Life Lessons and Love Beyond Fifty, A Traveler's Chronicle
Feb 12, 2024
Leslie Maloney
Have you ever packed your life into an RV and hit the open road? My guest, Carol Colborn, did just that, and she's here to take us on a journey across North America, narrating her transformative expedition from city life in the Philippines to the boundless adventures of RV living. Carol's infectious enthusiasm for exploration after 50 will have you rethinking your own notions of retirement and adventure. From facing the challenges of adapting to a new culture and lifestyle to experiencing the electrifying quest for the Northern Lights, Carol's story is a vibrant tapestry woven with threads of discovery and resilience.
Imagine finding love in the digital age, then whisking away on an eight-year RV odyssey with your beloved. Carol didn't just imagine it — she lived it, and she's chronicled her experiences in her delightful book "Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream." Peek into her life as she shares the 'Seven Qs' to a fulfilling partnership and how emotional intelligence played a pivotal role in her relationship.
She imparts some practical wisdom for those yearning to roam post-retirement. She extols the virtues of slow travel, the joy of pursuing passions like writing and photography, and the importance of community and family in one's later years. Carol's reflections, captured in her blog "Cruising After 70," offer a window into her world of cultural assimilation, personal evolution, and the sparks of joy that come from a life well-traveled.
**The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this podcast may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. This podcast contains links to other third party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser.
Have you ever packed your life into an RV and hit the open road? My guest, Carol Colborn, did just that, and she's here to take us on a journey across North America, narrating her transformative expedition from city life in the Philippines to the boundless adventures of RV living. Carol's infectious enthusiasm for exploration after 50 will have you rethinking your own notions of retirement and adventure. From facing the challenges of adapting to a new culture and lifestyle to experiencing the electrifying quest for the Northern Lights, Carol's story is a vibrant tapestry woven with threads of discovery and resilience.
Imagine finding love in the digital age, then whisking away on an eight-year RV odyssey with your beloved. Carol didn't just imagine it — she lived it, and she's chronicled her experiences in her delightful book "Carolina: Cruising to an American Dream." Peek into her life as she shares the 'Seven Qs' to a fulfilling partnership and how emotional intelligence played a pivotal role in her relationship.
She imparts some practical wisdom for those yearning to roam post-retirement. She extols the virtues of slow travel, the joy of pursuing passions like writing and photography, and the importance of community and family in one's later years. Carol's reflections, captured in her blog "Cruising After 70," offer a window into her world of cultural assimilation, personal evolution, and the sparks of joy that come from a life well-traveled.
**The information provided on this podcast does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Information on this podcast may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. This podcast contains links to other third party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser.
Speaker 1:
So are you looking for more inspiration and possibility in midlife and beyond? Join me, leslie Maloney, proud wife, mom, author, teacher and podcast host, as I talk with people finding meaning in Moxie in their life after 50. Interviews that will energize you and give you some ideas to implement in your own life. I so appreciate you being here. Now let's get started.
Speaker 1:
Welcome back to another Meaning in Moxie After 50 podcast, and I have Mrs Carol Cole-born with us today. I read about her and thought I have to interview her firsthand and find out about all her adventures. And she's just got an amazing background and amazing career in the Philippines, which is where she was born, and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But welcome, carol. First of all. Hi, thanks for inviting me. So I read about your adventures. You came over here. You're tired from the Philippines. You came over here, got married and you and your husband set off in an RV for eight years cruising across America, and I think a lot of people think about doing that. So can you tell us a little bit about how that happened and some of the adventures along the way?
Speaker 2:
Oh, it was the happiest time of my life. I mean, there are no RVs in the Philippines. So guess what? I married an American businessman and he had RVed before and I said how about RVing for a honeymoon? That's what we did and it ended to be an eight-year honeymoon Long, long but fun, fun. And we covered almost all of North America, 49 American states, 10 Canadian provinces and six Mexican states, and in Mexico we were in campgrounds, where we were the only RV in town.
Speaker 1:
How big was the camper? The RV?
Speaker 2:
The RV was 24 feet. It was only 24 feet because we said we were going to just try it and then, when we loved it, we upgraded to a 37.5 so that we could stay in campgrounds longer like three weeks at a time and explore the area, so we don't have to go back there.
