My First "Real" Retirement Trip will be to... Ohio?

Hawk and I have finished planning our first "real" retirement trip. I quote real because while we have taken all of two trips since I retired just over a month ago, neither of them really took advantage of the fact I'm retired

• Our trip to visit her parents last week we planned before I retired, before I was 100% certain of being retired by that point. It fit within the normal working stiff schedule of weekend to weekend. I figured I'd take a week off for it if I was still working. I had no other time off planned since the start of the year.


• Our wildflower trip earlier in March was only a weekend-sized trip. We could have done it while still employed, going on weekend. The only difference being retired made was that we traveled Wed-Fri instead of Fri-Sun, enjoying fewer crowds at the parks we visited.

Anyway, my first real post-retirement trip is planned now, for later this month. And it's to... Ohio.



Yes, the Ohio that's best summed up by this classic clip (above) from The Simpsons.

So, what's in Ohio? I mean, that we care about? Waterfalls! There are waterfalls in Ohio, and that's why we're going.

I was inspired a few weeks ago when I clicked through a news article with a title like, "Here are 5 places to visit in the Midwest that aren't soul-suckingly bleak!" One of them is a state park outside of Columbus, Ohio, with a bunch of waterfalls. We used that as the kernel of an idea to find several days worth of fun hiking we can do in the region and booked a trip for 6 days.

We fly to Columbus next week Thursday.