That one hobby you always wanted..

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dr wogz

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That's it:

What is that one hobby you would love to pursue / be involved in / feel would fill your [retirement?] days..

We all fell into Rocketry for one reason or another. And many of us have a few other things to fill our time, be it cycling, hiking, under water basket weaving, etc.. (R/C planes / flying seems to the most common among us) But I assume many are like me, there are one or two hobbies we would love to pursue, but apart from time, something makes it unfeasible.. Be it space, manual dexterity, specific tools (space & $$$), or some other reason..

For me, it would be model trains. To have an HO layout would be a dream! But, sadly, my house is small, so even a 4' x 8' layout is out of the question. And we have cats, who would easily turn a layout into a 50's science fiction movie! My dad & I had one when I was small, and I still have most of the 'bits', but that's about it. I subscribe to Model Railroader magazine, and am just in awe at some of the featured layouts.

You? Any hobby / hobbies you would love to pursue, but can't?
 
I'd love to do the long-trail triple-crown.
Appalachian, Continental Divide, Pacific Trail.

I'd love to do just one of them.

Completely impossible for a married guy with a kid.
 
For me it would be any third hobby. I try to only allow myself two, otherwise I fear I would end up halfway invested in a dozen or three, with incomplete projects destroying all of my working area. Instead I have a mountain of unbuilt rocket kits and parts blocking access to my blacksmithing stuff. Somehow this is probably better?
 
OK, If we be going banannas, My goal was always to get a rocket to enough speed to light a ramjet, ala the Bloodhound
 

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Playing guitar and/or acting (in little community theaters and such).

I actually pursued both to a limited degree in the past, but the time came to settle on a few hobbies to fully devote myself to, and I took rockets and tabletop gaming. I hope to find the time to take up guitar again one of these days. Even tabletop gaming has fallen by the wayside the past few months because I had over twenty kits in my build pile and committed myself to burning it down before buying more.

I'm not saying I'm any kind of great actor, but I do find acting a lot of fun. I do get to flex that muscle occasionally with tabletop RPG's.
 
Maybe when I retire, I'll set my alarm clock to wake me up at 8:00 PM so I can stay up all night and watch space🌠🔭.
 
Flying, but it's too expensive and time consuming as a hobby for now. If time and money were unlimited, I'd really like to fly a Pitts and learn aerobatics. At least I get lots of time in the cockpit at work, even though I can't touch the controls.

The other hobby I would like to pursue more is bikepacking / backpacking across our public trails and the backcountry huts in the Rockies. This is more realistic when I retire, assuming my body is still up to it.
 
Ham Radio about 40 years
R/C Planes about 30 years
Rockets off and on for 50 years
Pyrotechnics (Fireworks) for about 30 years

But always wanted to try HO trains started several times but never followed thru. And in between all of those hobbies I've done a little gold prospecting, metal detecting, black powder shooting, and other odds and ends.

But now days mostly rockets and R/C planes (Electric assist gliders)
 
Scuba diving
Highly recommended, and you're only a couple hundred miles from some warm Gulf waters! Got the GF certified a few years ago and she bagged more lobsters than me on our last dive, dammit! Night drift diving in the Gulf Stream a few miles offshore, not deep maybe 30 feet, lights off, is about the closest you can come to floating around space while still on earth.
 
I have a few other hobbies as well. RC Cars, Boats and Planes, real cars, hiking, biking, shooting and bowling come to mind right away.

The one interest I have that I don't get to do as much as I like is off roading. I have kicked around the idea of buying a Jeep a million times but have yet to do so. Every chance I get, we head to Moab UT. for a week and rent a Jeep and hit the trails. This May we will be there for 9 day and hitting as many trails as we can in that time.
 
I pretty much enjoy or have enjoyed all the hobbies I am passionate about.

RC aircraft of all types and rocketry at present, full scale flying including soaring in years past.
 
Highly recommended, and you're only a couple hundred miles from some warm Gulf waters! Got the GF certified a few years ago and she bagged more lobsters than me on our last dive, dammit! Night drift diving in the Gulf Stream a few miles offshore, not deep maybe 30 feet, lights off, is about the closest you can come to floating around space while still on earth.

I think I may have claustrophobia-like problems if I was night diving with the lights out. The current plan is for my oldest son (turns 13 this year) and I to get certified this summer/fall in hopes that a Christmas trip somewhere warm can include some diving.
 
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Try N-Scale. You can build a whole lot of Railroad in a fairly small space.


Nice layout!!

I have thought that route, and do have a plan for a train / coffee table.. but:
  • cats.
  • N is half the scale of HO, so its smaller! and hands / eyesight diminish with age! :D Also, the detail starts to get lost.

If I had the space & yard (and seasonal region) I would love to do a garden railroad! O or G scale! Actually, I do have a yard big enough, but the dog (s) like to run thru it! and I'm no gardener!
 