Speaker 2:
So in the beginning with a small RV. We were just having three or four days at a time in our campground, so we were hopping all around North America and we said, oh no, this is very expensive with the gas and everything, so it's much better to upgrade to a bigger one and then stay for three weeks and explore the area, and we don't need to go back.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so you started out from where? Were you in the West? Were you in Phoenix at that time, because I know you live in the Phoenix. Oh, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:
We were in Seattle, we met in Seattle and then we from Seattle we first visited all our kids and then we ended up in Calgary, where my daughter is, and from Calgary we went all the way to Alaska, going through the Alaska Highway. That was really the first outing of my life. It was very interesting the Alaska Highway, can you imagine. And then we stayed in Alaska for a month.
Speaker 1:
Oh, wow. And then you slowly began to make your way from there. Did you go across Canada? What?
Speaker 2:
was your route? No, we went down. We went down through California, big Sur, everything, and we went down to Mexico. We outlined the Western coast of North America from Alaska down to Mexico.
Speaker 1:
What were some of the things? As you were traveling along and, like you said, you started out with a smaller RV and then you upgraded because you felt like it would basically allow you to stay in places longer. What were some of the tweaks you made along the way as far as your efficiency in that process, because I think that's one thing that people think about how would I do that day in and day out? What would be the little tweaks that I would make? What was it like driving such a big camper through those areas?
Speaker 2:
I really don't know how to drive. I don't drive. So it was my husband who was doing all the driving. I was just telling him what to do what women do, really but you were the co-pilot. So we actually preferred going, as I said, with a big RV, because one of the problems was hooking and unhooking. So if you hook and unhook every three or four days, that becomes quite a chore for my husband and I didn't know how to do that. My mechanical IQ is zero, so I never helped him. I just was inside the RV cooking and then cleaning, but not anything outside. So he was getting tired of it. So we said, okay, let's do that, and we will have three weeks at a time, it will be more like home.
Speaker 2:
And, as a matter of fact, we could invite people to stay with us. So people from the Philippines came to visit us in the RV at different places of their choosing.
Speaker 1:
Beautiful. What were some of the highlights along the way as far as places that you saw in that eight years Long time to be on the road?
Speaker 2:
Well, the highlight for me and I always say this over and over is when we went to the Arctic Circle with our RV. The Arctic Circle is a place where you have nobody around and it's freezing cold and the wind is so harsh.
Speaker 2:
But we went because I insisted, because I was looking for the Northern Lights, and we were in Dawson City in Canada, the Yukon in Canada, and we were camped for several days and then I didn't get it. So I said we are only 100, several hundred miles from the Arctic Circle. Why don't we go there? It's going to be, you know, we might see it there. So my husband did and we were still in the small RV and we did, and that you can't imagine. It was fall and the trees became shorter and shorter. In the Alpine Tundra they don't grow tall and therefore when we reached almost the Arctic Circle, it was a carpet of orange, red gold. It's not trees, you know, it's a carpet of fungi and lichen and all those little plants. The whole scene was of that carpet and it was so interesting for me and I always say that was the highlight of my RVing career.
Speaker 1:
And you got. Did you get to see the Northern Lights?
Speaker 2:
No, yes, because it was almost. You know, it was just the start of fall. Guess where I saw it? Where In Alaska, anchorage, of course. So, people, Anchorage, alaska is the best bet for you guys, because you can go up the mountain I forgot the name of the mountain and from the city you can end the mountainous roads where your car can go and park your car and then stay there, and we stayed and almost all of Anchorage was on top there and we had a party. That was also another beautiful time.
Speaker 1:
How lovely, how lovely. So it sounds like your experience in the Arctic Circle was otherworldly almost. Yes, yes, yes, nobody.
Speaker 2:
There was nobody around, nobody and so, but it was so cold and so windy after you know the photo op of our RV and our RV was so muddied and everything because going there it was raining and, oh my gosh, and I think the fan belt broke. And guess what? My husband used what's that he smelled? It was a substitute for the fan belt and it worked. That's resourceful, yeah, it was. And so you came back. And came back, it was more fall and more colors, oh my gosh. That was the best time and I'm glad he's glad also that I pushed him to do it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, Somebody was just telling me the other day that you can actually, when you're taking a picture of that, like you see it with the naked eye, but depending on the camera you're using even with a regular, you know cell phone camera you actually pick up more. I had somebody showing me pictures from Iceland and it actually was picking up more of it on camera than the naked eye, which I really found fascinating.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it's technology, but you know, at that time we were starting in 2009. That was 2009. The technology was not there yet.
