By Jim Dickens Late April 2025

I live in a nice suburb outside of Chicago safely and comfortably.  I believe what I am told that some places in the Chicago area are the opposite.  However when I listen to fellow suburbians putting forth problem/solutions I feel critical thinking they don’t really know.  As I sat down to share my recent experience in Belize with my opinions about the country I found myself becoming the aforementioned unknowing prognosticator.

As usual I went fishing and fishing with buddies is about the funnest thing I do.  My buddies Pete, Pete and Jon, all very experienced, stayed at a lodge near Belize City. It’s one of the original fishing lodges built in the 1960’s with giant planks of mahogany for floors and furniture and walls covered with memorabilia.  The owners shared the history of the place and Belize.

Besides us, a there were a few others staying at the lodge.  A pair of gentlemanly 75 year old Texas Aggies were there.  At Pete’s urging, one played a few songs on the guitar for us.  He sounded a little like Jerry Jeff Walker and used his hearing aids blue toothed to his iPad for lyrics chords and timing.  As he enthusiastically played the The Everclear Song by Roger Creager, I thought I don’t really know this Aggie.

We fished in the river, on the flats and out on the reef  We stayed out on Long Caye for a couple nights with guides and cooks as the only residents.  We turned on the generator at night for light, showers and air conditioning.  The fishing was streaky but we managed tarpon, snook, trigger fish, and bone fish along with an assortment of reef fish.  We got to see a great array of wildlife, sharks and rays, manatees, jabiru storks and howler monkeys for example.  It was a pretty good adventure.

The lodge staff was warm and fun to be around. Our fare had lots off fish rice and beans with a creole seasoning, very tasty.  Belikin beer is drinkable and no one got sick.  Higher than normal winds but pleasant temperatures kept us fishing everyday all day.  Belize is protected from hurricanes by a barrier reef and its rivers are not channeled or dammed so buildings can be beach side and riverside pretty safely.  It gets medium tourism and most get off a cruise ship and get back on.  Farming is self sufficient but good natural portions are protected. Things seem pretty stable.

I like coming to Belize as it doesn’t feel touristy but you can safely be a stranger.   But do I really know?

By Jim Dickens April 29, 2025

Montana land owners annex public lands by blocking access unless you have a helicopter.  Pickleball courts have stacks of  racquets on Saturday morning and you need to click your mouse exactly seven days in advance to get a good golf tee time.  Public access is getting tougher as the country gets more crowded.  Getting a prime time reservation at a restaurant or campground isn’t as easy as it used to be.  However you can find exceptions.

In the late 80’s, the Alabama Retirement System invested in the construction of a series of golf courses designed by the famed course architect, Robert Trent Jones.  The System reasoned that in addition to being a good investment, the courses would create jobs and attract tourism increasing Alabama’s economic health.  They built golf’s Field of Dreams and the golfer’s came.  Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Trail of golf spans the state with 11 locations, 26 courses and 468 holes of golf.

The Kid, Sparky and Girds joined me in Birmingham.  We played four courses at three sites the second week of April.  We bet, laughed and trash talked on the course every morning then watched the pro’s battle it out at the Master’s on TV every evening.   The courses were affordable, great and easy to reserve along with lodging, food and drink.  If you enjoy golf, I’d highly recommend it.

We think we may do it again and bring some friends.  There are 22 courses we haven’t played yet.

by Jim Dickens  San Francisco February 2025

I have a very low Art IQ.  We have virtually no art in our house just pictures stirring happy memories.  However friends and family are trying to help.

After returning from England, several days later we jetted to San Francisco to see our son Chris and his wife / our new daughter Sophie.  Last time we visited in October, Lori and I stopped by the deYoung museum in Golden Gate park and enjoyed learning bits and pieces.  Sophie planned a treat for us this visit.

Sophie, Chris, Lori and I visited the San Francisco Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum on a fine clear day.   The museum itself is architected beautifully with powerful Rodin sculpted bronzes that will appeal to even my art IQ.  Then I ran across a painting that struck my fancy, a Canaletto.  I thought about why I liked it and concluded I liked the precision and busy detail.  The accurate perspective and the correct golden hour lighting and shadowing on a bustling Venice canal scene really struck me.  I think I’ve moved from very low to low.  Thank you Sophie.

