Merry Chistmas!

We hope everyone has had a safe and enjoyable 2022 as our world slowly but surely gets back to normal.

For us, it has been our first full year of retirement and we are still trying to get used to it!  It has been a time for wondering that well, now that we’ve done it, what next???  This led to our decision to buy a RV travel trailer and get on the road.  We had a couple “local” shakedown trips to Pigeon Forge, TN and Mistletoe State Park, GA before heading out on an epic summer six-week trip to Maine and back.  We were able to spend time with family and friends in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont plus explore many places along the way.  We look forward to a lot more exploring in 2023.

We’re still working on our 2023 plan so stay tuned.  It should be starting off with a great trip overseas including some places we haven’t been plus one we have.  At the risk of repeating ourselves, it will be epic!

In addition to all his other hobbies, Pete’s new thing this year is motorcycling.  He earned his motorcycle endorsement and bought a dual-sport (on and off road) 250cc motorcycle.  He has clocked up over 2,500 km on the north Georgia back roads near our home.  He’s also putting his aviation knowledge to work helping the American Aviation Historical Society identify and catalog thousands of aircraft photos and slides in their collection.  Good relaxing fun!

Mary has not pick up any new hobbies (or dogs) this past year!  Bailey (our German Shepherd Dog) underwent a pretty major surgery last year for a torn knee ligament, recovery, while lengthy, has gone well and Mary is spending a lot of time with her. Local businesses know us well and even ask where is Bailey when we go without her.  If Bailey’s physical conditioning allows, next year she may be at competition dock diving, where dogs compete for distance jumping into a pool.  And of course, Mary is always searching deals for that next “epic” adventure for us!

You can keep up with our adventures by vising our online photo album:

                              www.clukey.smugmug.com

Merry Christmas!

Like seemingly for everyone, 2021 has been a year of significant change.

The biggest for us personally was both taking advantage of early retirement from the workforce, Mary at the end of December last year and Pete on March 1 this year.  It certainly is a leap of faith but we’ve been planning for this for quite some time.  We both know how lucky we are to be able to do so and have been enjoying our free time with hiking, kayaking, and some travelling.  We have a big trip planned for the near future and hope that travel restrictions don’t change between now and then.  Keeping our fingers crossed!

Our household at Rott’n Manor is now Mary, Pete, and our German Shepherd Bailey.  Another (literally) big change this year is Mary’s new crew cab F150 pickup truck.  Mary loves her new truck.  It has been fitted with a large wire crate in the back seat area for Bailey.  Now, the three of us can start exploring the southeast together and might try working in some longer road trips.  We intended to be doing road trips already but Bailey needed knee surgery in September to repair a ruptured ligament and is happily almost back to unrestricted activity.

In a typical post-retirement fashion, a major effort we’ve had underway is simplifying our household.  We are well into cleaning out the 27 years worth of “oubliets”, stuff we stashed to deal with later.  Pete even reduced his VW collection by two!  Now we only have the 57 Beetle and 74 Thing for him to tinker on.  Well, that’s not entirely accurate.  There is also the 67 Mustang coupe stored out back that Pete intends to get working on in 2022.

We were grateful to make two Maine trips to be with family this year.  The circumstances for making the trips were sad, both for memorial services for Mary’s Mom Elizabeth Richards and Pete’s Step-Mom Fay Clukey.  However, the time being together with both our families was very much needed after such a long time apart.  We hope to see everyone more often now that our schedule is VERY flexible.

We wish everyone the best in 2022 and hope to see you soon!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and all the best of health and happiness in the coming New Year!

At this time of year, we pause a moment and look back at the year, often we are amazed at how fast it has gone by.  This year, however, in some ways it seems like we are on the 300+ day of March. And while we haven’t been able to spend nearly enough time with our family and friends, nor traveling to far flung locations, we are healthy and have enjoyed exploring closer to our home. And for that we are happy!

We were both fortunate in that our jobs allow us to work full-time from home during this challenging year.  We’re both thankful that our careers with Royston and Lockheed Martin have remained steady as we look forward to the future.  Pete passed the 30 year mark of working for LM!  Several trips are planned for mid-2021 in hopes that travel will open back up soon.  On our target list are Puerto Rico, Portugal, Spain, Dominican Republic and our favorite sailing ship, the Mandalay, out of Grenada.  Who knows what else lies over that horizon.

