What do you do with all of your free time?

maki2 said:

Boredom cure. I sometimes think of buying a moderately priced slingshot and practicing flinging some rocks with it until I can at least hit a target more often than I miss it. Reason for doing that…none at all other than I did not get to do that fun stuff very often as a young girl. Plus it is something easy and inexpensive to do out of doors. Hand to eye muscle coordination skills are always good to engage in and keep some very critical areas of our brains active as we age. It involves some exercise gathering up stones. If you can’t do the bending you can use one of those picking up objects extension tools. Target shooting contest with fellow campers…sure that works too for cheap entertainment time that most everyone can try at campsites where tossing small rocks does no harm. Safety first! Not an activity that is going to work around Quartzsite on BLM camping lands unless you go way back in away from the congested areas.

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Old bicycle inner-tube stretched tween 2 3-4” diameter trees makes for cheap but good slingshot artillery. 2-3” diameter rocks propelled 100-200 yards or more. Did this all the time when kids.
Keeps your arm & leg muscles strong too.

Y mess with buying that small handheld peashooter stuff?

sayin…….
jonny howitzer

You’re getting close to retiring and don’t have a bucket list? You’re braver than I am. Lol

Here is my personal list. Not going to recommend anything for you since we don’t know what you like.

I went to every NASCAR race for a season. That was a blast. Camping in the infields at most places. I’d like to hit every MLB stadium also. I have a list of 50 fishing spots that I’m slowly crossing off the list. I have a pretty nice metal detector setup so I bust that out pretty often. Visit every National Park. Visit my distant family I never get to see. I also like making friends with other full timers and tag along with what they are doing. Just do what makes you happy and don’t be afraid to try new stuff.

Jerome Brown said:

I'm beginning to realize that perhaps my real question is: "What does one do After they escape the rat race?" Did you have a clear vision of what you would do with this new freedom when you cut free? A vague idea?
I have had the idea of visiting every bathing hot springs in North America. I get blank looks or "Then what?" from co-workers. But working on the house and lawn and being a mechanic on the side sounds like just more rat race, what society expects. Am I making any sense?

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Your co-workers are nuts. Who wouldn’t want to visit as many hot springs as possible!!

I wanted to become a “snow bird” when I was older. So I did that and plan on keeping on doing it until I physically can no longer manage it. Hopefully that won’t happen for a lot more years! Taking it easy is the best plan to make sure I will be able to continue snow birding for a lot more years. So Itake it easy on my vehicle, my budget and my body. That is my “bucket” list. Running all over the country sightseeing stuff just because it is there and people say it must be seen and experienced is not part of my plans. Besides I did that stuff when I was younger. I ran away from home and headed off to Alaska when I was in my late teens. I bought and fixed up a van for a cross country trip in 1981. But I realize a lot of you older folks have some catching up to do and really need those bucket lists

^^^A lot of us are at a point in our lives where we are mainly living where the climate doesn’t cause our bodies to hurt as much and we enjoy being cheaply. Staying healthy and the more mobile the better until we are not able. Then snow birding between to home bases or having outside groups of traveling friends or family helps. Final resort is some place like Escapees Care Center or nursing home if severe disabilities strike. Lately more people are forming group home bases it seems which may work best.

Mr. Brown, I can relate. I'm a school teacher and give it my best every day. When the summer comes I don't look forward to it.
Not having a mission; having freedom is awkward. I fumble around trying to repair things that I didn't have time to do when school was in session.
Almost as bad as leaving the Army to be a civilian.
You will figure out what works for you and I wish you well on learning new things, making mistakes, fixing mistakes, and learning new things.

Morgana said: I hope that @Tony's Dream weighs in, because IIRC he really mapped out a plan in advance so he might have some pointers. But how much to plan vs. how much to wing it, that's different for everybody.

Remember........a dream is only a dream without a plan. My plans were not carved in stone, they are merely a guide as I travel. As Morgana pointed out, I did some very detailed planning in the years leadinf up to retirement. As a veteran, I traveled the world and saw nearly 20 countries.......including Korea, Japan, Greece, Turkey, East and West Germany, and Italy. Before I retired, I had never seen the far corners (Maine, Oregan, and Florida). I had seen many of the known national parks (Niagra Falls, Grand Canyon, and Yosimite) but passed by so many of the smaller ones. So I set out to remedy that. I bought a national park passport book and plotted out over 18 routes so I could visit as many as I could. I have driven through every state in the lower 48 since I retired, some 20,000+. I still have many trips to make.

I retired 2 years ago and still looking for the "free time". When you retire, you are simply exchanging tasks, and hopefully the tasks are more pleasing to you now. Remember that time is never really free, so use it very wisely.......for some day it will be gone.

Jerome Brown said:

... big white Ford work vans I have...

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a)
You could coach people in 'Yoda-talk'.
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3)
Could you mentor?
As soon as the neighborhood parents heard about my 'open-doors' policy in the shop, I have a steady stream of impressionable inquiring minds.
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We weld, we fabricate, we have the head off the old Massey-Ferg.
Just for sharts and giggles, we peeked inside the tranny...
...then installed a new rear main seal.
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[edited to add]
v)
At our local junior college, I instruct through their Culinary Skills program.
My focus is butchering, from walking to ready-to-plate, and knives.