(Canaletto Link so no picture here for legal reasons) https://www.famsf.org/artworks/venice-the-grand-canal-looking-east-with-santa-maria-della-salute

To help us update our new house, our talented friend Angela guided us.  As she did she suggested she could provide us with two paintings.  Angela has been an accomplished painter for many years and sold many of her creations.  While we were in San Francisco Angela finished the two pieces. 

Over the family room mantle is a post impression of the Selway River in Idaho, an unsullied watershed I fished with two of my best friends.  In the dining room is an abstract, Rings of Love, with rings linked for each member of our family.  I find both striking, decorative and stirring happy memories.  Thank you Angela.

So there is now art in our spartan home.  Lori and I aren’t good with knick knacks.  Maybe February is a turning point.

By guest blogger, Kevin Greshock January 2025

The Bacon’s annual pilgrimage to San Jose Del Cabo included a few additional pilgrims this year – eight of us in total! Although the weather in Cabo was unusually windy and cool for January, we were all happy to be away from the below-zero temperatures of Illinois.

As usual, Denise (who missed her calling as a travel planner), put together an awesome itinerary! But there was still time to lounge by the pool, walk along the beach and watch the whales from our balconies.

Our whale watching tour didn’t disappoint – the whales weren’t shy, and we got lots of really great pictures and videos.  I’m sure that our kids were getting tired of the endless snap chats that we posted! We did get a chance to snorkel a bit when the boat pulled into a cove near Santa Maria, but the water was cold and only a few of us were brave enough to jump in!

San Jose Del Cabo is exactly what you would want a quaint Mexican town to be – cobblestone streets lined with shops, restaurants and cantinas (we really liked Baha Brewing and La Lupita). Overhead were colorful Mexican banners and there was a huge town square – all lit up at night – where kids and their parents (along with us tourists) would stay out late to enjoy the festival-like atmosphere.  The people are friendly, and you really get a feeling of authentic Mexico!

Jim planned a fishing trip for us men.  It was still dark as our Uber driver drove up a very scary dirt road to drop us off at what looked like an abandoned marina. Even the driver (who spoke very little English) gave us a look as if to say, “You guys sure about this?” It turned out to be a very up-scale marina with lots of very nice boats, and although we wandered around a bit looking for ours, we eventually found it and climbed aboard.  Although Jim was very excited about fishing, himself, he was happier just to see all of us catch fish. Just for the record, I caught the biggest rooster fish!

We had dinner at the most beautiful restaurants!  From 7 Seas on the beach to Habaneros downtown to Flora Farms in the jungle – they were all unique experiences!  The food was delicious…unless, like Jim, you ordered cauliflower steaks (what the heck, Jim!). My favorite was Acre – unbelievable atmosphere and the drinks and food were great!  We even (ALL of us) got to try that Mexican delicacy…fried crickets with Tajin , orange slices, and mezcal.  I’m pretty sure that there’s a chef at Acre who won a bet – “Hey guys…I’ll bet I can get those gringos to eat roasted insects! Go get me a handful of crickets.”

Here’s to great friends, great times, and anticipation of another great adventure next year!

By Jim Dickens  February 10 2025

Well the start of the new year has been a series of illogical events small all the way to existential.  Over the last week during a trip England.

Small

Went to see the ABBA Voyage experience in London.  It features avatars of the ABBA musicians created by holographic means.  They look very real as they dance, sing, talk to the audience and play instruments in three dimensions.  The stage, light show, sound system, etc are as good as I have ever seen.  I highly recommend it.  After the first song,  I noticed we cheered and applauded.  At the end, we cheered until we got an encore.  I remember feeling this is odd we are cheering for holograms.

Just after lunch and before catching a plane I had my blood pressure taken and it matched my fitness goal of 10 points lower after having it measured 3 weeks earlier in the morning calm before eating. It was odd and perhaps a bad goal.

