Fighter Pilot, Academic, Teller of Bad “Dad Jokes” (Why is 6 afraid of 7?), World Traveler, Old Guy, Living the Dream – these are all terms that could be (and are) used to describe me. And these are the forces that make me who I am.
This bio notes some of the highlights of my earlier experiences that have shaped this Later Gap Traveler , as I identify myself today. It gives a view of who I am and where I came from, and it introduces my family and our earlier experiences (which may have either shaped or warped our daughters – time will tell.) It hasn’t always been smooth, but nothing ever really is. Plus, what would life be without some interesting adventures along the way – those make the difference between life, and living.
To begin – the name, the Aitkin Extranjero (pronounced A-kin eks-tran-HEH-ro), which I use to narrate the stories, namely those when I am out and about in our new “home”, offers a small glimpse into who I am. I was born in Aitkin, a small town in rural Minnesota, with a population of 1,887 and one stoplight (it is at the intersection of where the east-west road from Duluth to St Cloud meets the highway coming north from Minneapolis). Aitkin is not only the county seat, it is also my families’ seat – both of my parents were born here as well as my grandparents and … you could say we have some fairly deep roots in the area. However, shortly after I came along, my folks decided to move –my dad joined the international banking community – we relocated first to New York City (for someone whose address included three miles of dirt road, that is a foreign country) and then to Mexico City, Caracas, Venezuela, and the Cayman Islands. We returned to the homestead when I was in fifth grade – but by then, even though I was from Aitkin, I was not – I understood the area and people, I got along and made great friends, but I was also a foreigner, “un extranjero” in Spanish. Although sometimes different, I had the best of both worlds.
After high school, I left my small corner of the world and moved to Colorado for college and joined the US Air Force – from there, I spent the next 23 years flying airplanes and living and traveling around the world. My first major assignment brought me to the Philippines – where I met my wife, an Air Force Physical Therapist (we arrived near the same time and both enjoyed traveling, diving, and dancing). We soon fell in love with each other, as well as the culture and cuisine of the islands, and spent 2 ½ years traveling across Asia – not as backpackers, individuals without other schedules or responsibilities, a couple living off the land, or as individuals on a vacation at a resort or a spa, but as people who were living and working in the foreign country – and if the job didn’t quite pan out, we couldn’t leave and try our luck elsewhere. Again, as previously mentioned, those other reasons to travel or live abroad all have merit – and if you are in that position, I think that is really cool and pretty close to the ultimate opportunity – but working and living on a term basis is quite a different experience.
We retired from the Air Force several years ago, while stationed in Europe. With our daughters in elementary school and no jointly held idea of a permanent place to return – my wife was from a military family with parents in the northeast and my parents were back in Minnesota, both of us with siblings spread from California to Florida and the Northeast – we had no place that we were supposed to go, nowhere that we were going to settle down, no state or area which we called “Home”. So again, we stepped out unto that “extranjero” plank and decided to raise our daughters in England, at least until they finished high school, and make our lives overseas. We had a wonderful (usually) experience, but as a family who enjoys many American pastimes and with relatives scattered across the US, adjustments were required. When our daughters both graduated from high school and moved on to college, we returned to the States. We lived in eastern North Carolina, working, studying (I went back to college – you’re never too old – and that is a lesson I hope you gain from these stories), and thinking about what we were going to do or where we were going to go when we retired. But the road beckoned – for one more hurrah – and my wife and I found ourselves taking a Later Gap period and moving back out of our homeland and comfort zone.