PATH OF LIFE (March 19 -April 27, 2024)

 

This photo taken from our second-floor deck represents about as much excitement as you'll find on Edisto Island in South Carolina. It's been over a month since we met together on this site and it's now been 115 days since we left Wyndham Fairfield Glade Resort in Tennessee and arrived here at Wyndham Ocean Ridge Resort. You read that right, the Dicers have stayed somewhere for over 100 days! When you add on the 8 weeks we spent in Tennessee, we have been doing the time share thing for over 170 straight days! That's a new record.

These past five weeks has been time spent enjoying each other (most of the time) and experiencing God's wonderful creativity.  Spring has sprung in the Carolina Low Country and the beauty is amazing. Just today I saw our first Magnola blooms! The 20 weeks on "our" island will come to an end toward the end of May.

We did have visitors for a week of the time with my daughter's family and a friend dropping down from Indiana. We are so pleased when family or friends visit.                                          REFLECTIONS

PATH TO THE SUNRISE ON EDISTO ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

On an island like Edisto you can catch both a sunrise and a sunset from your deck if your

condo is placed just right. As a matter of fact just a few days ago I was able to photograph the rising sun in the East and then turn around and photograph the setting full moon in the West. Only about 10 minutes separated the two.

It made me think about my life and how really short it has been. It reminded me of the song in Fiddler on the Roof that goes "sunrise, sunset, swiftly fly the years". It seems like just a short time ago that I lived in the "sunrise" days, walking briskly toward whatever the future might hold. Knowing that things were only going to get brighter. Back to a song, "Those were the days, my friend, I thought they'd never end".  They were days to run the basketball court, smash the golf ball, make friends, get married, have kids, etc. Days where you would "sing in the sunshine and laugh every day." (the songs just keep on coming!)

I don't know when it happens. I don't know if anyone really does. One day you wake up and realize that "those" days are over! Things become more difficult. You can't process things like you once could, you can't run the court (half-court stuff is even a challenge), the golf ball doesn't fly as far as it should (a 9 iron to the green becomes a 3 wood). You become aware that it's now the sunset path you are on. Everything seems a little darker and little more perilous. You begin to question whether your "day" was a "success". 

Having articulated my lament, let me end with this. Endevour to live your life's day so that when your sunset comes, those there to observe will say with a sense of awe, "Now that was a spectacular day from beginning to end."

PATH TO THE SUNSET ON EDISTO ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA

I NEED A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY (February 3 - March 18, 2024)

 Today marks the half-way point of our protracted stay at WYNDHAM OCEAN RIDGE RESORT on Edisto Island, South Carolina; seventy-three days down and seventy-three days to go. Once again it has been a peaceful, enjoyable, relaxing retreat. In this section of the blog, I usually try to identify some things that we have done so that later I can be reminded of what transpired. However, while here at Edisto, we really don't "do" much! We did have good friends, Ken and Linda Moore from Ohio come for a short but wonderful two-day visit but, other than that every day has been pretty much the same. 

It's not at all bad to have quiet days just enjoying the coming of Spring. Since there really isn't too much to chronical, I think we'll just take a photographic journey around this South Carolina Low Country Jem.

                PHOTOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS

I think that's enough but, I think you get the idea. From us to you: "be blessed and enjoy each and every day."

WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT TO COME HERE? (January 12 - February 2, 2024)

                                                                                          REFLECTIONS

Every time that we visit Wyndham Ocean Ridge on Edisto Island in South Carolina, I ask myself; "Why would anyone want to come here?"

There are no high-end restaurants or even seafood buffet places. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

There are no arcades or Ferris wheels or movie theaters. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

The no see ums are everywhere and I think every jelly fish in the Atlantic Ocean comes here to die on the beach. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

The winds often blow at Gale force, and it whistles through the door frame and windows. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

The rooms are small. The guest room has two single beds and no TV. The furniture is dated. The deck is only big enough for a small table and four chairs. Many buildings have no elevators. "Why would anyone want to come here?"

The nearest Walmart is an hour away! The nearest hospital is an hour away! The nearest National Restuarant is an hour away. Just about the nearest anything is....an hour away! "Why would anyone want to come here?"

"Why would anyone want to come here?" Yet this is the 7th straight spring that we have made an extended stay. We've been coming here on a regular basis since 1985. Guess we're just not too bright, but you, you're smarter than that. 

Besides, if you come here than it will be more difficult for us to make reservations.

Just in case anyone is confused....we love Edisto and you would too! 