Medium

We decided to vacation in England mostly outside at the end of January and beginning of February.  You awake in darkness and try and get some activity in before it gets dark again 9 hours later.  There is a chill in the air that pervades whether inside or out and seems to defy the actual temperature.   I guess we were visiting our son and daughter.  We must really like them.

Existential

Newly introduced United States government policy is going to stimulate oil and gas production and resist sustainable energy production.  Additionally, the government is actively removing pollution restrictions.  If this continues the problems for future generations including my children will dramatically increase. It’s illogical and the governmental explanations do not make sense. Meanwhile, the governments in Europe and Asia head in the logical direction.

Lori and I are off to San Francisco next to see other kids we really like with better weather.

Jim Dickens  1/16/2025

The 2024 holiday season was a forcing function to make sure we moved into our new home properly.  We had visitors coming and a series of parties to host.  It required an intensive effort and dusting off some old project management and handyman skills.  We are past that now and have even had a little recharge time.

Between Thanksgiving and the mid December,  new furniture installation, tile work, carpentry, paint, new electrical, fixture installation, and decorating.  All had to be optimized coordinated and prepped. As usual things that looked easy were harder.  For example,  the simple task of changing a light bulb also required changing the light switch to accommodate going from incandescent to LED. Long days but the satisfaction of visible creation and improvement made it worthwhile. 

We had visitors from December 21st to January 1st and hosted Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve.  My wife, Lori, did something I would recommend.  She surveyed our visitors, our kids for the most part, about things they would most like to do.  Then she stack ranked them, made reservations, and publicly posted the itinerary around the home.  Fun increased, boredom decreased, and chaos was mitigated.  If you don’t already, do a day of family volunteer work.  We made meals for Feed My Starving Children and really enjoyed ourselves.

2025 started, everyone left, undecorating began, and we slept as much as we wanted,  January 3 we flew to below 0 weather in Grand Rapids, MN.  We attended the service for Lori’s uncle who married us in 1988 and spent some time with her Minnesota cousins.  I was sitting in the church basement after the service having lunch listening the banter and felt like I was in an episode of Prairie Home Companion.  It was peaceful, comfortable, and interesting with that distinctive northern Minnesota accent.

Upon return, we finished undecorating and slept some more.  The Duluth trip brought back some nice memories.  We have our new place and are well rested.  We are recharged and ready for a great 2025.

Opinion Piece by Jim Dickens 11/26/2024

It’s the time of the year when we give thanks and make resolutions about the future.  Our family now has a tradition where we sit down and share our charitable donation choices and the reasons why.  It’s a deeper sharing beyond sports and the weather resulting in constructive heartfelt emotion.  I want to share where I am coming from these days.

As I’ve said before, it’s been a good run and what I really want is for my kids to have a good future with liberty and prosperity. This brings me to my future fears around the sustainability of our current best in class lifestyle.  I worry our financial, environmental, and geopolitical trajectories are unsustainable in my children’s lifetime and we lack the governmental leadership to correct.

Financially, we Americans are creating an unsustainable financial debt and the borrowing benefit has accrued to those with assets, generally the older generations.  This leaves our children with huge debt to carry and inheritance as the main avenue to prosperity.  It’s not the financial future we want for our children.

Environmentally, our population is growing as is the resource use per person.  The energy and materials generated for the basics of food, shelter, and transport remain extractive and polluting.  Climate change, biodiversity, and clean water are foundational to remaining civilized.  The worse we make it the harder it will be for our children to address and remain civilized.

We Americans love our liberty and are willing to die for it.  Well amazingly there is a large land war going on in Europe with well over a million casualties and almost 10 million refugees. Russian dictator, Putin invaded fledgling democracy Ukraine and our American response has been relatively weak.  Geopolitically America needs allies that value liberty as well.  Our children need liberty expanding in the world.

Somehow, we have American leadership that is incapable of addressing the issues above.  Our top leaders in the executive, legislative and judicial branches are octogenarian in low mental capacity, declining health and out of touch.   

