This. Don't wait until you retire to do things you think you'll enjoy. You may not live to see the day, and that would be a pity.

Having said that, I'm going to be out of work in a few months time. I'll be 56, and while I'm a long way from being rich I'll have a modest payoff coming and I don't think I'll be getting another job - certainly not a permanent, full-time job. So being a wage slave looks as if it's over for me and yes, more touring is very definitely on the agenda. I have various plans - TransCanada first, or possibly a loop from Ontario through Quebec, New England and back to Toronto via the great Lakes (I have friends in Toronto I haven't seen for a while). A very serious European tour is also on my list - from where I live i can take the ferry overnight to Amsterdam, and I have in mind a route through the Rhineland, the Swiss Alps, through Northern Italy as far south as Tuscany then west and back home through France. Still mulling over whether to extend that to take in the Iberian peninsula or save Spain, Portugal and (gasp) the Pyrenees for a separate trip. Coming to terms with the realisation that one has no deadlines and can take as long as one wants is going to be interesting.