Speaker 1:
No.
Speaker 2:
I bet my eyes saw more than what my camera captured and I can prove it because my pictures now are so good compared to my pictures then. But I won't go back, I guess because I'm already 75 and feeble.
Speaker 1:
Oh, I don't believe that for a minute.
Speaker 2:
No, I hope there's still some oxy left, but we usually don't go back to where we, because there's more of the world. We probably have touched only 25% of the of what we want to see.
Speaker 1:
Right.
Speaker 2:
So, much more to see.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely always, always. You wrote a book about your RV experience, right?
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Tell us about that.
Speaker 2:
It's a. The title is Carolina cruising to an American dream, because we did it. You know, I came to the US just a few years before before I met my husband, and now I was there and I'm just a newly minted American citizen and I'm experiencing all of these things. So I felt like I had to write in the book. And there were several things in the book. One was my my immigration story.
Speaker 1:
And just to remind all the listeners that I'll have all the links to that. If you're interested in Carol's book and she's got others too That'll all be in the show notes, so you'll be able to find that. Let's take a moment and talk about your. Your the shift that you made, so you were quite successful over in the Philippines. You're a PhD.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
And you were CEO of some tech companies.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
So you're quite successful and decided to retire and move over here. Your, your kids were over here, wanted to be closer to them and the grandkids. What was that like, leaving so much behind? There's a lot of families still over there.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, it was a leap of faith. I mean, you know, I earned in pesos. Retiring in the US is not a smart idea at all. I was hoping to. Well, my kids left me. They already had started lives of their own, so I was an empty. It was an emptiness. I was divorced or annouced. My marriage was annouced years before. Because of my career. I became, you know, so driven that my husband felt I didn't pay attention to him, and I guess he was right, you know. So I was lonely. So one of my main things, besides being closer to my children and grandchildren, is to meet somebody who could be my life companion, and this is one of my themes I write more about, not so much about travel now, but about retirement how to plan, design and execute retirement plans and one of them is, I feel, that having life companion is so crucial to enjoying your retirement years. And I found him. Guess where? In all places.
Speaker 1:
Well, I know the answer because I was reading some of your information. But go ahead and tell everybody.
Speaker 2:
Hey, it was through the internet it's become. I know most people now meet through the internet. More than 50% now of relationships started on the internet, and I think the success rate is also becoming better. I was lucky because I met very good people, and this is a hint to others who would like to do that If you present yourself as a professional, you will meet professionals, and that's what I did. I met a CEO president, ceo himself, who had retired and put up a business of his own, and so it was a great match. And we're still here and we just renewed our marriage last August in Hawaii, of all places where both of our families went, and we enjoyed it and we renewed to each other.
Speaker 1:
How lovely.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I know so many people that have met online and I think it helps sort of weed out because you put in your interests and different things like that. And so you weed out a lot of people who might not be compatible.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, the most important thing is you weed out the physical factor right away. I mean, for most people, especially teenagers, that's the thing that bonds people, but it's something that is very temporary. You know that goes away with Asian time. But what you focus on when you meet online is you focus on the other things. I have another book that I'm trying to write which is Seven Cues. I talk about seven cues and one of them is physical, but the most important is EQ, emotional Caution, and that's where my husband excelled. I mean, he really thought about me a lot of most of the time and he thought about how it would feel to me. He put himself in my shoes and he has such high IQ that it's really I don't, and that's why my first marriage broke down, but he did and I was so lucky.
Speaker 1:
What are your other? You named two there out of the seven. What were the seven that you're gonna?
Speaker 2:
be writing oh, seven, oh. Spirituality Caution, intellectual Caution or Moral Caution, political Caution, desirability Caution and Emotional Caution, and what else didn't? I put Financial Caution. Those seven are so important.
Speaker 1:
I really like the way you've put those things in some categories and looking at them from a relationship point of view and other points of view as well. When do you expect that book to be out?
Speaker 2:
I don't know. I put out a book every five years, so it's due, something is due 2025.
Speaker 1:
You like having a project, you like working on things.
Speaker 2:
Yes, that was my career. I had large scale projects, and I think that's how you get things done. Actually, most people also get things done that way. They just don't call it a project. Yeah right, so it's having a goal and wanting to achieve something. That's what it is, see, that's.
