About

it’s so nice to meet you!

Hello! I am Jim Widder. I’m a 3x girl dad, husband, former teacher and Christ follower. You may be asking why a middle aged man (okay, a few years over middle aged) is starting a travel blog. That’s a great question. 

First, let me tell you a little about myself before I tell you ‘why’. I grew up in Sugarcreek, OH, which is known as “The Little Switzerland of Ohio.” It is a small town with about 2,000 people and is located in the largest Amish settlement in the world. I taught for 33 years at the high school, junior high and elementary school levels and of my last 29 years, I taught in a public school that was mostly Amish students. I have been married to my wife, Tonya, for 30+ years and she is a third grade teacher. She is my best friend and makes me better everyday. We have 3 grown daughters – Maddie, Kenzie and Cassidy and they are now all married to the men whom we have always prayed for. 

So, why at my age and point in life am I starting a travel blog? Honestly, I think it just comes down to wanting to merge two of my biggest passions – traveling and saving money. Growing up, my dad got 6 weeks of vacation so we traveled all over the US. We even took a couple major trips out west and a trip to Alaska driving the Alaskan Highway. I didn’t come from a wealthy family by any means, but my mom and dad wanted to experience those adventures with us and looking back, those were some of the best memories I have growing up. 

After diving into budgeting when the girls were little, I started to really educate myself on using our money wisely. I ended up being involved with a personal finance ministry at our church for quite a number of years and taught on how to be a good steward of God’s finances. Through helping people with their personal finances, I realized how much I loved being able to help people so sharing with other’s how to make their dollars stretch in everyday life or save money on a trip is something I find enjoyable and fulfilling. 

Over the last number of years I have been able to plan a number of trips for our family. From a trip all over California to Niagara Falls to another all over the upper east coast and then most recently a 16 day trip to Arizona/Utah… I found that in planning these trips that I really enjoyed researching, scheduling and organizing. Figuring out how to make it the most affordable while doing the things that we wanted to do was actually enjoyable when to most other people, tends to not be. 

Through all of these trips, I have been able to share with others what we have done, what we liked, disliked, would have done different, would do again, etc. and through that, I found an even bigger passion for wanting to keep doing this in a way that’s tangible to more than just the people that I know personally. 

After retiring, I had been praying about what I was going to do with my time and although I’ve had an online job for the last few years after finishing my teaching career, I knew that I wanted to finally invest my time in something travel-related that showed people that you don’t have to make a ton of money to go and see the world. After my daughters started constantly mentioning how I should start a travel blog and after God nudged me in that direction, I decided to go for it. 

So, here I am. I am definitely not in my comfort zone but I am looking forward to this adventure. I would love for you to join me!