ROTR is about the late-life journey of a senior solo traveler, following a long career in journalism.
It’s about my thoughts and dreams, my adventures, my stories, what I have learned about the world, and how I’ve changed since my post-retirement pursuit of a new life.
I thought I had it made in Hawaii after a successful, award-winning, 37-year career in journalism. But when the retirement recliner quickly started chafing my butt, I packed up and hit the road.
I easily could have retired in Hawaii where I’d spent most of my professional career. But it wasn’t long after I stopped working that I felt caught in a fast-spiraling downward pull on my life, and I wasn’t ready for that.
In 2016, newly divorced and living in a house amidst a beautiful tropical rain forest on the Big Island of Hawaii, the future began to look too much like a lot of household chores, truck maintenance, and television.
Too much humbug, as they say in the Aloha state.
I wanted more, and decided travel was the way to go. I’d always liked a good trip, and I moved about quite a bit as a journalist.
So I went all in.
I gave the house to my ex in the divorce agreement and kept only my retirement income. I sold my truck, bought a backpack, said good-bye to the dogs, and headed out to the open road.
I hardly knew what I was doing, but it felt awfully good.
Everything that happened to me next, how I learned to travel, how it changed me, what it taught me about life, the obstacles I’ve overcome and the challenges that lie ahead, are what this blog is about.
I’m a senior solo traveler, a wanderer — no home base, no permanent address — just moving from place to place looking for fun, adventure, interesting things and friends around the world.
I’ve hiked and biked in the Peruvian Andes, trekked among the villages of the Himalayan, foothills, and danced joyously with Africans in Zimbabwe. I jumped over waterfalls in Guatemalan jungles, rode motos in the wild streets of Hanoi and Saigon, and explored the swampy depths of the Mekong Delta.
I’ve traveled through the Amazon jungle, sleeping in a hammock on the decks of cargo boats. I’ve trekked through jungles in Borneo looking for orangutans in the wild, harvested olives on the island of Crete, and planted corn on a Mayan farm in southern Belize.
I drank with Berliners at German beer fests, hung with hooligans at a futbol match in Colombia, and sat in the Mexico team’s dugout at the Caribbean World Series of Baseball.
I played the black market cigar game in Havana, bought legal pot in The Netherlands, negotiated for some not-so-legal stuff elsewhere, and invariably have enjoyed going where I was advised not to go.
By taking my own path, I’ve made many friends and found a new meaning of life I never before would have dreamed of.
After more than six years traveling on six continents, including a couple of extended Covid-related stays in Hawaii and Mexico, I’ve put the pandemic behind me and I’m enjoying life, always planning my next journey while working on a memoir about my life and travels.
After completing my 71st trip around the sun in December 2022, it’s about time.
Readers know this has never really been a typical travel blog featuring top ten lists of local hot spots and reviews of over-reviewed tourist attractions. I’ve been fortunate in that my fixed retirement pensions provide enough income to live comfortably on the road without having to support myself online.
I prefer to write stories that highlight the emotional push and pull of the road and the oft-untold underbelly of the travel experience, telling about my late-life journey from a more personal sense of introspection, basically talking about my love affair with a lifestyle that continues fanning my desire to stay alive by not staying still.
And finally, by promoting my lifestyle, it just might help some of my readers decide how to live out their own life dreams. Nothing could be better.
Click on the Contact page if you have any questions or comments, or send me an email at davidhunterbishop@gmail.com. — dhb