2WannaBRetireesinPanama: BUMPASS, VA (yes, this does exist)

We are back at the lake house, and what a treat! Because of Cinco de Mayo party one weekend and graduation festivities last weekend, we haven't been here for a while. It's sunny, warm and really no humidity. Well, it's great now that the yard work is done (for the time being that is), and I'm sitting on the screened in porch. But since poison ivy and ticks are out now, I think I'll just call it a day on cleaning up the yard until the fall again. Sounds like a great plan.

Ray and I own this house with friends we have had for close to thirty years (he knew them first when he was sixteen). So with Ray tackling the garage and cleaning up the fountain/courtyard area, one roomie staining the deck and picnic tables, and me taking the hedge clippers like mad to the azaleas and pulling out all the weeds (okay, I'm sure I left one or two behind) in the front yard bed (it's getting ugly and unruly in my opinion and like my daughter says, needs a backhoe taken to it), things got done eventually but efficiently. The other roomie got a later start in getting here. And with Memorial Day weekend coming up, we will start floating in the lake not giving a thought to the yard for three months! So it's best it gets done now. My muscles are telling me I did a little something today.

But while pruning and hedging and getting vegetables at the Farmer's Market, I had a lot of time to daydream. We have a nice size bedroom here so our hope is that we can move our other bedroom furniture (at our "full time house" that we will sell when we move to Panama) to this house and give our daughter what we have here. She will just have to find a two bedroom place once out of school :) And we will still have some room to move a few pieces of furniture into the room here, bring some storage units that we have in our basement now to the sheds here along with rakes, shovels and tools and oh so much more to this house. And I talked to Ray about a fall project being to redo the closet here so that it makes sense (not just a clothing rod and a shelf).

And on the way to the Farmer's Market we talked about what we wished for in a house in Panama. We have pretty much figured out that we won't need a rental house that is too large since it will be temporary (two bedrooms with a bathroom). And that while we don't want too much land with the house that we buy, we won't have a whole lot going on everyday, like work getting in the way (!), so we would like to have a garden. Today we spent $26 on 2 tubs of strawberries, 6 zucchini, and 3 batches of asparagus. Fresh and delicious but ridiculous.

Our friends question why we would go to Central America. One of our closest friends told us that she had recently spoken with a Panamanian about her country. She had nothing but wonderful things to say about her country. When my friend told the woman about us wanting to retire there, her question was "why would they leave the greatest country in the world?". It's not like we are giving up citizenship, it's not like we won't be traveling back to the States (wherever my daughter may be) or that we won't able to travel in general, and it's not like we are giving up on the US. We are looking forward to a different way of life and retiring to a place that we can reasonably afford and not just working to pay for healthcare. We need to do this while we are young and healthy, establish another way of life to continue being healthy and if things don't go according to plan, we know we at least tried and learned from any mistakes we made along the way. You know what they say, "don't knock it till you've tried it".