Nashville's Greatest Hits...and the Coolest Public Bathroom in the USA

Nashville's Greatest Hits
Take a ride with us through Nashville in the shadow of the Batman Building as we explore her history, the roots of her music, and her most famous landmarks.

Discover why she's called the Athens of the South, how Bob Dylan shaped the music scene, and the surprising story of how she earned the moniker Music City... CONTINUE READING >>

Also on GypsyNester.com this week:

The Hippest Public Bathroom in the USA

Jackpot! A flush with greatness!

Shiny and adorned in black and green art deco (including the toilets and urinals) this luxurious loo boasts a shoeshine station and a vintage phone that calls up the front desk - just in case... CONTINUE READING >>

Going Gypsy: One Couple's Adventure from Empty Nest to No Nest at All (find out more) Available from Skyhorse Publishing! Order Now - Wherever Books Are Sold! Also available as an audiobook from Audible.com

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What My Special Needs Niece has Taught Me... Cuddling Koalas... and Thank You St. Louis!

What My Special Needs Niece Has Taught Me about Life and Laughter

My niece is a totally unique individual. 

Not in that “everyone’s a snowflake” kind of way. She’s truly unique.

Because of a wonky chromosome, each cell in in Anna’s little body is different from every other cell in the world. There is no one else like her.

At birth... CONTINUE READING >>

Keeping Koalas Safe, Sound, & Cuddly

Some of the most readily recognizable Australian icons are animals, and we found more than a double dose of them in Queensland at The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary outside Brisbane.
As the name suggests, we got up close and personal with koalas, but we also got to feed kangaroos right from our hands... CONTINUE READING >>

Thank you St. Louis!

The Going Gypsy Book Party was a blast (see pics here!), we had radio and TV appearances - and in the midst of it all our book hit #1 on Amazon!

It was an honor to appear on the Charlie Brennan Show at CBS's KMOX!

Still pinching ourselves! Listen Now

Going Gypsy: One Couple's Adventure from Empty Nest to No Nest at All (find out more) Available from Skyhorse Publishing! Order Now - Wherever Books Are Sold! Also available as an audiobook from Audible.com

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Helping Your Aging Parents Move... and a Glorious Stop in Alghero, Sardinia

Helping your folks downsize and move as they get on in years can be a daunting task.

 The emotions of leaving a place that has been home for many years -- along with that elephant in the room, aging -- are heavy burdens.
We have recently assisted with three moves with varying degrees of success, and have... CONTINUE READING >>


Also on GypsyNester.com this week:

A Glorious Stop in Alghero, Sardinia

It is always a striking experience to venture inside the walls of an historic Italian city but even more so in Alghero.

The mix of cultures over the centuries has left a truly unique place. We could hardly wait to explore... CONTINUE READING >>

Follow us here too!: Facebook - Twitter - YouTube - Google+ - Pinterest - Instagram - GoodReads - StumbleUpon - RSS Going Gypsy One Couple's Adventure from Empty Nest to No Nest at All (find out more) Coming in February 2015 from Skyhorse Publishing! Pre-Order Now - Wherever Books Are Sold!

Things We Wish We’d Known BEFORE We Sent Our Kids to College... and A Fairy Tale Chocolate Wedding

It's that time of year again, and many new empty nesters are sending a fledgling off to college for the first time.

Here are some DOs and DON'Ts from your seasoned GypsyNesters on how to get through that first semester without losing your mind.

1. Don’t start off on a bad note. It's hard to let our kids go. The day our babies head out on their own is a tough one for any parent. Because of her self-awareness about her emotional outbursts, Veronica ... CONTINUE READING >>

Also on GypsyNester.com this week:

A Fairy Tale Chocolate Wedding

Our favorite princess was set to tie the knot with one of the top ten chocolatiers in North America - the king of ultra-premium chocolates - and the nuptials were not to be missed.