Speaker 1:
Moxie, it is. Yeah, I like having a project too, something that's ongoing, that I can be working on, and then I can put it down and I can work on. You know, as life goes on, I think that's a for me. It just helps feed my creative juices. Keep my keep it going?
Speaker 2:
Yes, channels, channels, all of them to one focus.
Speaker 1:
Talk a little bit about what it must have been like leaving the culture of the Philippines and coming over to the US. You mentioned the financial hit you took, but also well, that must have been a big shift for you. But also I'm wondering about you as a woman so successful in the Philippines and your age and what, as you were climbing, was that unusual to have women at that level In the Philippines?
Speaker 2:
No, no. The Philippines has had how many female presidents and the US has not. And so far as the role of women, the Philippines ranks very high. It's a very patriarchal society. The men earn the money but give it all to the woman, who manages everything, everything. The man allows the woman to decide everything. That's why we've had how many women senators, how many women congressmen? How many women CEOs? Yes, the percentages are so high in the Philippines.
Speaker 1:
That was my shock here, so it wasn't unusual for you to be, in a okay, okay, it's kind of not usual.
Speaker 2:
But also you have to work hard. You can't be a because of your gender or your race or whatever. You succeed. No, everything is because of working hard, being determined.
Speaker 1:
What were the biggest cultural changes you've had to make, coming from the Philippines to the US, in your life?
Speaker 2:
Well, it was not really. They were not really shockers for me because first I was in Seattle. I went to where my daughter was and the husband, the whole family, was there, the whole clan. There were hundreds of their, his clan, that was there. So I was. It's like a Filipino community and so it's when the shock came. When I married my husband and it took me RVing, I didn't see any Filipino in any of the campgrounds, as the National Park Service says it is. The minorities don't go to national parks. Well, it is really the, the, the Caucasians, that do it.
Speaker 1:
So we're trying to.
Speaker 2:
We're trying to encourage Filipinos and other people to also patronize the parks.
Speaker 1:
Yes, that's your. That's a really good point.
Speaker 2:
I met probably counting my the fingers in my one hand the Hispanic Americans, the Asian Americans and the Black Americans that were there that I saw in the eight years that I was RVing.
Speaker 1:
There really is a move now to get minorities out there and seeing the beautiful parks and experiencing the this is so, is so lovely, so that was, that was the shock to me, and that was when I really became an American.
Speaker 2:
I mean and that was in the middle of that RV for eight years. I went back to Seattle and I took my oath as a citizen, so it was really a journey into citizenship and finding out what really is being an American. So and then right now I'm in Phoenix and there's 40,000 Filipinos in Phoenix, so it's no longer that. So at first I was with the Filipino community and then my husband thrust me into an American Caucasian community and that brought me up to speed much faster.
Speaker 2:
With the help of my husband, with the help of my husband, of course.
Speaker 1:
Sure, then you went on. So you came back from this wonderful eight years on the road in your RV and you all started cruising, doing a lot of cruises and things like that, and you could, you've written you actually have a blog cruising after 70. Is that?
Speaker 2:
yeah, cruising after 70 because I'm 75. I started renaming the blog cruising past 70 after I turned 70.
Speaker 1:
And I was looking at it this morning before our interview and it's just full of all kinds of really cool information and some of your tales and adventures and things that you've learned along the way. And I'm trying to remember the tagline it's not only about the outer journey, it's about the inner ones.
Speaker 2:
Yes, that's actually the subtitle of my second book, because especially that was born during the pandemic times when I couldn't travel, nobody could travel, everybody was afraid to travel, and so I went back inside and said, hey, wait a minute. I had inner journeys too, and those are things we should celebrate too. I had very major inner journeys. One I learned to become a wife. I mean nobody in the Philippines thought I would succeed because of my personality, but I did because of the help of my husband. Second, I learned.
Speaker 1:
Let me look can I stop you there? So what were the things that you learned about being a wife that has allowed you to have a successful relationship?
Speaker 2:
Well, it's not well. In the Philippines, the stereotype role of a woman is to submit everything to her husband, which I couldn't do when he had women outside of the marriage. I couldn't, so I couldn't forgive that. So, but here, because my husband was so empathetic, his IQ was so high, he knew how to carry me around, and so I learned to stick to my own identity, even while I am loving and caring for him, because that's what he was. He was doing that, and I think that is more in the United States. That was the very helpful thing, because the US is more like that. So in the Philippines we're matriarchal, but they give us all the money and we manage the whole household, but on the side they are flirting around with so many women. My grandfather, for example, had his second wife on the same street as the first wife, who was my grandmother, and we knew everybody. We knew my cousins from that side, and we were all spending two Christmases every time, one in this house and another in this house, because it was accepted.