WHERE I AM, THERE I AM (December 13, 2023 - January 11, 2024)

Fairfield Glade backyard deer

 

Our final three weeks at the "Glade" were spent watching a lot of basketball and football on TV as the weather turned off quite cold. My daughter's family drove down from Indiana and spent a week with us over the Christmas break. Puzzles and table games were the order of the days. They stayed through January 2, 2024 so we could all watch MICHIGAN win the National Championship! 

We left the woodlands of WYNDHAM FAIRFIELD GLADE a day early. This time we rented a car for our travel and headed via the southern route through Atlanta, Ga. in order to miss the icy Smoky Mountain roads. After spending the night outside of Atlanta we drove to South Carolina and Edisto Island and the WYNDHAM OCEAN RIDGE RESORT.                                                                                 

Blue skies greeted us as we arrived at our Bay Point unit at the resort. We have stayed in Bay Point every spring since 2017. Right now, this will be our front yard until June. We have just nicely settled in. It feels like "home". The resident dolphin have been active in the Bay and seemed glad to see us. The shore birds have flocked to welcome us back and the swaying Palm Trees waved hello.

Edisto has been a favorite since we first visited in the summer of 1985. We fell in love with the Low Country of South Carolina. We've never stayed this long....we'll see how it goes.                                                                                                         REFLECTIONS

I thought I'd reflect on the year just passed. In 2023 I pillowed my head in Florida, South Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, Alaska, and Tennessee. 51% of those nights were spent in WYNDHAM RESORTS and 49% were spent with family, friends, and as an interim pastor in Alaska. We "visited" WYNDHAM CYPRESS PLAMS (Kissimmee, Florida), WYNDHAM OCEAN RIDGE (Edisto Island, South Carolina), WYNDHAM MOUNTAIN VISTA (Branson, Missouri), and WYNDHAM FAIRFIELD GLADE (Crossville, Tennessee).

I am often asked which resort is my favorite. I don't have a good answer because they are all unique. Cypress Palms is located just off busy Highway 192 but has great pools and hot tubs. There are all kinds of eateries and stores within walking distance. Ocean Ridge, in the other hand, is located an hour from Charleston and is as remote as it gets. Yet it provides a place to enjoy the simpler things in life. There are zero hotels, motels, or high raise resorts. Ocean Ridge is it. The only national restaurant is the Subway in the gas station (several local places provide the best seafood ever. Mountain Vista is your invitation to all that is Branson. Nuff said. Fairfield Glade sits on top of the Cumberland Plateau. It is a golfer's paradise and its own post office and shopping center.

 I have awakened to grazing deer, slinking alligators, and jumping dolphins. We have been joined by family and friends. We have made new friends.

"Regrets? I've had a few. But then again too few to mention." So I'll look forward with great expectations for the year to come. I'll revel in the time with family. I'll enjoy reunions with friends. I'll kiss my wife goodnight and wake up somewhere that I'll be happy to be.

As Michigan's victorious football coach says; "Who has it better than us? NOBODY!

Edisto Island Sunset

BACK WHERE WE STARTED (November 11 - December 12, 2023)

The flights from Missouri to Tennessee went without incident and we arrived at the Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Glade. We have been visiting this resort for over 40 years. It is where we became a part of the Fairfield/Wyndham family in 1982.

Our first month was spent, for the most part, just enjoying some alone, down-time. It was good to be able to just relax with no schedule. Hiking was my primary activity. We did have visitors from Alaska stop in for lunch on their way through the state.

We did manage to eat at both the new eatery, Skillets Grill, and the Stonehenge Grill. I would recommend both. Insta Cart delivered our groceries from Food City. 

                                                 REFLECTIONS

Whoever would have thought that when we purchased a "Vacation Ownership" package at Fairfield Glade that forty years later we would be enjoying a nomadic retirement because of that decision. 

When we "signed on the dotted line" we understood that this would be an investment in our young family and not an investment to gain financially. And it certainly was. And it is.

We secured a unit in, the yet to be built, Kensington Woods section. Now, all those years later, that is where we are staying. We regret nothing. Since retirement in late 2016 we have spent 232 nights here.

"Time Share" isn't for everyone. Buying a "retirement home" isn't for everyone. Living on a "cruise ship" isn't for everyone.  You know; "different strokes for different folks" and all.  For us, it works. It has provided countless days of enjoyment for our children, our grandchildren, and our friends. It has been a blessing.

Like anything you do, if you fully invest yourself in understanding how it works and are committed to make it work, there's a good chance that you CAN make it work.

Little did we imagine where that long ago decision would lead. Actually, it has led right back where it all started.

The Dicer Kids at Fairfield Glade Playground in 1982

PASS TIME OR PASTIME? (October 16-November 11, 2023)

After finishing our brief stay in Indiana, we made our way to Missouri where we were joined by six other couples for the annual "Celebration of Friends".  This group has met together in the fall for the last seven years.  We all graduated from college as friends in the 1960s.  This year we gathered at WYNDHAM MOUNTIAN VISTA RESORT in Branson.  It is always a wonderful time of simply being together.

