we got closer to the realization that we were going to make it happen.
That is the story of how we got “out here” with no home to call our own, 2 suitcases, one backpack each and a lust for travel.
Our hope is that this blog will not just chronicle our travels but share with you the experiences, joys, sorrows, what worked, what didn't and to the best of our understanding why it did or didn't work.
Many of you follow the Facebook page "PamNorm.Felton" so have seen the pictures and antecdotes that Norm has been putting out there for the past. We will tie the pieces together soon.
This is the initial posting for our travel blog. Pam and I will be out visiting as much of the world as our health and finances will allow. Our goal is to travel through Europe for the next two years, as long as our visas will allow.
Our first trip will take us to Budapest. We will be there for the entire month of October. This place has an extra bedroom, so if you are so inclined, contact us and we will see if we have room for you.
We'll keep posting our itinerary and let you know if there's room for a visit.
Our next stop is Vienna we will be there for a week Nov. 1-8. No extra rooms here, but feel free to come for a visit anyway.
After Vienna it's off to Bratislava where my friend Martina Snejdarkova Trokanova lives, that will be a good reunion. There's an extra bed in the pullout couch if Slovakia is your thing.
The fourth leg of our fall trip is two weeks in Prague from Nov 15 to the 30th. There's a spare bed here if Prague is on your Bucket List.
We end our Fall trip with a week stay in Paris before returning home to Seattle for Christmas. No spare beds here but we will be thinking of you.
