Welcome to the Stray Compass Life Blog! We're so very glad you found us here. My name is Thomas Corrao and I started this page as a way to facilitate becoming a nature and travel blogger in retirement. You are currently viewing my home page where you will find posts about my final year of working in the Kenosha County Jail, my life's journey, and my connection with nature through photography, as well as my wife and I moving closer to our next big challenge in life, traveling full time after retirement.
When I first started this Blog it was still pre-covid 19 and as I'm sure you are all aware, a lot has happened since then. There have been lockdowns, stay home orders and a myriad of restrictions placed on travel by the states. People have been stressed to their limits during it all. The pandemic and the feeling of uncertainty it has brought to all of our lives has made me second guess our plans of traveling after retirement but we are going to carry through with our plans, just in a more cautious manner. Originally the blog was going to be about travel adventures in retirement so I named it Stray Compass Travels. Now with everything that has happened I have changed the name from Stray Compass Travels to Stray Compass Life. I just figured that no matter how set in your plans you are the forces of nature can always change your path if they want to. There simply are too many things we don't have control of in our lives.
If you look up towards the top of this page you'll also find the Stray Compass Okinawa tab where you will find videos about our travels in Okinawa and Japan. I was in the United States Air Force for many years and met my wife overseas while stationed in Okinawa. We've been married now for 39 years and we frequently travel back and forth to Japan. I plan to use this page of the blog to promote travel to Okinawa. We've been involved with the Chicago Okinawa Kenjinkai for many years and through them, I was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador to Okinawa. It's an official position given by the governor of Okinawa to those active in promoting all things Okinawa. Well through my travels I have accumulated a lot of video footage which I have decided to post here as a way for people all around the world to virtually discover all that Okinawa has to offer.
Please subscribe to our YouTube page if you like what you see here as that is where you will be able to find our various playlists on a variety of topics. We're hoping to build a base of followers before that time that will follow us along the way. Please follow us and I will promise to work hard creating new and interesting content for you to view.
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STRAY COMPASS TRAVELS BLOG POSTS
Meet the Bloggers
Hello, my name is Tom Corrao and I am the author of the Stray Compass Travels Blog. My wife's name is Nozomi and we would both like to welcome you to our blog and sincerely thank you for taking time out of your busy life to read a little bit about mine. My wife and I are a couple of empty nesters who are quickly approaching my retirement date and this blog is our way of sharing that experience as well as our past and future experiences on the road.
We chose the URL StrayCompassTravels.com for our blog because we felt that it expressed a clever twist to traveling by using unconventional routes. It's exactly the idea behind our retirement plan to find routes that would bring us to the most interesting destinations throughout the United States. In other words, we plan to travel in an unorthodox style by basing our routes on the myriad of parks, historical sites, roadside attractions, local fairs, interesting events, and scenic byways we discover along the way. We plan to see the country in a way not often explored by most YouTube bloggers today. We plan to seek out adventures that can be enjoyed by the 60 something crowd but that will still be of interest to the vast majority of our followers. We're hoping that by creating this blog we can share our life experiences and our current experiences, as we move towards that upcoming retirement date in September of 2021 and beyond.
Tom has worked in public service, both for his country and his community, for nearly 38 years. Nozomi is from Okinawa Japan and has been by his side this entire time.
There is a lot to consider when undertaking a nomadic lifestyle. I'm currently working for the Sheriff’s Department in my hometown and will be retiring at the age of 60 with a state pension. We currently own a house but will be selling it next year in preparation for getting out on road, so there will be many preparatory topics that can be covered before the actual retirement occurs. Our hope is that by talking about the process as it happens we may be able to help others who may be facing similar events in their future.
The idea to create this blog came to me after watching some YouTube video bloggers who have now become full-time RV personalities. Most of them are younger people who promote the RV lifestyle and work from the road while traveling. They document their travels on film and share the lessons they have learned while on their journey. I’ve found their stories of the RV lifestyle very intriguing and felt that it might fit right in with the stray compass plan we will be undertaking in the near future.
We’ve always loved to travel and do new things so whenever we’ve been able to get time off we travel and try to do the most interesting things we can during that time. I will begin by posting about our preparations and our past travels.
We would greatly appreciate your support in this endeavor and ask that you subscribe both to the blog and to our YouTube page. Thank you Very Much!