I get what you’re saying, but I don’t mind organizing/I am not complaining about being the organizer. (It is initially a little “scary” to put yourself out there). I’m recommending that others who want to spend time with people and have time themselves take on the organizing responsibilities.
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Would you consider bus or train vacations? We have caught Amtrak and also I have caught buses and those are both underutilized in the US.
The other day, I bought 2 one way Amtrak tickets DC to NYC for $24! That’s a deal, in my book!
For us, we generally have to fly but have enjoyed our train rides where no one has to navigate nor focus on traffic and we can both enjoy scenery!
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@Silpat what about starting with some day (or half day) trips? Something that gets you both out of the house but back in your own bed at night.
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We downsized and moved to SW VA 5 years ago due to our youngest, who wasn’t emotionally ready to go to college without us being nearby (she was adopted and we were her fifth home when we got her at 9 months old). We luckily found a small new development of one story patio homes. Most of our neighbors are older than us and there have been several deaths in the community since we moved. There are only like four or five younger families out of 60 homes. My best neighbor friends are one of the younger families. I wish there were more.
Homes in the neighborhood are often sold without even being advertised.
We have thought about relocating to be near our daughters when the youngest gets settled, but she is leaving for her first professional job in CA in a few days. So we’ll have daughters on both coasts if she likes her job and decides to stay. She’s matured significantly, but we’ve rented a house (she’s paying the majority) so we can be with her for a while as she adjusts to living and working in a big city. We plan to do a lot of traveling while there. So that will be fun.
But we’ve both kind of come to the same conclusion that we like it here in SWVA. It’s beautiful, the weather is very nice, and our house has a less than 3% mortgage. Our oldest got really angry that her sister decided to take a job on the west coast. She wants everyone to move to be near her. But she lives in MA, in one of the most expensive areas of the country. I don’t want to triple our house payments to live in a shack. Sigh.
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Are those prices bus or train? Amazing if train.
DH is a few years from retirement, and has started looking for some sort of volunteer work he can do that isn’t on his feet. His interest outside of work include US history, painting, and hockey.
well, today my nephew sent me a link to the National Archives Citizen Mission projects, which are basically volunteers transcribing and/or tagging documents. From all sorts of Archive holdings. I can’t wait to show him!
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This also
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My prices are AmTrak train! I love it! We enjoy the train, even if it makes stops sling the way.
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It looks like REI just shut down the trips/adventures. I had just learned of the trips for women. Darn it.
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Trafalgar has women only trips. I also saw something on line called Women Traveling Together.
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If you google “women only guided trips” lots of options will show up.
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Road Scholar has trips for women only.
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My youngest goes to college in Lexington, VA. I agree, SW Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley is spectacularly beautiful!
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They’d be problematic even if we could board either one nearby. If I can get some of my health issues under control, or at least more manageable, then I’d consider a bus tour in a location to which we’d have to fly. H would take some convincing as he preferred to have as much flexibility as possible the times when we did travel.
I used Amtrak for business travel years ago when I went up north and it was a revelation. Your DC to NYC tickets sound like a steal - that’s great!
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Would you consider a driver and private tour? We did that in Japan and it was nice to have someone drive and have a car waiting for us that we could just leave stuff in.
Trains can be quite relaxing, especially if you’re not in a rush.
At some point that might work, but mornings are problematic for me. Medication can take care of some issues, but that has consequences, too. When it’s been very important to travel, I’ve taken steps to minimize the problems, accepting that the side effects are a trade-off. Right now leisure travel isn’t worth it. H wants to try a trip in the late spring, so I’ll look at flight schedules and check into other Rx options.
Occasionally, I still wake up from a nightmare about our last accident. I’m comfortable with H’s driving locally where he’s careful, but not on highways where he drives too fast or lacks sufficient focus. He’s had multiple accidents in the last decade and totaled three vehicles. Fortunately, no one else has been hurt and two were one car wrecks. Thankfully, I wasn’t with him for the most recent one. He gets very defensive when I try to talk with him about his driving habits. Sorry if this is all TMI.
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SAME! I was involved in establishing a FB page for a community with few opportunities for seniors. We had several gatherings over the years, and each time, we try to encourage others to start subgroups of whatever they would like to do. Movies? Walks? Coffee?
Only one other person has initiated subgroups that continue. Many attend the welcome type gatherings. No one has ever stepped forward beyond that.
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Today because I’m “semi” retired I was able to go to an estate sale down the street on the first day and early in the afternoon! 
Because they often start on Thursday or Friday I can only go on the weekend for the % off days .
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I used to run the stitchers club in our community (forum for knitting, crocheting, needlepoint, cross-stitch, basically anything to do with thread or yarn), but passed it off to another member when we started splitting our year between two places. Now, I meet casually with a small offshoot of this group for coffee every Wednesday to work on our current projects but mostly just catch up and enjoy each other’s company for a few hours. However, one of the women recently suggested we also start going to lunch one day a month to celebrate any birthdays that might be occurring that month. That might be too much socializing for me. 
Gathering with those who share your hobby, though, is a good way to meet new people.
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Did you find anything good at the estate sale? (I have fun either way.)
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