Wandering Money Pig - A journey of early retirement and FIRE (financial independence retire early)

  Table Rock, New Hampshire  Mark Twain:  “If you don’t like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.” Prior to our trip to the New England states during the summer of 2022, we had not yet understood the popularity of New England as a summer tourist destination.  Of course, we had heard of famous places like Acadia National Park , Bar Harbor , White Mountains , etc., but we had never visited these places to truly understand. During January of 2022, we were looking for a long term rental via AirBnB as usual, for the upcoming summer months.  We were searching for a place anywhere among the three states:  Maine, New Hampshire, and/or Vermont.  Luckily, we found two that fit the bill.   For June and July, we got a small mountain cabin in Stratton (Maine), and for August, we got a two bedroom apartment in Canaan (Vermont).  In Maine, we got to experience the quietest summer ever, living near the northwest corner of the state of Maine.  We barely saw vehicular traffic near ou

  Car buying is tough these days… My wife and I had been driving our 2020 Chevy Equinox since December 2019.  It was hard to fathom, but our 39 month lease on our car would already be up in several months (March 2023).  Thanks to our busy travel schedule, we had been putting on the miles since our early retirement in August 2020. During the first 9 months of our lease, we barely put miles on our car thanks to work remote culture.  Like most people, I worked from home with no commute, which equals miles not driven.  By August, full 9 months after we got our Chevy, we barely had 2500 miles on the car.   All that changed since August that year.  We drove everywhere on the east coast of the United States.  On August 24th, the day we kicked off our early retirement, we left for North Carolina from Pennsylvania.  The same year, we would travel to New York City, then to Maryland, back to NYC, followed by North Carolina again.  We really racked up the miles the following two years, driving to

  Angel Falls, Maine During our 2 months long stay in the state of Maine, we got to experience some of the most beautiful places we had ever seen.  These include Acadia National Park , Bar Harbor , and Smalls Falls .  Our rental’s location in the extreme north western part of the state, surrounded by mountains, lakes, and especially waterfalls , meant we really got to immerse ourselves with awesome hikes to places like the   Bald Mountain and to one of our favorites, Smalls Falls. After visiting Smalls Falls, which we immediately fell in love with, thanks to its unique copper/earthy colors of the cliffs/rocks, we were itching to explore more of what Maine has to offer.  We found two which fit the bill:   Moxie Falls and Angel Falls . Moxie Falls is located in the town of West Forks , about 75 miles away from where we were staying in Stratton, and it is the highest waterfall in Maine at over 90 feet drop.  The interesting thing about driving in north western Maine is that roads simpl

  Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium, St. Johnsbury, VT My wife and I have been visiting museums more frequently ever since we said our final goodbyes to our beloved Toby, a Pomeranian, in March of 2022.  Because we no longer have to worry about leaving him alone in our AirBnB rental, we certainly feel more free, and more spontaneous with our decisions to do cultural activities, like visiting museums or catching a live music act. During our stay in northern Vermont for the month of August, we were again looking forward to visiting a museum.  It just so happened that there was one about 60 miles south of us, in the town of St. Johnsbury , called Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium . Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium is a combination natural science museum, history museum, and a planetarium.  It was founded in 1890 by Franklin Fairbanks , a noted businessman, politician, and naturalist.   Prior to leaving for the museum, I had done an extensive search for a suitable place for lunch in th