So my charitable donations, voice, vote and action will go to allaying those fears until I’m 65.  Then they will be subject to my kid’s approval because I too am in declining health and getting out of touch 🙂

by Jim Dickens October 2024

It was interesting to me how the situational context changed my emotional response.  For several months I planned a trip with flights, lodging, guides, gear and research.  I planned to visit the Smoky Mountains for a couple of weeks with my family for a while and my fishing buddy, Chet, for a while. Then two hurricanes, Helene and Milton hit and all plans were cancelled.

Consulting with Chet and family, vacation was replanned to Montana and San Francisco respectively requiring a new set of expenses and hours of effort.  It hardly seemed an inconvenience. There was no anger at the forced change and we were not flabbergasted. For me, the reason was that compared to the misery of the affected in North Carolina  what I had to do was nothing.  It seemed like a calm easy change.  Under different circumstances, the change would have seemed much greater.

Chet and I ended up free styling do it yourself fishing in Montana thanks to our buddy Pete who joined us and put us up.   We saw new country and new water,  the Smith River 10 miles outside White Sulphur Springs.  The area was full of wildlife including golden eagles.  Driving through the Bridger mountains back to Bozemen we saw over 1,000 deer, over 100 pronghorn, and two herds of elk.  Since it was DIY wade fishing we did more than 20,000 steps a day in waders,  good for our health.  It also prepared me for the hills of northern California.

Lori and I met our son and daughter in law in San Francisco.  Lori and I walked the city up and down and up and down.   We went to the de Young Art Museum in Golden Gate park, an unusual outing for me as I know little about art.  My favorite piece the rest of my family found very off putting so I have included a picture.   We also rode coaster bikes down the coast from Princeton to the Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton.  We all preferred modest fare so we ate lunch at Dad’s Luncheonette and had a beer on the beach instead of the Ritz.  So great to be with family exploring new beautiful things.

In addition to the great experiences, here is a key takeaway.  When unplanned, unwanted change happens don’t make it any harder with negative vibes.  It may not be as bad as you think.

Informative but boring

by Jim Dickens October 2024

Ok our world changed.  The kids left, we stopped working and it was time to spend our savings living out retired freedom.  We could live anywhere and do anything.

Lori and I are just finishing up moving our household just 7 minutes away from our old home after a couple of years of evaluation.  With all that freedom we are still in the cold, gray, flat midwest. Looking back I have a few insights.  There is no right time to move.  The earlier in retirement you move the higher the risk and benefit.  The move itself is a true paradox of misery and delight. 

We choose to move relatively early at age 62.  There is a trade off.  We get the benefit of the new home for longer.  However, we run the risk of significant changes like all our kids have grand kids and they live together somewhere else where we should move.  Also, will the home cover all contingencies as we age.  The home should suit us when we are very active including hosting guests and events but also needs to be suited for when we become decrepit.   Finally will the house stand the test of time as technology progresses and society changes.

We choose to move early and close by for a few reasons.  Our children very likely will not live in the same geography.   I lived in a location, Reno, with great year round activities but we found we liked being near friends and family more.  We have seen what happens when a move is forced on you because of aging and it’s not pretty.  So we moved to a nearby home and spent extra to handle our different stages of aging.  We hope it’s the right home in the right place but since it’s early there is a greater chance it’s not.  Unexpectedly, moving early had another benefit.

We vastly underestimated the effort and time required to move properly. It is so hard. Had we been older it would have been traumatic and done less well.  We also probably would have placed a greater burden on our children.  Moving early was right for us. 

We are very excited about our new home and are enjoying the creative outlet of fixing and decorating.  We have already had overnight guests and hosted a party. It’s delightful.  Emptying our old home including a crawl space of 20 years and sorting through the detritus for weeks on end.  It’s misery.  We have lost a couple of precious months.

So no advice on when and where to move in retirement.  Just don’t put off thinking about it.

By Guest Blogger: Colonel Ian Ferguson, Marines Retired 8/31/2024

“The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost refers to the road less travelled and is somewhat cliché, but if one chooses to take this less travelled road, one will find that it is often less-maintained, gravel or dirt.  Slim organized “Phil’s Big Chill” in Steamboat Springs, Colorado for August 2024 and I decided to go.  I also decided to drive from Pittsburgh and see if I could take some of those roads less travelled. It was a good decision.