Speaker 1:
But here no, no.
Speaker 2:
Women are. I mean, I learned how to that being myself and being independent and being forthright with my thoughts and actions. It's okay. It's okay, and that I could keep my own identity while my husband does his keep his two.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so good communication. It sounds like.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
And what were the other things on the list that you, so you said that was number one.
Speaker 2:
Number two was becoming an American. You talked, you asked about it because my journey, I had applied for my citizenship before we before we married.
Speaker 2:
By the way, I didn't get my citizenship because I married him. I was, you know. I was given the citizenship from my own merit. That was the that was the term used. I applied and a lawyer helped me say that I was a university professor and I volunteered with the RISC score or the service core of retired executives, helping small businesses. I bought my own home, my own car and out of my own merit, I'm a contributing, productive member of the American Society and they gave me the citizenship.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's fantastic.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
Keep going with your book. So you've got this 70 cruising after 70 that you've written.
Speaker 2:
Yes, and that was there's Inner journeys, not just outer journeys. Yeah, those are, but but those big learnings were part of it, but also the small learnings like what season to travel, during what season should you travel? Should you travel with your spouse or your friends or relatives should know so little things like that and how long should you stay in the city to get to know that city. So many many travelers tips in that book.
Speaker 1:
Wonderful, so it sounds like it's got a lot of great tips in it, and you're also a contributor to a travel magazine, travel awaits. It's an online travel magazine.
Speaker 2:
I was going to say that that book, the second book of Outer Inner journeys, is a compilation of my essays or my work at travel awaits and that you read about retirement are also there, because that's the travel awaits was put together to for the retired, not the retired, but the 50 plus by the 50 plus, which is you know, it was with your podcast. It's a For the 50 plus by the 50 plus. That's what it is.
Speaker 1:
Any tips you would have for people that Want our big cruisers, that want to go out on some, especially some of these outside the country cruises.
Speaker 2:
I didn't really. My husband didn't like cruising. Because he didn't like? Because he felt that the the the excursions are very short times outside of the cruise ship are such short times to explore something. Okay, but he, we like one cruise in particular which is a lifelong learning cruise, where we joined the semester at sea program students who are embarked and getting their degrees by being in a cruise ship because their degree required a knowledge of the world. They opened up, they open a few of their Of their capacity to people like us.
Speaker 2:
But what I like about it is not just a cruise of Eating in several restaurants and dancing or being in a casino. We had Seminars. Those teachers who were teaching the students had seminars for us while we were at sea. We were always being prepared for every port that we were going to visit, about its economy, its politics, its culture and all those PhDs that were teaching the students. They were also teaching us, and so they open and they. They open their slots for a 30 days minimum, but actually you can join them for the whole two semesters. So it's it's a cruising the world.
Speaker 1:
That is so interesting is called a semester. If somebody were to search that, it would be called a semester At sea.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, when it was, when we joined it, it was enriched. It was called enrichment voyage, but they renamed it semester at sea, so that, to me, is a very nice way to cruise. So it's one of the lifestyles that I suggested in one of the articles that I wrote about how to, how, what kind of lifestyle to choose if you love traveling, because some as right now, people do cruising and still work, because a lot of careers are portable now and cruise ships are.
Speaker 2:
The Wi-Fi and cruise ships have been evolved. When we were cruising there, wi-fi was so weak so we would only do Wi-Fi when we were at port. But right now, no, it's, it's okay. So so cruising and working at the same time can happen.
Speaker 1:
Mm-hmm. Yeah, it depends on what you're looking for. I think you make a really good point about the fact that you some cruises you don't spend a lot of time on. You know, on shore it can, it can kind of be you stay I call it staying in the bubble, and if you have a stand the bubble. That's one way to do it, but if you really want to experience some of these other cultures there, you know there's other ways and semester at sea provides for that, because the students need that for their degrees.
