Just a Minor Setback for Camping

[sfretts]

One nice thing about being one of the most senior guys at work is all that vacation time! I could take off at any time and no one could say no.

Well, I fell into a great new job and retired from the PD. Great to be out of the rat race but now I cant take vacation for 6 months!. I guess its a minor setback for now and I am willing to limit myself to weekends and holidays this summer.

[Sky]

Steve-
I know the feeling. when I retired from the PD I had 29 vacation days a year plus hours built up besides vacation and then took a job where I had to work a year before the generous company gave me a week off..After 5 years I got two weeks off. I've been retired from the department since 1998 and after all this time I still miss the job. I guess once it's in your blood it's always in your blood. It's a shame that after giving so much of your life under a high pressure job that you now have to start at the bottom all over again.I just thank GOD that we were able to retire, get another job even though we had to start at the bottom all over again because how many police officers were never afforded that opportunity as they never went home from their shift. Hang in there as the time will come sooner than you realize and you will be spending day after day in the
camper...if you are like me it will be with a fishing pole on a beach somewhere every chance you get.

[washley1]

First, thank you two guys for serving. Out two sons are both with the US Secret Service, and we appreciate LEO's everywhere! Back to your topic. After 30 years selling pills and potions for a major pharmaceutical company, I had built up to 6 weeks of vacation a year. It was grand, but it was maxed out. Then one day two years ago I figured out a way to get more...and so I retired! Sure frees up more camping time. Downsides include, but limited to; the DW says she now has twice the husband and half the money. She's not far off, but for the moment we are carefully living our dreams. If the market decides to let us down, the local Publix grocery always needs bag boys while the kids are in school...

[CamillaMichael]

Well, the good news is that you can still go camping...just not as much.

[Sky]

I guess you can say "the worst one day of camping is better than no camping at all"
Once you retire most people will find that money is tight, but most people seem to make it.
The real problem I find is that gas prices are climbing a heck of a lot faster than any raise
I get from my retirement pay. So we limit the range of our trips so we can afford to at least
go camping somewhere and enjoy what we have. Walt - Thank you for your kind words and our prayers
will be with your boys.

[Lee F.]

I retired in 96 after 30 years on the job (LEO). Worked the next 4 years at a Harley Davidson dealership with all the time off I wanted. When my wife retired from teaching in 2000 I quit working and we moved to our present location. It's been eleven years since either of us has worked and we still don't seem to have enough time to do everything we want.

[Waynem]

My thanks to anyone that is, or was, in law enforcement. I had always thought I would like to be a policeman, but looking at today's society I'm sort of glad I did not venture that way. So again, thank you.

And Steve, it will come. I retired in '84 after 23+ years in the USMC. There was no way that I could live on that retirement pay. I had to work, and my wife had to work. After 23 years I had to start work at just above minimum wage and I made $5 an hour. At least it, along with the retirement pay and the wife working, allowed us to qualify for a house. We, like many others of you struggled for years. Then one day the house was paid for - whoopee. Then, one day I was able to retire again, and my wife was able to retire. Since I started working, part time, when I was 14, I guess you could say I worked for 51+ years before I was fully able to retire. We bought a Montana, we traveled, and then we bought an SOB to replace the "Hanna." (Wife still wants it back) I guess the point I'm trying is that one day it will come and I lived everyday waiting for that opportunity to say I was not going to work again. I used to be just ugly, but now I'm ugly and fat.

Stay with the dream. It will come your way some day.

Happy trails.

I think I have more money in the bank now that I'm retired than I did when I was working. Can't seem to figure that one out.

[washley1]

I do have a fall back if fuel keeps going up. I still have a backpack, a backpacking tent, a water filter, a sleeping bag and a one burner BP stove! Kinda tough getting up after sleeping on the ground these days, but if I want to go bad enough... However, DW may not go along...check that, positively will not!!