Today is a travel day for me. In one sense, I think that when I imagined retirement, I thought that we would travel more than we have so far. And when I imagined what retirement would be like, I didn’t imagine that I would be taking trips like this week’s adventure. There was a time in my life, during our active careers, when I would travel quite a bit. I served on boards and committees in the national setting of our church. I worked as an educational consultant for Local Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ. I served as a writer and editor for curricula projects and traveled for writers’ conferences. Because much of our life also involved caring for children and later caring for our parents, we often took a “divide and conquer” strategy to keep all of the bases covered. That meant that I often traveled solo while Susan was working hard at home to balance work and home life. We did travel together some. We shared some of the same curricula projects and traveled to writers’ conferences. We attended several gatherings of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ together. And of course, we traveled as a family on vacations and educational trips for our children.

Today, however, I am once again boarding a plane for a large national professional meeting. I serve on the national board of the Association of United Church Educators. I served on that board previously when I was actively working. At one time I was the web creator for the Association. Another time, I served as a regional representative. When we went back to work as Interim Ministers of Faith Formation at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Bellingham, I accepted an invitation to re-join the board as the regional representative for the Western Region of our church. It has been a joy to serve in that capacity. Some of the other board members are colleagues with whom I have shared many different experiences. There is a writer, whose work I edited, a colleague for whom I read drafts of a book he published, others with whom I shared educational consultant duties. In addition, serving on the board has enabled me to connect with younger educators and listen to their perspectives, benefit from their fresh educational experiences, and have my hope for the future of the church renewed by their enthusiasm, dedication, care, and competence. So far, however, since my recent return to that board, we have met by Zoom. The pandemic changed the shape of a lot of national boards and committees.

However, last year our board decided to take advantage of the big national meeting of another organization, The Association of Professional Church Educators. We have set our board meeting for the day before the opening of the APCE meeting. Most of us are staying on for the APCE meeting which is an excellent opportunity for continuing education, networking, worship, and catching up with some of the latest trends in Christian Education. Susan and I briefly considered going together to the meeting, but when we considered the amount of time she would have to entertain herself while I was in dedicated meetings, the cost of travel, and other considerations, we decided to save the funds we might have spent on a week in St. Louis in January and invest those funds in travel to visit family and friends. We are hoping to make a couple of trips to South Carolina this year to see our daughter and grandson who live there.

Flying from here is a bit complex, however. Although we live within easy driving distance of two major airports, Seattle-Tacoma and Vancouver International, there are reasons why both are difficult to use. Seattle is a two hour drive from our home and it is on the other side of the city. In addition, Sea-Tac airport has huge problems with security staffing that mean you must arrive at the airport at least three hours before your departure in order to make it through security. In addition it involves dealing with city traffic and either paying a lot for parking, or having someone give a ride to the airport, which is a four hour round trip. Vancouver is less than an hour away, but it involves a border crossing and unless we are heading to an international destination, ticket prices are higher.

There are a few connecting flights to Seattle-Tacoma from our nearest airport, Bellingham International, just 12 miles from our home. Prices on those flights, however, are quite expensive. Also, in order to make connections at Seattle-Tacoma you have to leave early and return late, often involving long layovers at Sea-Tac. So travel is far from perfect, but for this trip, I was able to use points I earned from purchases, so it didn’t involve an outlay of cash and having Susan give me a ride to the Bellingham Airport is way more convenient for us both. However, my departure flight is at 5:15 am this morning and my return flight gets in at 11:57 pm next Saturday. A very early morning and a very late night for her to provide my rides.

Still, I am excited about the trip. It will be good to connect with colleagues. It will be good to feel like I’m at least a bit up to date with the profession that I have loved. And, for a week at least, I will feel a bit less retired. That last one might seem like a questionable benefit for some who have worked hard to earn their retirement, but I so loved my job that I have struggled with retirement more than some others. I miss many aspects of the work that I did and connecting with colleagues was one of the things I miss. I’m willing to get up early and stay up late. After all, I’m retired. I can catch up on my sleep some other week.

For the rest of this week, however, you may have to endure a bit of commentary on my travels and some of the things that I will be learning. And now, I’ve got a flight to catch.