Nostalgia fills me when I think of my number seven retirement adventure. Within hours of arriving at our European destination in May 2014, the sale of our longtime Mariposa, California home became final. Our modest home on three forested acres held twenty-five years of memories, highlighted by the childhoods of our three sons, Andrew, Brad, and Chris. Yosemite National Park was our backyard.

Sue and I were homeless. Well, not exactly. We had packed our lives in a storage container awaiting our move to the quaint southern Oregon town of Ashland. Once we found a home there, that is. We would live in a rental condo in Ashland while we searched.

But first, we would walk a trail packed with more nostalgia and memory-making. One of Europe’s most popular trails, the West Highland Way, awaited our boots. In Scotland, which just happened to be our beloved home for a year while I worked there on a Fulbright teaching exchange. Our sons hadn’t reached double digits in life at the time and loved life in a tiny Fife village and school, where they were welcomed like celebrities.

Scotland has almost always been kind to us, and it continued in granting us mostly fair weather on our 150 miles from Glasgow to Loch Ness, except for one six-hour deluge that reminded us to never take Scotland for granted. The scenery was astounding, especially the Highlands, which thousands of sheep graciously shared with us.

After our trek, we had a blast with Scottish friends for a week, then traveled to Oxfordshire, England, and Copenhagen, Denmark to visit wonderful friends we had made on our first distance walk.

Adventure number six is next. Another trek, you ask? Good try, but nope.