When we moved to Ball Ground in 1995, it was a town lost in time and saw no development for quite a while.  Things are sure changing now, though.  The past 10 years have seen several restaurants established including a food truck with a wood-fired pizza oven.  We have a coffee shop that ages their beans in used bourbon barrels, giving the coffee a great flavor. Now in mid-December, we have a micro-brewery opening.  All of this within walking distance of our house!  We also have a winery in town that hosts live music on weekends.

Hiking and kayaking are becoming a favorite weekend activities  We found 10 miles of trails in a 220-acre nature preserve nearby and try to get out every weekend to hike with our German Shepherd, Bailey.  There are two reservoirs nearby that we paddle on often.  Mary keeps busy watching the interwebs and travel shows to plan our next adventures.  Pete keeps busy with his guitar restoration, aviation history, and vintage VW collection.  No new VWs joined our family this year but there’s always room for one more!

You can keep up with our adventures by vising here or on our online photo album: www.clukey.smugmug.com

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and all the best of health and happiness in the coming New Year!

The last workdays of the year are upon us, as both our places of employment prepare to have their holiday vacation shutdown. We look forward to the time off.

At this time of year, we pause a moment to look back at our busy year and we are amazed at how fast it has gone by. Most of all, we’re grateful for the time that we have been able to share with our family and friends. Both our jobs are doing well and we get to spend our spare time doing things we enjoy. Can’t ask for much more than that!

You can keep up with our adventures by vising our online photo album: https://clukey.smugmug.com/

 

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful, healthy, and fun-filled 2018! To our family and friends near and far, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy healthy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful, healthy, and fun-filled 2017! To our family and friends near and far, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy healthy New Year!

Christmas cruise on Holland American Lines Eurodam 2016

 

Over the Christmas holiday, we spent two relaxing weeks cruising around the Caribbean on the MS Eurodam.

On board we ate some amazing food.

The staff was awesome.

yum-yum guy

Junoir the pan drum player

Din & Tau our cabin stewards

Holland American Line’s private island provided a nice beach day.

On Turks and Caicos, we hung out at the Margaritaville pool.

In San Juan, we tasted the original Piña Colada at Restaurant Barrachina, walked around Old San Juan, and sampled some local chocolate at Casa Corte.

From Ft. Lauderdale, we took a tour to the Florida Everglades.

We made fishy friends in Grand Cayman.

We explored Cozumel on a rail buggy adventure tour.

We wandered around Key West…visiting Mel Fisher’s Museum, ate Maine lobster rolls at DJ’s Clam Shack (which was featured in an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives), meandered through the Key West Cemetery, and did a mini pub crawled – stopping into Sloppy Joe’s and Captain Tony’s Saloon.

After the cruise we spent a few days exploring and eating our way around south Florida and the Upper Keys.

 

We finally made it to the Coral Castle.

Had an awesome fish sandwich at Robbie’s Marina.

We spent a few hours exploring the displays at The History of Diving Museum.

We spent a morning exploring the Fruit and Spice Park.

We had great pub grub at the M.E.A.T. Eatery and Taproom (another restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives).

We visited two wonderful breweries; Islamorada Beer Company and Florida Keys Brewing Company.

The best meal of the trip just might have been at The Fish House (another restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives).

And ended the vacation with a beautiful sunset.

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

We’ve had a wonderful, healthy, and fun-filled 2016.  So many new adventures & photos to share with you at: www.clukey.com just click on “Photo Albums”.   And here is a link to our yearly Christmas letter: http://www.clukey.com/Christmas2016.html

To all our family and friends, near and far, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Bolo & Bailey with Santa – December 2015

 

Merry Christmas and all the best of health and happiness in the coming New Year!

The last work days of the year are upon us, as both our places of employment prepare to have their holiday vacation shutdown. We look forward to the time off.

At this time of year, we pause a moment to look back at our busy year and we are amazed at how fast it has gone by. Most of all, we’re grateful for the time that we have been able to share with our family and friends. Both our jobs are doing well and we get to spend our spare time doing things we enjoy. Can’t ask for much more than that!

Peter & Mary Clukey wishing you the best this season has to offer.

Merry Christmas!

The last work days of the year are upon us, as both our places of employment prepare to have their holiday vacation shutdown. We look forward to the time off.

To all of our family and friends, near and far, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

And we wish to share our yearly Christmas update letter with you: http://www.clukey.com/Christmas2014.html