by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
In less than a month, Tracy Carlin will trade sunny beaches and legal briefs for mountains, novels and a lot more time with her acoustic guitar.
The 43-year-old Jacksonville appellate attorney and partner at Riverside law firm Mills & Carlin plans to retire and move to Wyoming at the end of December. Carlin made a deal with her husband, John Kremer, seven years ago, and the time has finally come for her to pack up and deliver on the promise.
“My husband and I met on an airplane,” said Carlin. They kept in touch via phone and e-mail, despite Kremer’s Wyoming location.
“It was all insane in the final analysis, but you just know,” said Carlin. “We got to be good friends early on, and we kept trying to blow it up: ‘So, you live 23,000 miles away. What do you think about pets?’ ”
Despite their best efforts, the couple couldn’t find any real reasons not to be together – except the mileage between them. After a few months of phone calls, they started working out a compromise. Kremer agreed to move his life and work – he just retired from a career as a soil scientist – to Jacksonville, provided Carlin would move to Wyoming with him when he retired in 2006.
“I think the weirdest thing is that it (the date) is here. It seems like the longest time until it’s gone,” said Carlin. “I’m excited, but it’s kind of odd because I still feel like I’m working.”
The biggest adjustment will be leaving her friends and family behind, she said. Carlin has worked in Jacksonville since 1989. And what about not working? Will she miss her job?
“This is the interesting question. The answer to it changes week to week,” she said. “I think I’m going to miss the intellectual stimulation.”
Carlin said she might teach at a local community college – after a long break and plenty of travel. She might take some long-distance work from Mills & Carlin after a time. (Although the name will soon be switched to Mills & Creed; partner Rebecca Creed and attorney Bryan Gowdy are the latest additions to the firm.)
Some perceived issues don’t really worry Carlin so much. Her new environment will be more open, windy, cold and mountainous compared to Jacksonville’s foliage and warm beaches, but Carlin said Wyoming is wonderfully empty.
“He (Kremer) is really happy when there are fewer people,” said Carlin. “There are something like 500,000 people in the whole state of Wyoming, and over a million here (in Jacksonville) ...You can go out and hike for days and not see any people.”
Both Carlin and Kremer love nature. The couple plans to fly-fish, hike and hunt. Carlin said she wants to be more creative by reading and playing her guitar – maybe even writing a novel.
“I think most lawyers have a deep, secret goal of being a novelist,” she said. “It’s a weird thing, but we do all this writing ... Although, sometimes I think law writing squeezes every bit of creativity out of you.”
Law writing tends to be a bit more lucrative than creative writing, though. Carlin said a “Depression-era mind set” has helped her afford her early retirement.
“My nickname around here is ‘Chintzy,’ ” she said. “We (Kremer and I) have both saved almost every dollar we’ve ever made. I’ve always thought that I wanted to retire young ... and we’re not going to be living the lifestyle that some retired people would want.”
Carlin and Kremer typically travel with a camper and don’t stay in hotels. Even when they go overseas, she said, they choose local, cheap inns instead of “hanging out with a bunch of Americans in an American hotel.”
She’s received a variety of reactions to her choice. Some people have applauded Carlin’s early retirement, while others have expressed some skepticism.
“You get the people who think you’re crazy. Most people think it’s nuts to move to Wyoming,” she said. “And working for the sake of working? I don’t get that. When you’re on your death bed, you’re never going to say, ‘I wish I had worked more.’ ”