Captain Howard Holschuh retired on August 8, 1972 after 30 years in the U.S. Navy. Howdy, as his wife Helen and friends called him, was just 48 years old. Their children Jamie and Steve had both graduated college. Their retirement home in the Shenandoah Mountains of Virginia had no mortgage. They had no debts. His Navy pension would cover all their expenses. Retirement was filled with fun and excitement, work and travel, church and volunteer activities. Howdy and Helen built a home, then another, with the help of friends, and tended their gardens. They visited every state, cruised the Atlantic and Pacific, the Caribbean, Med, Aegean, Black, and South China Seas, and set foot on every continent save Antarctica. They volunteered for mission projects in the U.S., Tanzania, Costa Rica, Mexico, St. Lucia, and Venezuela, and taught Sunday School teaching the value of hard work and play. Two grandchildren, Jason and Lorien, blessed their lives--but they lost their son in a tragic hotel fire. Much later, Helen suffered a stoke resulting in memory loss and progressive dementia. Helen passed away December 9, 2011, Howdy resides in a retirement home near their daughter.These memories are dedicated to Helen. Without her, this life would have been more difficult, less fun...and this book would have been impossible to write.