Speaker 2:
They need to explore the places in the first place. The degrees which offer these things on ships are requiring cult other cultures so they do have longer excursions. So I love that. That's the type of cruising I like and what I recommend to friends.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it really sound. I will definitely look that up myself. Where are you all planning to go next? So you did the RV thing. You've been cruising a little bit, but your husband's not necessarily a big cruiser. What are some of the other trips that you're looking at?
Speaker 2:
we we've done. We've done a lot of Europe by train, and that is because we have. We have another time share where we spend, for example, one of the Memorable things European trips ahead this one weekend in sprak, one week in Oberstaufen, germany, and then we went one week in Paris and then one week in Brussels. So we spent a whole month just doing that and just having short train trips between each and Exploring each area one week at a time. And you know, and that's what we do in Europe.
Speaker 1:
Okay yeah, the train system over there is phenomenal. Yeah, are you planning to go to some of the other continents. Have you? Have you made it to Africa? You may have to go to England or Australia.
Speaker 2:
Africa was kind of a synopsis of Europe, because when you're in Spain, especially in Malaga and near Alcatraz not Alcatraz but near the near Marocco Gibraltar, yeah, gibraltar, yeah, that's the island near Gibraltar you just cross a ferry and you're in Africa. So that. But the other thing is what was another highlight of our trip is we had a friend who had who was a former ambassador to Tunisia from Italy, and then we went, we booked our Tunisian trip and guess what? There was a bloodshed in Tunisia a month before we arrived and we couldn't, we couldn't, we couldn't. We said my friend, and I said let's go.
Speaker 2:
Anyway, this Italian ambassador To Tunisia told us where to go. He gave us a driver. We were in the suburbs, so we were safe, and the driver took us around, so we were actually safe. So it was daring to go to Tunisia. So that was another African country we went to. The only place I have not been to is South America, and I don't know why, and Antarctica, by the way, antarctica, I don't know when, it's so expensive to go there, but South America is quite near here. You know, belize is just three hours away by bus, so we might go there, but they are advising not to leave where we are right now, and Maybe I'll postpone that to another year.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and for the listeners, Carol and I were talking before we started recording she's in Cancun right now. They're in Cancun for the next few months, so, yeah, you're not too far. Yes, you, you definitely have a lot of spunk, you're very spunky and you have lots of moxie. For somebody who may be listening, that wants to has some time now after 50 and, as far as their career, maybe some more flexibility, and wants to get out there, wants to start traveling, what would be some things that you would tips, that you would give them in general about travel?
Speaker 2:
Oh well, I'm 75 now and I only really started traveling at 55, when I came, when I migrated to the US. My suggestion is I postponed everything till I retired. That's what I told myself. I worked hard, hard, hard, hard, hard. And I said when I retire I suggest you don't do that, because there's really ways of taking your home. You know being portable with your home. My daughter is vice president for Echo Canada and she just takes her home with her with agreement from her boss, and it's possible to travel while you're.
Speaker 2:
So that you, what happened was because I I bunched up all of this desire to see the world. What happened was in the first few years I was so tired just going helping from one. You know there was really no plan and nothing. But if you, if you try a few places, then you will know which one you will more deeply explore by slow travel. You know there's there's slow, immersive travel versus. I find slow, immersive travel as really much, much better. You really get to know the culture, you imbibe the local scene and you really get into. Like I can cook from 13 cuisines now, for example, because I love to cook for my husband, and I can cook from 13 cuisines because I found, I found. I wrote an article about the best food. You can only find the best version of that food, a dish in the original country.
Speaker 2:
That is so and you try to copy it, try to copy it and most of the time for us in the public, they, they get, they get changed to suit the general case, you know. But if you go there and taste the real thing, my gosh, you will be like when you were in Brussels. I mean, the real thing about Belgian waffles is really different from how we get it in the US. So I suggest there's so many things to save or out there, Don't postpone it. You. There's so much like right now I'm 75. I'm not just done 25%. So it's I'm saying, oh, my gosh, time is running out on me and I hope I can get some more experience out there. But absolutely yeah, but right now I find comfortable travels, not slow travel. Now I'm coining another term, which is comfort travel, which is more suitable for us. If ever you go to after 50 and you have a segment for after 70s, then it's comfort travel is what you need, Sure, Sure.
Speaker 1:
Different things for different people at different times.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
So one of the things I always like to ask in wrapping up the interview is to my guest is what does a meaningful fill ice look like to you?