Anytime a princess marries a king, it's a big deal - and when the surname is Love, it's bound to be the social event of the season!

The reception began with a champagne toast... CONTINUE READING >> 

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War & Peace, Volume II... and How We Became Travel Bloggers

A reader wrote:

"The best part is when they finally get it, and tell you sorry for being such pain in the ass during those (teenage) years. My son told me he now understands everything I was trying to convey to his logic blocked brain back then..."

 Oh man, I can relate.

 I was pretty certain that at least one of my envelope-pushing teens would flee the nest -- i-Pod at full volume and a certain finger in the air -- never looking back or speaking to me... CONTINUE READING >>


Also on GypsyNester.com this week:

By Popular Demand - How We Became Travel Bloggers

We've never formally talked about being travel bloggers on our website. But we're being asked about it more and more, so we thought we'd open a dialogue.

In truth, we've always felt like we kind of stumbled blindly into our recreated lives - and by no means consider ourselves experts (in travel or blogging).

And, seriously, we thought, who wants to hear us talk about what goes on behind the curtain?

When we hit the road ... CONTINUE READING >>

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Channeling our Inner Celebrity in Boston!

Once again we found ourselves at the fantastic Life@50+ Expo - this time in Boston!

And this time we landed on the cover of AARP Magazine! Well, sort of.

Becoming cover models is just one of the myriads of fun activities we participated in while visiting Beantown.

While pretending to be celebrities, we found ourselves mingling with several real celebrities... CONTINUE READING >>



Also on GypsyNester.com this week:

Picture This: Union Station in Washington, DC

Union Station in Washington, DC is the most impressive depot we have ever traveled through.

From the bright shopping area around the gates, to the amazing, massive main hall almost one hundred feet high, the station left our... CONTINUE READING >>


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The Oz Museum: Behind The Yellow Brick Road

Yes Dorothy, we were in Kansas anymore, Wamego to be exact.

As the home of The Oz Museum, this little burg between Topeka and Manhattan has become quite a Mecca for fans of The Wizard of Oz.

We entered the main street storefront into a fairly typical gift shop, with a couple of exceptions. There was a tornado ... CONTINUE READING >>

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Green Gables - Bringing My Childhood Imagination to Life

Laura of Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Anne of Green Gables were my closest literary companions in childhood.

There was something about these girls' feistiness and spirit that sparked "the scope of my imagination" - a bookwormish preteen girl who spent hour upon hour with her nose stuck in the pages of... CONTINUE READING >> 

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What Happened to the Evening News?

I know, I know, I risk sounding like a get-off-my-lawn old guy, but seriously, the network news just ain't what it used to be. In fact, a good bit of it isn't even what I would call news.

I'm not talking about the feel good human interest pieces, those have always been a part of journalism, but when did viral videos become news? It seems that anytime I have a chance to tune into the news, I get treated to the latest YouTube sensation. Since when did cute cats, talking babies and folks getting hit in the nuts become fare that rivals the important events of the day?

Add that to the... CONTINUE READING >>

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Heavy Petting: How many strange pets can one family have?

When our nest emptied, it emptied it not only of kids, but of pets too. We have nothing against pets. We've had both dogs and cats and loved them, but the GypsyNester lifestyle of no-plans and go-anywhere isn't very conducive to taking an animal along. So, for now at least, we are finished with being pet parents.

But pets are often a part of parenting and I got to thinking about some of the colorful characters that were a part of my family through the years. When I was a little kid, our first pet configuration was a... CONTINUE READING >>

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We're Too Old For This Crap

One of our top priorities when becoming gypsy -- as opposed to empty -- nesters was to use our new found freedom to see family and friends that we hadn't been able to visit in years.

While finishing up our child-rearing years on a Caribbean island a thousand miles from the mainland we were understandably limited in our opportunities to drop in on folks.