Tony's Dream said:

I retired 2 years ago and still looking for the "free time".

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Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the onlly one.

Since you have hard skills you will never lack for company since so many people could use help with their rigs, including me. I hated my job and retired early. I was turning into someone I didn’t like.
I found that I was sleeping a lot. It was a little frightening but I finally came to understand that it was a type of stress release and a little bit of rebellion. I didn’t have to get up and run to a job and if I wanted to I could put stuff off to tomorrow.
One thing happened that I found a little unusual. I got a lower respiratory infection. It was pretty bad yet not all that uncomfortable. I realized that it was okay to be ill. I did not have to hurry up and get well because I didn’t have to get back to work or take care of someone (children, spouse, etc). With that stress removed it was easier to just be sick and heal.

Oh my gosh folks! I never dreamt I would get so many wonderful replies to my post!
I too have traveled the world (Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Antarctica). I can relate to Meriwether Lewis after he and Clarks great expedition: "Now what?" What you are showing me with your posts is: "Anything you want when you choose to do it." When I choose to do it!
Dreamrunnerjt you hit a nerve. I can't remember the last time I Didn't feel guilty for being sick and missing work or slowing down a project.
Once again thank you for your replies! They have begun to alter my rat race rut of thinking.

It must be tough being a Type A personality facing the great void that brings a lack of to do ASAP list in retirement years.

Of course I can’t relate to that feeling and I do feel a need for a nap coming on.

If you're just hanging around a lot and want something great to do, pick up a guitar!
It's weird at first, but you pick up some basics pretty quick, and even play some familiar tunes before you know it.

Mastering the guitar can take a lifetime, so you'll always have something to strive for!

What is this "free time" you speak of? I've been a nomad since 1995, and even though I'm retired, days are never ever long enough to do all I want to do before I run out of daylight and energy. I've got more destinations than I could get to even if I had the gas-money. More books to read, more crafts to do, more people to visit, more songs to sing/write, and more stuff to learn and to learn about than I could learn in several lifetimes.

Get out of the "house" and explore, on foot, my current "backyard" which can go for miles every which way.

Or ride my dual sport motorcycle up a new to me road. Latest find was Dynamite Road, near US-6 north side of Tonopah, found an off road connector to come back on Radar Road to US-95, where Love's is along with the Nye County "Justice" complex.

One day back in the Spring, I circumnavigated Mt. Butler, the mountain with a multitude of antennae near the BLM offices, in two hours and 45 minutes. Years ago, I climbed up from the BLM strip up to the road on top. Walked back down on Air Force Rd.

I was born into a USAF family, a lot of USAF reminders around Tonopah. One of my older brothers was a AF Reservist in Mpls/St Paul. He was a load-master on a C-130. He had spent some time in the area. There is an abandoned USAF pistol range a ways behind Raley's, near some abandoned housing.

I fancy traveling the globe, visiting the graves of all those who thought I might never amount to anything.
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I have it all planned out, I'd like to share it!
* one hour prior to each 'face-to-face', I shall injest a truly ungodly amount of coffee and tea and water, then
* I shall approach your final resting place with, admittedly, some discomfort, then
* I shan't waste a vapor of that hydraulic pressure outside your plot.
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All my time is essentially spare time. It only matters to me what I choose to do with it. My bills are on autopay as are my income deposits.

I choose to work part time but that is a pretty loose schedule that I am the boss of as I work for myself. If I do not want to work for a while I put myself on “vacation” status. Work can give meaning and purpose to life and I design and make what I sell and it brings pleasure to people who buy it. So I might as well keep on doing it part time. I use that money for groceries and gas, so I always, every single day, very literally enjoy the reward that work brings. A customer bought me a yummy dinner at a Mexican Restaurant this evening! She did not know that but I mentally thanked her and the waiter got a nice tip as well!

So spare time can mean many things. Once you retire it is your time to do what you please if your are fortunate enough to be able to make such choices. But I personally can’t imagine not having a whole list of things I want to do including as one of my favorite choices just lazing around reading, watching videos, etc.

Jerome Brown said:

I have been a "road warrior" business traveler for over 30 years. In big white Ford work vans I have crisscrossed North America. Transitioning into retirement I am planning to continue to travel with a van on my own time. But I have this one big fear: What will I do with all of my free time?

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Things to do will find you. You won't have as much free time as you anticipated.

Good Gawd!!
I don’t have any free time at all. I’m much too busy , swamped in fact, reading & writing the numerous & varied and generally obnoxious but often hilarious posts on an internet van living site.

Oh maybe one day I’ll find time to dream.
bch bum jonny

I answer questions from new members who do not know how to live the Van Life. That certainly qualifies as a variation on a long time practice going back to the 1980s of belonging to online social media groups centered around my various interest. I am a person who has always had creative outlets and interest since I was old enough to remember doing such things. I was never one of the children who whined to Mama saying I was bored and had nothing to do. My mother as a mother of 5 who brought in some extra grocery money when she could had zero free time and a long list of chores she could assign to a child who dared to even think they had nothing to do. Saying I was bored would have landed me with a ton of chores and none of them fun! Could be I was trained early to be self directed for finding interesting things to occupy my free time
Tap into that list of stuff you always wish you had time for. But of course it has to fit into what you have the space, money and access to. Nothing new about not getting to do everything you wish you could do.