Speaker 2:
Okay, well, I had four prerequisites for prerequisites for retirement. Okay, one is a life companion, another is adequate funds and other is optimal health. And what's I forgot the?
Speaker 1:
fourth one.
Speaker 2:
They're four prerequisites. Oh, a changed perspective. A changed perspective. You cannot be in successful in retirement or in travel If your perspective is about earning money because you're going to regret every minute you're out of work or not doing something or you missed the commission or whatever. It needs a changed perspective. It's a perspective that's more long term and more wide reaching and a big life point of view, a big strategic. Okay, those are the four prerequisites, but even if you have those four prerequisites, there are four important things to make your retirement or traveling, extensive travel really happy. One of them is to not really work but have something to do that really makes you enjoy life, and I have found writing and photography, for example, example.
Speaker 2:
I earn a little bit from it but it's not what matters, it's it's the enjoyment that you get out of it. Okay, the other is paying back. Paying back, being able to pay back those that got you to where you are. So I'm now in the Alumni Association for the University of the Philippines and sponsoring a lot of scholarships through the two organizations I joined. But the other one is settling in an area which caters to your interest.
Speaker 2:
Okay, don't be in an area which, where you will, oh my gosh, I wish I was doing this, I wish I was there. But we chose, for example, to be in a resort lifestyle community, because I'm, as you said, I had Moxie, you can't see me, you can't see me watching TV the whole day and just inside the house. So the resort lifestyle community gave me what we have four pools, five hot tubs, so on us, we have three ballrooms, we have a restaurant on site, we have 10 tennis courts to go, of courses, I have 50 clubs to join. I joined five, so I have one club every Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday. So if the whole, the whole, your whole day is filled, fulfilled with all of these things, okay, and I forgot what the first one is, which is time with family.
Speaker 2:
Oh, time with family. You get a lot of time with family and at home, because my family is scattered all over the world. My three daughters are in Canada, australia and San Francisco, so I really don't have anybody. Family is not really around. I have a lot of friends, but time at home too. Like I've learned how to garden I mean, gardening is such a great fun. Any makes your house look so good, all these. My favorite color is yellow. Oh, my gosh, you should see the yellow flowers around my house, vines and shrubs and hanging all of them. So so that having time with family and home, that those are the four past times of a fulfilled retirement having time with family and your home. So you're living in a place where you can have a lot of your interests serve and having a life life companion, and then having having some work to do, having some work to do that interests you, and then number is paying back, giving back.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, those. You summed that up so beautifully, you really did.
Speaker 2:
It's one of the essays. It's one of the essays in the book.
Speaker 1:
So that's just. Yeah, summed it up so beautifully and your, your enthusiasm for life just comes through.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I hope so, and that's why I've taken up longevity. You know longevity from the blue zones, right? So many people are spending so much money on longevity. I don't have money to spend what I had this time to research. I have a little webinar on longevity that I've given three times already. So I think that's because I really want to live long and a long, fulfilled life, and I want to travel some more have more adventure. The moxie, the moxie never ends.
Speaker 1:
That's right. Never has to end. Who says it has to end, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:
And you know, I think you're the same.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, that's, that's my goal. I'm there, I'm there and I'm planning to continue. Let's put it that way.
Speaker 2:
Congratulations Early, earlier than I did.
Speaker 1:
Well, I suspect that you had some moxie all the way through. I just feel that about you.
Speaker 2:
The moxie was just dedicated to work.
Speaker 1:
Yes, there's different ways. It shows. Yeah, carol, thank you so much today for sharing your adventure, sharing your wisdom. It's such a great story and I think you you just hit on so many different things there that I think our listeners are going to be able to identify with and, once again, everybody you can find out all the information about Carol. I'll have the links to her books and so on, and you and your website. Do you have a website?
Speaker 2:
Yes, I do. Okay, Up there, it's my blog. Okay, it's your blog. I send people to my blog more because that's what I update more every week. I do something with my blog.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so I have. I think I have that already, but I'll double check with you.
Speaker 1:
So I'm going to sign off for now and thanks everybody for listening and we will talk to you soon. You take care now. Bye. If this podcast was valuable to you, it would mean so much if you could take 30 seconds to do one or all of these three things Follow or subscribe to the podcast and, while they're leaving, review and then maybe share this with a friend if you think they'd like it. In a world full of lots of distractions, I so appreciate you taking the time to listen in and next time, be well and take care.
