You clearly have knowledge of the area where I lived in Federal Way. I have purchased drinks at the very same convenience store on my travels to Mirror Lake.
I did my flying out of the Flying J FBO at Brown Field. It was owned by a family whose sons and daughters were my classmates. I started with the Aeronca Champ and shifted to a Cessna 150 for my solo and subsequent check ride. My first round of cancer in 1985 smashed future options to continue flying.
When I started work at Pacific Telephone in 1980, one of the senior employees on the floor was lining up retirement. He was investigation Idaho because his pension was pretty limited. In 1999, I was interested in getting out of California with a wild anti-gun regulations and out of control electrical utilities rates. My short list included Washington, Idaho and Colorado. I rapidly scratched off Washington and Colorado due to the Kalifornication of both states. Idaho got a closer look. Eastern Idaho in particular. I found a house I liked in Chubbuck. The city is run by fiscal conservatives vs Pocatello run by tax and spend democrats. I made an offer in August 2000 and we moved in December 2000. I will retire here. The cost of living fits fine with my retirement assets and (unfortunately) fairly short life expectancy.
Idaho is the best state in the Northwest by far. My wife and I purchased a beautiful 1941 Cadillac from eBay in Indiana. We drove it back across the country to get it home. It took us a couple extra days because all across the country people were so friendly and talkative that it slowed our progress. When we crossed the border into Washington there was a noticeable change in attitude. And we normally consider people from Eastern Washington to be the friendliest in the state, but Spokane is a bit of an outlier.
I am very sorry to hear of the health problems that you have been fighting for the last 40 years.
I grew up on acreage just outside of Tacoma. I always loved getting my feet off the ground. We had a tremendous rope swing that I installed from a branch high up in an ancient Fir tree on the side of a steep hill. When we launched ourselves using it, we would reach approximately 50 feet above the ground at its apex.
A few years later the rope broke after my little brother launched himself, fortunately he was only part way out and he came down on the side of the hill but just slid and tumbled down the steep slope until he came to a stop in the soft mud at the bottom and didn't get seriously injured. Unfortunately, I broke my foot when I lost my footing when climbing back down after tying a new rope to an even higher branch.
We had an old farm tractor that the neighbor gave us after we salvaged it from the mud that it had been trapped in for decades. The biggest expense when repairing it was buying new tires because the old ones had rotted. It would go really fast when it was in its highest gear. It was extremely fun to tow innertubes behind when it snowed. My brother and I constructed a large Rogallo style kite to tow behind it and hopefully get ourselves aloft, but it never worked out.
Fast forwarding a few years, I ended up buying some old hang gliders. I tried to teach myself how to fly them but had to take lessons after hurting my back. After a hundred or so hours aloft in hang gliders, I purchased a homebuilt ultralight airplane powered by a Rotax snowmobile engine.
I flew the ultralight for a couple years out of Port Orchard Airport. One day when I got back to the field, I found that the old man who kept his Piper Tri Pacer a couple doors down had given my wife a ride.
She marched up to me and said, “We need an airplane that I can fly in to.” So, I always like to joke that I am the first man in the history of aviation whose wife insisted that her husband buy an airplane. It usually goes the other direction.
We were members of an Ultralight aircraft club which evolved into an experimental aircraft club which evolved into a vintage aircraft club. So, I started taking lessons and we started looking for a vintage aircraft like the Aeronca that you learned to fly in. We had an Aeronca Chief inspected buy a mechanic but it had too many issues.
We ended up buying a Piper Cherokee because it was barely more expensive than a vintage aircraft; it is easier to fly, and is much faster and more versatile. After that we moved onto an airport with a bunch of houses built around it.