2016 Summer Recap
30 October 2016
Susan
Two weddings, no funerals (thankfully), six states, numerous host friends & family (Thank You!!), thousands of miles driven, hundreds of miles biked including Ride Idaho week, hikes & sightseeing, plus the budget joy of senior discounts for the newly-minted senior citizen (Jerry).
Jerry got his Medicare card. It did take four (!) in-person visits to the Seattle Social Security office, which is in & of itself an eye-opening experience. Bottom line: if you are born outside of the USA, have / get a certified copy of your birth certificate well before your 65th birthday. Medicare secured, we made cashflow-beneficial changes to Jerry's medical insurance coverage. At Dinosaur National Monument we learned about the Senior National Parks & Federal Recreational Lands Pass - just $10 for a lifetime pass which gives us free admission to all US Fish & Wildlife Service, Forest Service, US Army Corps of Engineers Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service & Bureau of Reclamation lands and 1/2 price camping / RV fees in those areas. This is available to anyone 62 yrs and older; sure wish we'd know about it earlier. And in addition to the well-known movie and transit / ferry senior discounts, we discovered others: at the Prineville Taco Time, everyone 50+ gets a 10% discount (my very first "mature person" savings! :); and in Donnelly, the Albersons has a senior day (65+) which nets us 10% off most items in the store. Loving the senior discounts!
We visited three National Monuments / Parks this summer; Craters of the Moon (ID), Dinosaur (UT / CO) and Arches (UT). By far our favorite of the three was Dinosaur, interesting exhibits and a still active paleontology site. Jerry brought his rock hammer however they wouldn't let him use it to help them find new fossils... LOL
To all of our friends & family: Thanks for making this summer a memorable one!