I feel like we’re just stopping by the house to do laundry before we hop on another plane for New York City. We’ll hook up with some old friends who live there now for dinner and several Broadway shows, including Mean Girls, The Band’s Visit, and Dear Evan Hansen before my wife gets down to her broadcasting business. I plan to take another friend’s son to Peter Luger’s Steakhouse in Brooklyn for a dining experience out of his typical price range. He’s in his first year of working in the big city after graduating from the University of Oregon.

It’s unusual to be sitting outdoors waiting to board an airplane as we are here at Kona. I guess it’s a true “air”port, as opposed to air-conditioned. I’m one of the few travelers wearing jeans, as I begin the transition back into my retirement uniform. It will be 25 degrees cooler when we land in  Portland with only memories of tropical temperatures. We did determine that we were at 20 degrees North Latitude, and five degrees south of the Tropic of Cancer, also referred to as the North Tropic.

The only time we were ever below the equator was Bora Bora, at 16 degrees south. When we go to Thailand, we’ll be at eight degrees north, with plane transfers in Seoul and Tokyo, both new cities to visit. That trip is a year away, but top of mind because most of our airfare was confirmed in the last couple days from a poolside beach chair.

Thailand will be the centerpiece of next year’s travel, just as Greece was this year’s major excursion. In two years, we’re looking forward to an Egyptian cruise, and the China will fulfill our first five-year plan. At that point, we’ll begin to approach my wife’s retirement and planning will get more specific regarding her dream, a round-the-world cruise.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to focus on reoccurring U.S. destinations like Florida, Indiana, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Phoenix/Tucson, Chicago, Hawaii, and NYC. We also hope to get to Vegas, New Orleans, Vancouver, and maybe even Alaska. When you’re traveling as we are today, you can only think of more travel. It seems to be a serious addiction for both of us.

On the flight home I watched Battle of the Sexes, the story of Bobby Riggs and Billy Jean King. It was interesting to reflect  back on that era. I could not have imagined as I was just graduating from college and starting to raise a family that I would eventually follow my wife’s career in broadcasting.

I was apparently brought up to respect the boss regardless of sex and have always worked well with female professionals. In the mid-seventies women were just beginning to make their mark on the business world and I was working for a woman at that time. It wasn’t until 30 years later that I spent my last 8 years under female management, and at that point my wife’s career had taken precedence. In fact, this trip to Hawaii was the result of the company’s female leadership that has become common in the media world. Similarly, Billy Jean King was a pioneer in women’s rights and equal pay. The broadcasters and promoters that she battled were almost exclusively males chauvinist pigs.

My retirement experience is greatly enhanced by my wife’s career and the fact that she is still enjoying it. I would not be making these frequent trips to LA, NYC, and Hawaii if it weren’t for her. This is why it’s now time for me to go home and do the laundry.