Wanderlust, Wanda, and Lyn

This is kinda me from one of those avatar making things -- I like it because it takes 30+ years off. It’s actually very like me except it needs a lot more wrinkles and the blonde streaks should be grey. I'm usually behind the camera so there aren't a lot of recent photos of me. I might get a decent one at some point, or not. We'll see. I'm Lyn, also known as Jazz. I'm the long-divorced mother of two adult kids, a retired school music teacher, bird nerd, and an avid traveller. I live alone in a swanky loft-style townhouse in a trendy tourist/fishing village called Steveston, in Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, BC. I've been a traveller since my teens and planned my adult life so that I could spend my retirement travelling. During my long career as a teacher, I made careful, wise decisions and sacrifices to allow myself to retire early so I could finally take advantage of lower prices by travelling outside of high season. I had it all planned. The kids moved out, I sold the big family house and had spent a year in my new place. I'd apply for the early retirement incentive, I would retire at the end of June with my full pension and bridge until Canadian Old Age Pension kicks in. I would hang around and enjoy the many summer festivals and events at home, and wait for the fall to start booking travel. I could take a couple of substitute teaching gigs, if I felt like it. I had several trips on my planning list and was deep into planning a road trip around France for the Spring. It was a luxury to have time to take advantage of last minute fares and I planned on enjoying that with spontaneous journeys. That's not quite how it worked out.

Within days of retiring, I got antsy. I didn't know how to spend my summer without travel. I threw a bunch of stuff, including camping gear, in my 2012 Hyundai Elantra and decided I was going to drive all the way across Canada. I had taught Canadian geography and history for years but hadn’t seen many of these places. A good Austrian friend, Steffi, was going to be in the Northeastern US in mid-August and we had plans to meet up and travel together for a couple of weeks, joined by another friend we met on our Costa Rican G Adventure. I really wanted to go to Newfoundland and PEI, because I had missed them on every previous Atlantic Canada trip. I decided to make the most of my new retired status by meandering across the country before and after meeting Steffi and Michael.