We Think we have time is possibly the biggest mistake we make in life. The decision to retire after 7 season was made and announced a year earlier, but with the reality of season 2025 at the Beaver Island Lodge coming to an end, the naked truth was also that we had to get rid once again of everything we had collected for and during our stay on Beaver Island, Michigan. Truth be told for me it was probably the third time in twenty years that we offloaded our entire households with the help of eBay, Garage sales, Facebook Marketplace and word of mouth. It’s kind of essential if the vagabond lifestyle of a global traveler is your choice. The feeling is equally bittersweet and liberating. And so is the fact that you’re leaving a place where you spend seven years of your life. The French poet Edmond Haraucourt left us with a beautiful expression for that: “partir, c’est mourir un peu” – “leaving is a little bit dying”. It’s kind of how we feel, but seven years of cold island life of Northern Lake Michigan wears on you even more so when you reach your senior years.
Our departure plans included celebrating Thanksgiving and Han’s birthday on the island at the Gregg Fellowship Center, which gave us a chance to say goodbye to a lot of islanders that we had come to know and appreciate over the years and then take the ferry over to the mainland the following Sunday, the last day of November. Well the snow, wind and freeze came early this winter season and on our departure day the blizzard from the north blew snow horizontally and the ferry was cancelled. The next day, Monday December 1st, we were on the ferry, but sadly none of our friends, employers or co-workers made it to the ferry dock to wave us off. Seven years of commitment becomes a relative emotion that way.
Beaver Island Ferry departing Charlevoix
Brian and Han playing favorite songs
Thinking back on the experiences of this nomadic couple, it’s not an uncommon behavior. Our Caribbean days were numbered in 2009 and when we left, we lost some friends whose friendship depended on close proximity rather than mutual appreciation. Leaving Amelia Island in 2016 created a similar situation and no doubt leaving Beaver Island will do this once again. Sad but true. It should not come as a surprise to either one of us, having left countries and cities of our youth and adolescence to find strangers on faraway shores who soon would turn into friends and sometimes even family.
Freedom is Fickle
Freedom is often considered fickle because it is unstable, constantly shifting between being gained and lost through changing circumstances, choices, and external constraints. It is not a permanent state, but rather a, often, fleeting experience shaped by personal actions and environmental factors. Some people think that freedom can be found in having excess money, some people think that moving away from highly strained city life into an unguarded wilderness is freedom. Some people think freedom is sailing the 7 oceans without a worry in the world. Living on the ocean gives you plenty to worry about. Living in Alaska or even Beaver Island trades freedom for nature’s random ire. Procrastination is an absolute No-No, that may cost you your life. Some people think that they can not live outside of the political freedom called democracy. In our travels we have learned that democracy would be great, if it could be achieved without destabilizing a country, society or civilization. It turns out that economic progress and a reasonable equality comes first. It also helps having a good amount of empathy for others when they need it.
After a week of winter pleasure with the kids and grandkids in Holland, Michigan, a blizzard once again threw us off one day and an exceptional 8 hour drive took us to Lexington, Kentucky, where we had rented a 2 bedroom AirBNB condo for two nights to spend with son Cody. From there the next stop was 5 nights on the Cumberland Plateau in Mississippi, where we left the best Airbnb cabin we ever stayed at, also a day late, again because of heavy snowfall. The last part of our 2025 travel was to see and stay for a while with dear friend Kay in Brentwood, TN for the Christmas Holidays.
This year’s trip from the north to the south was different than in the years before, because we had decided that we would move to Europe for at least a couple of years, as the lifestyle over there matched our energy and beliefs much better, than what is currently unfolding in the USA. As a result our visits to friends and family were anchored in a form of goodbye, filled with melancholy and promises to return over time.
A week back to the Cumberland Plateau and then it was time to point the car south via a couple of Georgia stops and a week stay with son Drew and his wife Jessica, in Savannah, Georgia. We had an absolute blast of a time.
You served our travels well Murano. Now do the same for our friends!
Our time in the US was getting short and our 3rd transatlantic cruise was only weeks away when we visited our dear friends Jack and Sharon on Amelia Island. They live in the same oceanfront neighborhood we used to live when we had our B&B. When one night their house burnt down in a lightning storm, we offered them a room in our B&B. We became fast friends, now already 14 years later. With their house as our homebase, we met with numerous friends from our years on Amelia Island and sold our last possession, our car, to a great friend, who used to work for us. On March 4 we rented a truck one way to Fort Lauderdale, where we took a room in the popular Roadway Inn and boarded the Sun Princess on March 5. The US was going to be on our back burner for at least as long as MAGA was an accepted elective point of view in the country.
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