IMRF Stories: Dan and Margaret C.

75th Anniversary

As we celebrate our 75th anniversary, retirees shared with us the profound effects an IMRF pension has had on their retirement years, in ways they never anticipated when they began working for an IMRF employer.

Dan and Margaret C. of Evans, Georgia

Early retirement was never on our radar until we attended a two-day IMRF seminar. That is truly an excellent service. It answered all of our questions, and best of all, we determined Dan could afford to retire at age 55.

The first photo shows the 37’ fifth wheel RV we purchased to do our traveling. I had worked in the travel industry for several years, and we had the opportunity to do lots of international travel to such places as Australia, Costa Rica, and Europe. But our dream was always, “When we get old, let’s buy a big RV and become a menace on the U.S. highways.” We sold our home and most all of our belongings and traveled the country full time for 6 years.

Hitting the highway

We did a lot of research before we actually retired. We looked into types of RVs and what kind of vehicle we would need to tow them, and services that are available to people that actually live full-time on the road. We found a place called Escapees that will handle your mail and things for you, and send it to you. You're able to pick and choose what state you'd like to be a resident of, so you’re able to vote.

We traveled thousands and thousands of miles with no accidents. We supplemented our income by working at campgrounds and a dude ranch, an exotic game ranch, and a job servicing vending machines in Arizona. After decades of sedentary jobs, it was a whole new experience to be so active every day and learn lots of new skills.

Usually, we tried to allow enough time between jobs that we could explore the country as we traveled back and forth. We were able to go through places like Texas to Mexico, Utah, Colorado, all of that. As we were there, we were able to see places like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Glacier National Park (Montana), Bryce and Zion (Utah), Valley of Fire (Nevada), the Tetons (Wyoming), and many historical sites.

Working with exotic game

We had some great times working with exotic animals in Texas. I had been in contact with a friend of mine from high school, and she had moved to Texas and ran an exotic game ranch. When we went to work for her, I was kind of intimidated because I'd never been around some of those types of animals before. We fed animals, including buffalo, watusi cattle, elk, sheep, nilgai from India, fallow deer, whitetail deer, and others.

My friend had a buffalo that she named Mophead. We would take pictures because we had never seen some of these animals before. She came to me one day and she said, "This fall, we're going to take Mophead down for meat. Would you like half a buffalo for your freezer?" I said, "You have to remember we're living in an RV where our freezer space is the size of a postage stamp.” Anyway, we did take some. When my son came to visit us one winter, I made chili from it. I whipped out the picture of Mophead and I said, "And this is who we're eating." He said, "Oh, that is just wrong." People forget where this stuff comes from.

So many of the hunters that would come to hunt these exotics just wanted the mount, but she didn't let anything go to waste. She processed it, gave it to food banks, or froze it and used it for hunters that were actually coming there to the ranch. Of course, one of the biggest jobs was processing hides after the animals had been killed. They take the fur off and you have to salt them heavily, or send them off to be processed either into a leather or fur good. When they would come back, we'd make pillows and quilts. When you made king-sized quilts out of stuff that heavy, those were a bear to wrestle around.

Fire in Pisgah National Forest

We did have some wild adventures. We survived a forest fire in North Carolina.

The ranch where we worked there was surrounded by the Pisgah National Forest. They had about 50 horses. The staff was basically all people like us who were older, who traveled full-time in their RVs. We did all the cooking and cleaning, and they took care of the horses. My husband rode what they call "drag horse" in the group [at the rear of the herd]. He got to fulfill his cowboy dream. Even though it was a lot of hard work and long hours, they made it a lot of fun. We learned how to line dance. Just being around all those horses was a really good experience, too.

Then this fire started one day. At first, we thought it was just odd weather; the clouds looked weird. Then we discovered that the area around us was on fire. It was all volunteer fire departments out there, and my husband went with some of the other guys that were working there to attempt to help them. Once they got up the hillside, the fire was just jumping all around, and they decided they were out of their element.

We were preparing to move our RVs. The firefighters had told us that if we could get all of them towards the center of the ranch, they could better defend the area around the ranch. In the meantime, the fire was heading toward the barn where they kept the horses. They let all the horses out, and of course they panicked. I was standing out there trying to load up things so that we could move our RV, and I could hear all these horses coming. They were going crazy. They were jumping the picnic tables. I ended up behind a pine tree trying to get out of their way. The lady that was in a site next to us actually rolled underneath her trailer so that she wouldn't be stampeded.

Once they got out and got calmed down, everything was fine. It was really interesting to watch those big tanker-type planes drop the red fire retardant. At night, you could actually sit in the dining room of the lodge and watch the hills around us on fire.

Settling down

We really enjoyed the Texas hill country and spent a lot of time there. (That's where the ranch is located that my friend owned.) When we decided to quit RV-ing after we'd been traveling for six years, that's where we first retired. We spent our time in a little town called Ingram. It's right on the edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, so they don't get a lot of rainfall. There are hills and shallow rivers; it's a very pretty area. We really, really liked it there, and the people were very friendly.

Then I had some health problems about six years ago. My son was here in Georgia, and after I went through cancer treatment, I said to my husband, " I would really rather be closer to him."

Although we sold our RV, we continue to enjoy our retirement by traveling extensively. Now we leave the "driving" to someone else by cruising. We've been to Norway, France, Ireland, Scotland, the Panama Canal, Costa Rica, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, Colombia, a majority of the Caribbean islands, and in April we are headed to Bermuda. Remaining curious about what's over the next hill or around the next bend is keeping us young.

We are so grateful we were able to fulfill something most people just dream about. It gave us the opportunity to live in many parts of the country to better decide where to spend our golden years without shoveling snow! We are blessed to be part of a financially stable retirement fund that has allowed us to live the dream.