Is There Life After Zephyr?

One of the most common questions I get from our Alumni is, “What is (insert name of former guide) doing these days?” I thought it would be interesting to pose that question to all our former guides themselves. The answer to the question in the title above in one word: Absolutely! Here is what a few of our Zephyr family members had to say:
Andrea Franklin: Life after Zephyr has been interesting. Being the travel junkie that I am I am still taking advantage of my summers off and slowly checking things off of my bucket list. Having worked for Zephyr for 15 years and seeing how passionate they are about making customers happy I have chosen many tours from the Zephyr “menu.” Last fall I chose to go to Bhutan, which was one of the best trips of my life. After Bhutan, I extended my trip another 2 weeks and explored Vietnam, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. It was actually the first time that I crossed every timeline and flew completely around the world.
I also have an addition to my family. Her name is Blondie (go figure). She is a 12-year-old AMAZING registered quarter horse. She now takes up all of my free time!! I have her boarded right next to 2 different Florida parks and both have designated horse trails. We have been putting on a lot of miles and now that the Florida weather has cooled down a bit I’m sure we will be going out a lot more. I had horses when I was much younger and I always knew I would have one again.
Other than that I am still working as a personal trainer and spinning instructor. At 62, I’m probably one of the oldest spinning instructors around but I just can’t give it up. It’s another one of my passions. For 2017, my travel plans include the Zephyr Alumni Ohio skating tour in June and also the trip to the Galapagos in April. I hope to see some of you on one of those tours. I have a lot of GREAT memories with Zephyr customers and am grateful for being given the opportunity to meet wonderful people and see all of the places that I have seen. Thanks to all of you that I have met over the 15 years of being a Zephyr guide for making each and every trip special and unique.
Sabine Löwenthal: I am still in Switzerland and working for the same company – taking pictures of construction places and writing articles for a magazine that comes out 4 times a year. I skated in 2010 from Denmark to Switzerland – 1730 kilometers. My longest distance ever. (www.grenzen-ueberschreiten.ch). After that, I got a little “tired“ of skating… and I had an operation on my hip in the spring of 2016. I moved from Lake Zürich to another canton and live now for 2.5 years with my boyfriend Heinz at the Thurgau, near the Bodensee – Konstanz. In my free time, I like to take pictures – black and white. (Have a look at my flickr account.) So everything is good. Regards to all skaters!
Terry Lynch: Here’s an update on my life east of the Mississippi. Last summer was the first in fifteen years that I did not guide a Zephyr Adventure. My time was taken with gardening, keeping my daughter’s pool operating and doing day trips with the grandkids. I am still teaching English at Loudoun County High School in Leesburg, VA. My plan is to retire after next year, 2018. As I will then have time off in Fall, Winter and Spring in addition to Summer, I will have plenty of time to travel with Zephyr to places I still long to explore. I am most grateful to Allan and Zephyr for giving me the opportunity to travel and meet so many wonderful people during my guiding days. I hope to see many of you again on a Zephyr Adventure in the future. I look forward to the opportunity to rate my guides.
Liz Miller: Hmm, besides getting married to my lifelong playmate, Dan Kibler? On a daily basis, I’m still working full-time as a writer for Chevron, and still dedicated to aging gracefully through healthy eating and exercise. Despite my retirement from most inline skating pursuits, Get Rolling is still reaching skaters through Amazon.com, although sales are now down to a couple of copies per month. In 2013 I swapped my skates for a road bike, so these days it is biking, hiking, Ninja gardening and the occasional Zephyr tour that satisfy my insatiable enthusiasm for being in nature.
Katie (Edmiston) Luoma: Our business Fly Out is doing very well and provided us with one of the busiest summers of our lives! 8 weeks total in Alaska filming, plus a few weeks filming around my home state of Montana. For 2 of those weeks in AK, we were in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which included 7 days packrafting down a wild and scenic River. We will be producing a short film about the experience for outdoor film festivals. All that with a bun in the oven! We are expecting the newest adventurer of the family Dec. 30th (Editor’s Note: we heard through the grapevine that Katie and her husband Cory now are proud parents to a new little one). I am looking forward to a fall and winter of staying put (never thought I would say that) and trying to settle into the new house we bought in the Flathead Valley. As they say, “Life is good.”
Sarah Wolcott: I am in the thick of operating my own, wine-industry oriented consulting company, WoW Communications. I provide content marketing strategy and management for marketing and public relations needs and am currently working with wineries in Washington, Oregon, and California. My husband also started a new venture, McKenzie River Guide Service, and I’m psyched to be a part of this fly-fishing company. We are gearing up for ski season (pray for snow!) and look forward to making some powder turns wherever the snow flies this winter!!
 
 
 
Bill Creadon: My partner Laura will be retired 5 years in January and has no desire to work or volunteer and is quite happy with cutting the grass and maintaining the house. The joke is her car rarely gets out of 19606 (our zip code). Not me, I need to be on the water even if it’s in the slip. I also have a fishing boat and love to spend my time fishing and sometimes catching. Life is good. We are staging our new sailboat for our first extended voyage that will start next October and finish sometime in 2018. We’ll be going south from the Chesapeake to Florida and exploring both coasts, then to the Bahamas and Cuba. This has put us under a challenging refurbishing schedule.
I don’t embrace the traditional retirement gig. I walk around our shop and realize all the products I’ve created with our guys and can’t displace myself from the involvement. As long as I get the opportunity to do some liveaboard time, I love what I’m doing. I have come to the conclusion that it will be a fork in the path. This summer and spring I worked 4-day weeks. Next spring and summer, I’ll work 3-day weeks and then when we get back I’ll still be an owner and running the marine division – building hardtops as long as I am having fun!!! I’ll be posting our travels and will miss everybody. So many fond memories. Give my best to all and have fun as always. Never stop playing, exploring, and having fun. Life is a great ride!!!