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Welcome To Our Retirement BLOG

You have found Tom and Jill's retirement BLOG which will highlight our trips and adventures along our new path of retirement! 
Please enjoy our site and visit often as we are very active and have a LOT of adventures both past and future planned.
 

After almost 15 years we have decided to put our beloved Celia's Gourmet Foods in our sons hands!
They have agreed to adopt our cherished business so the papers have been finalized. And....
WE ARE RETIRED AND FREE!!!!!!!

What's Planned Next For Us?

2026 Annual Spring RV Fishing Trip
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- 2026 Spring Redwoods and Pacific Coast RV Trip 
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2026 / 2027 - Fall/Winter/Spring Seven Month, Circle The USA RV Road Trip

Join us on our Journey to see the USA and complete our Geocaching challenge of finding at least one Geocache in all 50 states. Still in the organization and planning stage, but we will be leaving the middle part of August 2026 and returning in March 2027. We will cover the middle of southern Canada as well as the eastern portion of the USA. We plan on spending the winter in the south west and gulf states to enjoy the warmth (fingers crossed) and work our way to the south western states before returning from the "Full Circle" of the USA!!!

Winter Road Trip 2026

With a family death and various other delays, we ended up leaving on Wednesday January 14th, about 3 weeks delayed from our original plans.
Our trip turned out to be 7 weeks long, covered 6176 miles, and new adventures every day! 

Ecuador and Galapagos Islands

From the highlands of the Andes at 13,000 feet, to the Amazon Jungle, we had a GREAT time visiting Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands. Almost 3 weeks of exploring and adventuring left us with awesome lifelong memories! We have broken up this trip into 3 categories listed below. We hope you enjoy our stories and pictures! Above picture is from our Amazon Jungle Forest stay at Suchipakari Lodge. If you like jungle, you would love this place! We even spotted a family of wild monkeys jumping from tree to tree a few times.

Western Caribbean

A quick 10 days in Florida and the Western Caribbean to relax after our Ecuador trip. Well OK, in comparison it was much more relaxing, but still on the go almost everyday!

Ft Lauderdale to LA via the Panama Canal

6 countries and almost 3 weeks, are we having a good retirement party yet?

Duck Hunt 2024

Prineville Reservoir and hunting the upper stretches of the lake. Ducks EVERYWHERE! Ryan's new Prodigy was AWESOME!!!. In the end we did not get any ducks, but time spent with family is much more precious than a duck dinner... This year was short, only 3 days, but the weather was great with the exception of a morning of putting through thick fog to get to our blinds! 

Tom's Elk Hunt
2024 & 2025

Anterless Hunt Starky Unit for 9 days!
2024: First non-archery hunt in 35 years. Wow what a different mindset. Also first harvest on the old Ruger paddle stock 270...
2025: The trusty old stainless Winchester 30.06 does it again!

Ocean Trip

December 24 & 25

Soaking In The
Moonlight
January 2025

Man we love it when one of us (in this case Jill) decides to surprise the other with a short trip! This one was to Crane Hot Springs for 3 days of wrinkled fingers in freezing temps. Nothing like waking up at O Dark Thirty and heading out in 12 degree temps to take a swim right?

The sunrises were fantastic, as were the sunsets, BUT.... The sunsets were behind the resorts buildings so nothing photogenic. If you have not been to Crane Hot Springs, we would recommend you adding it to your things to do in Eastern Oregon! No overwhelming sulphur smells and everything from a Lobster Pot to cooler refreshing temps in the water.

HINT: If you are staying overnight, get one of the suites so you have your own bathroom. That way you do not have to walk in freezing temps to use the public toilets...

Early Summer Kokanee Trip

We missed the spring trip this year because of our 2 month Central America trips, but we did make the June trip to Wikiup Reservoir . Fishing was GREAT,,, catching sucked big time. But spending a week up at the lake either catching or not is a week well spent!!!

Another Soaking
In The Books!

Mid June found us over in the La Grande area attending another Arctic Fox Owners Association rally at Hot Springs Resort and Hotel. Because we only had a couple days we decided to stay at the old motel at the hot springs and leave the trailer at home. We must say that we very much prefer Crane Hot Springs out of Burns much better than Hot Lakes, but a soak is always better than no soak! We had a great time seeing old friends and fellow Northwood RV owners, something that dates back 22 years for us!

July Ocean Trip to 
Newport Oregon

One of the best things about being retired is being able to make impulse decisions and just pack up and leave on a moments notice. So, we were sitting around on a Thursday afternoon and we says to ourselves..... Let's Go To The Beach!!! So after spending some time trying to find last minute accommodations, we took off the next morning and went for a beach trip! Awesome idea right, it's 95 degrees here in Bend, the beach should be great! Well ok, reality hits about 1/4 mile from the ocean and we realize it is blowing sideways at 25-35 and the clouds are so think we can't see the ocean from our beachfront room. The clouds are screaming past us and when we can see the beach the sand is almost moving sideways faster than the wind. But hey, we going to have fun! Turns out we had a few hours on Saturday that at least were clear and we got our beach fix we so muchly needed!

So if it is not so pleasant at the beach, we decided to head up to Lincoln City and head inwards for a hike we have wanted to do for years. Amazing, were retired and we now have the time, crazy! So we spent the day on a 3 mile hike to Lost Creek Falls. We have read all the hype, and we must tell you it might have been a little overblown, but it really was a great little hike and a great little falls. If you find yourself in LC and have an afternoon free, look it up and do the hike, you won't regret it! 

September at Silver Falls State Park

Nothing like hitting the trails at Silver Falls State Park in the fall when the leaves are starting to turn and the crowds have dissipated. 

Fall 2025 - Multiple Trips
Breaking In The Completed Contortion Project

After picking up the new rig in Spokane the first of October we spent 2 weeks on the road getting back home to Bend and another week on the south Oregon Coast. 

If you have made it this far down our page, thank you for visiting!
Please check back often as we are updating our blog for each trip / adventure we take.