My list is too long! Lol
Race cars (have started a bit last year and currently have two Miatas)
More into RC planes (at least learn to land without crashing regularly!)
Inventing (including rocket designs and systems)
Build non-rocketry plastic models
Art painting
Hike a lot
More Rc boats since I live on a lake
Learn to surf (hey, I first tried waterskiing in my 50s)
Photography
Fossil hunting (I seem to be particularly lucky finding odd things)
Carpentry
Binge-surf TRF forums (more than now :p )
 
N-Scale isn't really half the size of HO and if you try to design a track-plan based on that, as is done in "101 Track Plans You Can Build" you'll wind-up with something that doesn't work well if at all.

But there are lots of good plans for N-Scale out there in books specifically dedicated to N.
 
Well, my other hobby is/can be more expensive... I collect John Deere two cylinder tractors. I started out with a model B, then sold that because I wanted power steering. Got into the 20 series and had a representative of all 6 models (many different variants of each model), then sold the 4 big one and bought my house. Then slowly started buying the 30 series set and had 5 of the 7 models. They take a lot of time and money to keep running well. Now sit too much. I’m gonna try hanging on to them until I retire and see if I have more time for them.
But if money wasn’t a issue, I’d like to try tractor pulling...
 
Gave up on getting my pilots license, every time I had the money and was working on getting it, something came up that needed the funds more than me flying.
I would love to get certified for SCUBA. Done some random dives in the Carib and one is the Gulf of Aqaba.
Rocketry is my primary hobby, secondary......Too many to count, everything from needlepoint (if my arthur isn't acting up) to baking and of course gourmet grilling.
Mrs tells me I need to open a restaurant. No background in that and I am well aware of what it requires and plainly not interested in my cooking becoming a job.
 
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I think I may have claustrophobia-like problems if I was night diving with the lights out. The current plan is for my oldest son (turns 13 this year) and I to get certified this summer/fall in hopes that a Christmas trip somewhere warm can include some diving.
Google up "Blue Heron Bridge" in Riviera Beach, FL. Shore diving on the Intracoastal with some of the widest diversity of critters you'll ever see in one place. Shallow (max 20 feet) and buoys keep boats away. Daytime or night. Alone, with a buddy, join a group, or guides available from all of the nearby dive shops. It's the simplest dive ever, and very safe if you keep track of the tides, but I've probably done it 20x because it's so relaxing and you just never know what you'll see--often some very cool critters.

Offshore night drift diving isn't for everybody but just after sunset is when the creatures of the deep come up to the surface following the plankton--squid sometimes so thick you can't see your hand. And the critters that eat squid, hah ha! But on a full moon night, it's brighter than you'd think after your eyes adjust at those shallow depths--you just suspend there grabbing a rope attached to a float, 20-30 feet down, and float with the current while the ocean comes alive.
 
I would love to race cars. Either road racing like SCCA or Rallying like they do in Europe. The other thing would be RC airplanes. The trouble there is I don't know how to get started. And it would cut into my rocket budget.
As simple as finding and joining a local club! Nowadays with so many Facebook clubs of all types, it's very easy.
 
I've got two "wish I had gotten into" things that I, um, wish I had gotten into.
Not sure I'd call them hobbies per se, but close enough at least.

1. Para Sailing
2. Playing the cello (I play a few other instruments, but the cello I've always been really intrigued by, but never went for it for whatever reason).

s6
 
Also scuba diving for me. I couldn't afford it way back when, and now I'm too out of shape and preexisting-conditions to consider it. And it costs more than I'm willing to spend for another hobby.

I get Home Shop Machinist magazine and have thought about machining something complex like a miniature 8-cylinder engine (motor? ;)) but am pretty sure I'd lose interest about a quarter of the way through.

Also thought about getting back into grinding telescope mirrors but lost heart when someone either stole or destroyed a 14" fused quartz disk that was almost completely polished out. :(

Best -- Terry
 
I am returning to model railroading. I do not currently have space for a layout but belong to an O-gauge club and this weekend applied to join an HO gauge club. I am also interested in building HO or N gauge (Free-mo) modules that can be small enough for me to store in the space that I have, and still transport to gatherings where, for a weekend, a gymnasium sized layout can be assembled (in three and four foot sections) and operated.

Before I was married I became a certified SCUBA diver, with open water and river diver certs as well. But, with marriage and kids, a change of careers, and a lack of money and time, I haven't been out for a long time. I would dearly love to convince my wife to be certified and dive the Great Barrier Reef and Truk lagoon.

An Appalachian Trail through hike would definitely be on that list as well.

I ran a half-marathon a few years back. If I can carve out the time, and if my knees hold up, I would like to run a marathon just to say that I did.

Oh, and I used to have a 1948 Farmall Cub that I was restoring but had to sell because, with a career change, our church parsonage didn't have room to store it. After retirement, I might consider doing something like that again if space allows.
 
@Peartree, regarding the Farmall Cub.
I’m a JD guy, but those little Cubs aren’t bad. 60 cubic inches from 4 cylinders. 9 or maybe 11 horsepower... But when they are running good, they sound like a little sewing machine. 🙂
 
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