I had some changes in my life last year that caused me to give serious thought to what I want in this life. As I’m getting older, I realized there are many places I want to travel to and experience new things. In September, I threw this out to all my friends and family to let them know I’m available to travel or go on trips if they don’t mind me tagging along. The suggestions and opportunities have been both unique and wonderful experience!
The first opportunity I had was from a high school friend. She now lives in Vero Beach, Florida, and was thinking about coming back home for Thanksgiving, but didn’t know what to do with her two large dogs. She wondered if I might be willing to come to Florida and stay in her home for one week to take care of her babies. Free home to stay in, 15 miles from the beach, 80 degrees, and sunshine? That took about 5 seconds to say yes to that! This was the first vacation I’ve ever taken by myself, but I went to the community pool, met the neighbors, walked the dogs, found a local gym, did some shopping, ate at some local restaurants, and went to the beach several times. Ironically, the week I was there, I found out one of my friends was driving his mother to her “winter home” in Port St Lucie which is only 45 minutes south of where I was staying, so we ended up spending a day together and catching up. I also made the decision that I need to buy a vacation home in Florida and I’m going to spend some time researching different areas in 2023.
The next opportunity was to fly to Guatemala with my brother and sister-in-law. My brother Jon Henderson is on the board of advisors for a Christian children’s orphanage in the city of Quiché, Guatemala and every year in the winter, they visit the orphanage for a week. Quiché is high up in the mountains and it’s a beautiful area. Honestly, how many people in America would get the opportunity to travel to a place like this and spend a week with orphans in another country? Again, this took me about 5 seconds to say yes! The people of Guatemala are some of the most genuine and special people you’ll ever meet and the children at the orphanage are so sweet. The first day we got to the orphanage, one of the little boys came running up to me as I came in the door, threw his arms around me, and gave me a big hug! It surprised me and I blurted out, “Oh, we’re hugging? Ok, great!” and I hugged him back tightly. The whole week was filled with beautiful weather and many more hugs from the children. I took many photos that week and it will be something I will always cherish.
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine called and said he has a big Arizona golf trip planned and one of the guys had to back out at the last minute. I’m not a great golfer, but Scottsdale Arizona in the winter sounded like a great idea so again, I said yes. There were eight guys that went, we stayed in a huge eight bedroom AirB&B house, had our own personal driver all week and hit five beautiful golf courses in six days. Although this was a fairly expensive trip, it was a wonderful experience and I’m glad I had the opportunity.
My fourth trip will be in one week. On Friday, March 17th I meet up with some guys to go on this crazy, four-wheel drive, mountain rock climbing trip to Colorado and Utah. A friend of mine and his buddies have these huge four-wheel drive trucks and they take them on trips to the mountains, camp out on the side of scenic cliffs and spend their days exploring some pretty rough terrains high in the mountains. To be quite frank, I’m not into outdoor camping. I’m really the “stay in a nice comfortable hotel on the beach” kind of guy, but where else would I ever get to experience something like this? I’ll be posting photos on Facebook all week in case you’re interested in following my experiences.
My fifth trip, in April, will be flying to Ft Lauderdale with a friend to explore possible locations for buying my vacation home next year. After that, who knows where I’ll end up? If you have suggestions, be sure to email me at ron@kansascityagent.com or text me at 816-651-9001.