I’m on the road today. After a quick stop at Buffalo Wild Wings for the weekly Leadership Meeting, I’ll head to the Portland airport and a 2:30 p.m. flight to sunny Santa Barbara. Without a single suitcase or carry-on, this is the lightest I’ve ever packed. I’m in Santa Barbara for less than 24-hours, as I hope to get back in time for my wife’s company Holiday party. My Indiana Hoosiers square-off against Maryland for the third time this season and a spot in the College Cup soccer finale.  This will be my first college soccer game experience since the sport wasn’t even at Varsity level while I was in school – I’m that old! I never played soccer as a youngster as do most kids today. I’m meeting one of my former classmates and his wife for dinner before the game starts.  Hopefully, there will be no delays. I already won’t have time to check-in to the luxurious Motel 6 that was definitely not my first choice in terms of accommodations….but “they’ll leave the lights on for me.”

Neither of us can stay for the final game on Sunday, should our team advance, but hopefully we can share in any celebrations beforehand. I will see little of Santa Barbara and the California coast. I’ve been there a couple of times before, but never to the soccer stadium. It should be an electric atmosphere on a slightly smaller-scale than the College World Series that I attended earlier this year.  However, this was not the bucket-list level of the baseball event. To go today was simply one of those spur-of-the-moment decisions that retirement is all about. It wasn’t costly or time consuming, so I booked a cheap flight with limited expectations, including the game that some of my friends describe as “almost as exciting as watching paint dry.” Indiana has not allowed a goal the entire tournament and if this continues to hold true we’ll be painting the town crimson red. 

My wife told me to use my retirement to experience some of the things that she’s not at all interested in doing. Once she retires in a few years, she’ll be more in control of our travel decisions, and we’ll want to spend as much time together as possible. Right now I have a lot more time-off than she does. Consequently, I continue to boast that every single day now is a “vacation” to me, so the word is rarely in my vocabulary, limited to her busy schedule.

I’ve stuffed a few essentials in my coat pockets to alleviate any delays through airport security, and will live the life of a hobo for the next 24-hours. I’m not going to even take my computer or I-Pad and will take a day’s blog-cation. The weather is supposed to be in the mid-sixties with sunshine when I arrive, so I shouldn’t need any rain gear. The team will undoubtedly not be staying at Motel 6, and I will have to look elsewhere for fellow alumni and post-game parties unless they’re forced to leave early. Go Hoosiers!