On the way out, I got off the interstate, experienced smaller towns and camped out in Illinois, Kansas, and Wyoming before linking up with Phil in Steamboat.  The rest of the crew trickled in, including Slim, ‘Nado, Pete, and Sparky (who was, of course, a day late and a dollar short – not cliché if you know Sparky). Steamboat is high-end and ‘Nado was our top-of-the line chef, proving his cuisine as good as any of the fancy places in town. But the highlight of our trip was when we got out of town.

The six of us embarked on a float fishing trip on a stretch of the Colorado River near its headwaters.  To get there, we went with guides who drove us on less travelled state and county roads and eventually on gravel and dirt roads.  These roads took us to a special place as we floated through canyons and rapids on the Colorado.  Fishing was not great (except for me and ‘Nado in the least experienced boat) but the River and view of the terrain was spectacular – a ten mile float.  Each of us got at least one fish, even Slim who actually had to get out and wade…does it count?  Pete says no.  As if by magic, Phil ensured we had cold Coors after we extracted from the river, and they tasted fantastic.  This is one of Phil’s super powers – he can always find cold beer when you need it.   

A side note on our Guides.  These guys are familiar with the road less travelled because they drive it all the time.  And they are totally prepared for Zombie Apocalypse.  My Guide, Nick, had a couple of years of college and wrestled at the University of Wyoming.  He’s a fishing guide in the summer. In the early fall he guides for elk hunts with bows; in the late fall he’s after elk with rifle.  In the winter he’s got a paid ski patrol position and is qualified to employ explosives in avalanche control.  He doesn’t buy meat at the store because he gets elk, deer, duck and fish on his own.  He and his wife grow some veggies too. It is amazing to see a young man who is so self-sufficient.

We had some nice golf venues in Steamboat Springs…very fun and also pretty posh.  An event that is not posh is the Rodeo.  We went to the Rodeo on Saturday night and it was a tremendous event.  I had seen some rodeo 30 years ago, but had no recollection.  This time I paid attention.  These are real cowboys (and cowgirls) with mad skills.  And it’s a tough sport…football, lacrosse and wrestling we all played and they are tough, but rodeo is TOUGH.  The skill and horsemanship are incredible.  These are the people who work the land and raise the animals that feed our Nation.  I tip my hat to them.

Leaving Steamboat I was dropping Slim off at the Laramie Airport, but we had a full day to explore.  Pete advised Slim to look for the AWE (as reported in previous blogs), so we decided to take the road less traveled out of town and on our way to Laramie.  We drove up and over Buffalo Pass (elev 10,339 ft).  It’s a dirt road and not very well maintained, and luckily my ’22 Tacoma has 4WD and high clearance.  It was worth the drive as we found the AWE cresting the Continental Divide and hiked around Summit Lake at the top.  Coming back down, we stopped in Walden, saw a moose on a side road, and stopped in at a local Fly Fishing shop.  Slim spoke the lingo and got the scoop on where to go next.  Getting off a state highway near the Colo-Wyo line we pulled onto a dirt road, then parked beside the North Platte River.  Then we hiked a less-travelled path into a pretty awesome canyon.  The path was hard to follow and we had to do some scrambling and climbing to get in and out.  But it was worth it – to be in a secluded place that most people will never see.  Slim dropped in his fishing line and got a few nibbles, but just being there was the great catch.

I dropped Slim off at the Laramie Airport and he made it back to Chicago.  Phil, Sparky, Pete and ‘Nado all made it back to their homes too.  I still had a few days left on my walkabout and drove some dirt roads in Wyoming and Nebraska and stayed on the Big Horn and Niobrara Rivers.  Saw the farm country of Iowa and made it to Naperville, Illinois to see Slim and L3 (Little Lovely Lori) before making it home to Pittsburgh and Miss Teri.  A nod to Frost – taking “the road less travelled by” did make all the difference.