Now that we are unfettered, we have had the opportunity to reunite with quite a few of our old friends. In every case I’ve noticed... CONTINUE READING >> 

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60 Years of Marriage: A Gift My Parents Gave Me

Next week our family will be celebrating a remarkable event, my parent's sixtieth wedding anniversary. Only an extraordinary mixture of love, trust, faith, hard work, and -- yes -- luck could have made this event possible.

I'm not going to attempt to analyze the inner workings of how a union can not only survive, but thrive over six decades, I am simply going to offer thanks.

More than gratitude for the care and security that I received, although that too often goes unspoken, I want to particularly express how grateful I am for... CONTINUE READING >> 

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War & Peace, Volume II

A reader wrote:

"The best part is when they finally get it, and tell you sorry for being such pain in the ass during those (teenage) years. My son told me he now understands everything I was trying to convey to his logic blocked brain back then..."

Oh man, I can relate.

I was pretty certain that at least one of my envelope-pushing teens would flee the nest -- i-Pod at full... CONTINUE READING >>

Go Ahead Punk...Make My (Father's) Day

Whenever Father's Day would roll around when I was a youngster, the inevitable question arose, “Why isn't there a kid's day?”

Every parent ever to draw a breath gave the same reply, “Everyday is kid's day.”

Thinking back, there was a lot of truth to that statement. We did celebrate kid's day nearly everyday, and I certainly don't remember going out of my way to make my father's days resplendent on any regular... CONTINUE READING >>

Hey Mr. Spaceman!

For many of us the moon landing in July 1969 holds a prominent place in our memories. The scratchy black & white images are burned indelibly into our minds. We were children of The Space Age. We drank Tang, ate Space Food Sticks, watched The Jetsons and dreamed of Jeannie.

This made our visit to The John F. Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Space Coast as much a trip down memory lane as an exploration of current... CONTINUE READING >>

GypsyNesters on the Radio!

Get the GypsyNester story!

We joined Jill and Claudia over at Empty Nester Radio and had a BLAST.

Listen in as we answer these great questions:

How did you become known as the GypsyNesters?

What did your kids say when you told them of your plans?

Do you have... CONTINUE READING >>

We're Too Old For This Crap

One of our top priorities when becoming gypsy -- as opposed to empty -- nesters was to use our new found freedom to see family and friends that we hadn't been able to visit in years. While finishing up our childrearing years on a Caribbean island a thousand miles from the mainland we were understandably limited in our opportunities to drop in on folks.

Now that we are unfettered, we have had the opportunity to reunite with quite a few of our old friends. In every case I’ve noticed... CONTINUE READING >>

Go Ahead Punk...Make My (Father's) Day

Whenever Father's Day would roll around when I was a youngster, the inevitable question arose, “Why isn't there a kid's day?”

Every parent ever to draw a breath gave the same reply, “Everyday is kid's day.”

Thinking back, there was a lot of truth to that statement. We did celebrate kid's day nearly everyday, and I certainly don't remember going out of my way to make my father's days resplendent on any regular... CONTINUE READING >>

War & Peace, Volume II

A reader wrote:

"The best part is when they finally get it, and tell you sorry for being such pain in the ass during those (teenage) years. My son told me he now understands everything I was trying to convey to his logic blocked brain back then..."

Oh man, I can relate.
I was pretty certain that at least one of my envelope-pushing teens would flee the nest -- i-Pod at full... CONTINUE READING >>

Facebook and Memory Lane

About a month ago, a thought popped into my head. What ever happened to Tamera? Where did that gangly, sweet and truly unique little girl with the pig tails and big glasses that I went to Junior High with end up? What did she become?


We were the original Valley Girls. We hung out with boys who skateboarded, went to the beach every weekend and said “Like” and “You know” like, way too much, you know? I wonder if Tamera finds it ironic, as I do, when she hears today’s college girls speaking like this, while most of us old school Valley Girls don’t anymore? Actually, I’ve managed to completely kill off the “likes,” but the “you knows” keep sneaking in... CONTINUE READING >>