Following that five-day event, we moved about an hour on down the road to spend a couple of weeks with my son and his family.  It was special to see how much our great granddaughter has grown.  As usual, I found my way to Wilson's Creek National Civil War Battlefield to do some photo shoots of whitetail deer.

Now it's off the WYNDHAM FAIRFIELD GLADE in Tennessee. We will be "visiting" there until the first of the year. It was there that we first joined the Fairfield/Wyndham family in 1982.  The rest is history.

                                                                 REFLECTIONS

Autumn has always been my favorite! Don't get me wrong. I like all four seasons.  It is just that there is something special about the fall. Since childhood I have enjoyed the changing of the trees from green to a kaleidoscope of vibrant colors. 

Where I grew up in Michigan, fall meant hunting. As an adult I spent happy an hour searching for pheasants or sitting quietly beside a deer trail.  The musty smell of fallen leaves always brings back memories of those times.

Now, because of my pacemaker, the only shooting I can do is with a camara! It's not quite the same but, at least it lets me pursue two hobbies at once. 

Hobbies are defined as "activities done regularly in one's leisure times for pleasure."  Once you are retired and "old", they became so much more than that. They are "activities done regularly for pleasure to keep one's mind and body active". 

Photography, for example, keeps one on the outlook for the new, the different, the interesting. It requires being active, creative, and calculating (as you figure out f-stops and stuff). Thus, the numerous photographs I publish.

Writing is, likewise, a pleasurable experience that keeps one's facilities sharp and allows for creativity to continue to be explored. Thus, this blog.

Then there's "Road to the Masters by EA Sports".  It requires dexterity, quick reactions, and a bunch of factoring as one strives to better previous scores. Thus when, after hours and hours of pleasurable activity you manage to score a 20 under par, it provides an undeniable feeling that you're still "with it".

Now, it's back to another round of golf while sitting on the couch. Life is good!

  

"ONE IS THE LONLIEST NUMBER" (September 3 - October 15, 2023)

Seward, Alaska Harbor

 In Alaska when the Fire Weed blooms at the top of the stalk it indicates that winter is just around the slippery corner.  It also indicated to us that our time in the frozen north was coming to an end.  Our last days were spent saying goodbye to all the wonderful new friends we had met and preparing for the journey back to the lower 48! When our Delta jet lifted off from the airport in Anchorage, we had spent 103 days in Alaska.

We spent the next month or so in Indiana.  We shuffled between our cabin outside of Bloomington and our daughter's home in Avon.  They were days of splitting wood, sitting by the firepit, watching our granddaughter play volleyball, and a bunch of doctor appointments.  It was a time of getting our feet on the ground and adjusting to the drastic time change.

We were able to watch several volleyball games and be there when our granddaughter's team won their sectional tournament.

Our "homestead" in Indiana

REFLECTIONS

When we are asked; "Where's home?", our reply is Indiana.  Indeed, that's where we hold our driver's license, that's where we vote, that's where we pay our property taxes, that's where our doctors are. It's "home".  However, when this year is over, we will have spent a total of 48 days in the Hoosier state and in the last 6 years of retirement we have spent only 14% our time there.  Like the old song says; we "love to go a wandering".

Wandering has some upsides.  It's awesome to be able to travel and see so many beautiful pieces of planet earth. It's wonderful to meet so many new folks along the way.  It's amazing to not be "tied down" to things.  One of the biggest things is that this lifestyle stretches us to deal with so many new and different things.  It keeps us growing and going.

At this stage of our earthly journey, it is important to continue to look toward the future and to be challenged to conquer new obstacles along the way.  It keeps us focused on life and living.

Yet, wandering has some downsides!  The biggest downside may be that, when you spend so much time traveling, you sacrifice "community".  We love our friends.  We love our family.  The problem is that we are limited in the amount of time that we can connect with them. Therefore, we try to make every moment with them count. 

It also means that, when we wander, there is a great deal of alone time.  My wife deals with that much better than I do.  For me, it is difficult to not have a consistent group of people that I can be with on a daily basis.  

I know that the "facebook fantasy" is real and that if you read people's posts you would think that they have a perfect life.  I guess that I just want you to know that, for us, there are certainly times when we wish we could be with family or friends and we just can't. It hurts.

Having said all that; we still feel so blessed to be able to do what we do.  Just know that there are times when, as Three Dog Night sang, "One is the lonliest number that you'll ever do. Two can be as bad as one, it's the lonliest number since the number one."