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

  Avi Resort, Nevada During my wife and myself’s preparation for our 2 1/2 month cross country road trip going from North Carolina to California, we had planned on stopping by at Los Angeles to see my wife’s friend and her family.  That plan, unfortunately, did not work out as we had completely forgotten about the fact that we were spending time in Las Vegas, full of millions of visiting tourists. We didn’t want to transmit any number of communicable diseases, especially Covid-19 to her unsuspecting son.  We briefly thought about getting ourselves tested, but we decided against it, as it was a last minute thing.   So, as is our usual motto, we “hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst”, or we “went with the flow…”. We ended up needing to book a 2 night stay anywhere south of Las Vegas to anywhere near San Diego, as that would be our next destination. We searched high and low to find a suitable lodging near Las Vegas , San Diego , and/or near Joshua Tree Nationa...

  Bellagio, Las Vegas Steve Wynn:  “Las Vegas is sort of like how God would do it if he had money.” My very first trip to the city of Las Vegas was in November 2001 for COMDEX (Computer Dealers Exhibition), an expo trade show held at the Las Vegas Convention Center .  The company I was working for at the time had rented a booth at the show, and they requested that I go to the trade show to represent the company. I had reserved a 5 night stay at Bally’s Hotel  on the Las Vegas Strip and I remember eating a hearty lunch at one of the hotel’s restaurants the first day.  I had a turkey burger for lunch, then checked in afterwards to see that my room had a gorgeous view of the Las Vegas Strip . Looking at the Strip with all those glittering neon lights, glitzy hotels, and the amped up Las Vegas Boulevard (aka the Strip), I was totally blown away.  It reminded me so much of New York City , the “ city that never sleeps ”, where I grew up. The city’s energy, vig...

  Zion National Park, Utah Helen Keller:  “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” My wife and myself’s first introduction to Zion National Park began in the year 2017 when we visited the city of Las Vegas during April of that year.  During that trip, we got a kick out of doing things other than just the usual activities in “ Sin City ”, like drinking, eating (too much), gambling, and/or watching live entertainment. We got to experience  natural wonders nearby like Mt. Charleston , Red Rock Canyon , and Valley of Fire all within our first three days.  Because our trip would be 5 nights/6 days, we still had another full day to explore somewhere amazing. To that end, we decided on visiting the always popular  Zion National Park in southwest Utah.  We had two good reasons why we chose this park that day:  1) it was under a 3 hour drive to Zion National Park from Las Vegas, and 2) we had always known of Zion from cable channels like the...