There’s a lot of things about your life that you can control – how you live, who your friends are, where you invest time and money… but we all eventually march forward in time and get older as the years go on. When I was young I always assumed I wouldn’t ever get “old” – not for any specific reason really I just didn’t think with my adventuring and laissez-faire attitude that I’d ever see 30, let alone 40, but here I am… about to turn 40. This blog had been going on for over a decade now and tracked some of my favorite memories in my entire life – and I keep making more as I keep being gifted for years to do so.
Last year, I got gifted even more. I met someone. You’re about to meet her too if you haven’t already. Her name is Carli – and as travel buddies go she is one of the best – though I suppose I’m a little biased on the matter – but she’ll feature heavily on this trip, and every future trip, that Free Range Hobo covers. I can’t help but think about how lucky my life has been to meet the right person, to have the means to travel comfortably, and to enjoy it all – even if I am finally about to turn 40.
And so I decided not to turn 40 in the United Sates. “Let’s do it on a beach somewhere”, I said, and since I’m already booked back in Mexico again this September for a Blue October getaway I decided to look elsewhere, but for something similar. Let me find a room somewhere with a pool – at an all-inclusive resort – with a beach.
The result was a reservation at Sanctuary Cap Cana – a Marriott property just outside of Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
We left Friday morning, Carli and me and a friend-couple that have been a huge influence in Carli’s life – I’ve gotten to know them over the past six months and really appreciate them as people and friends as well. After an early drive to the airport we went through security and onto our plane… only to have the pilot admit they’d found a “maintenance issue”, as he called it, what we later found out was a fuel leak from the right wing that was not going to be quickly repairable.
Luckily, though, United must be contractually obligated to get flights in or out of our tropical paradise because they quickly (and I mean like… in the period of 30 minutes) found a replacement plane, kicked passengers out of line for a trip to San Francisco, slapped our flight number over theirs on the gate, and once we re-boarded we were off and flying. It’s about six hours from Denver to the Island – we filled it with movies and shows and discussion with the four of us sitting together.
We landed, found our transportation, and were carted off to the resort to check in, get a brief tour (it was already dark), and then get shown to our villa – yes villa – with multiple bedrooms, welcome chocolates and champagne, and our own private pool (that is about 8’ by 30’!)
We ate, ordered a late dinner of quesadillas, ceviche, and enjoyed the provided specialties as Sofia and Chris (our friend-couple) went off to visit “Sanctuary Town” – part of the resort full of restaurants and a ‘town square’. We ate, then jumped in the pool, and swam until about midnight. After some quick showers… it was bedtime. A quick day of travel, but a great day all the same.
I hope to have more interesting things to post than “I hung out in the pool all day” over the next few days – but no promises. I AM almost 40 now!
