At 69, Two Retirees Tandem-Biked 1,250 Miles in Japan and Became Accidental Pilgrims. In Iowa, It Was 16 Kinds of Pie
Steve and Karen Kreider Yoder have avoided group travel. This year they fell in with Japan’s temple pilgrims and some 20,000 riders across Iowa — a quiet case for spending retirement’s most energetic years on purpose.
By Sean Anees Saifi · Capital Wealth · Published Thursday, September 10, 2026 · Source: The Wall Street Journal, September 8, 2026 edition (Journal Report: Investing Monthly)
Key Points
Steve and Karen Kreider Yoder, both 69, have dubbed 2026 their Year of the Pilgrimage; Steve is a retired Wall Street Journal editor.
On a six-week, 1,250-mile tandem-bike tour of Japan’s Shikoku island, they kept meeting the Henro, a roughly 750-mile, 1,200-year-old circuit of 88 Buddhist temples, and redrew their route, ending up at 55 of them.
In July they joined about 20,000 registered riders on Iowa’s 390-mile Ragbrai, in its 53rd year, riding from Onawa on the Missouri River to Dubuque on the Mississippi.
On Ragbrai they ate 16 kinds of pie, dined at church suppers and were prayed for at 4:30 a.m. by a stranger named Wayne, who reappeared at the finish.
Next up: the Oregon-to-Golden-Gate stretch of the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route this month and their annual Amtrak trip to the Midwest in November.
69
age of both retirees
1,250
miles by tandem bike on Shikoku
55 of 88
Henro temples they visited
16
kinds of pie on Iowa’s Ragbrai
Shikoku’s Henro circuit links 88 Buddhist temples along a route roughly 750 miles long that is about 1,200 years old.
In one line: The years you can still pedal 1,250 miles are the years the big trips happen, so give them their own line in the retirement budget.
At 4:30 one morning in Iowa, a stranger named Wayne prayed for Steve and Karen Kreider Yoder. He turned up again at the finish line. It’s been that kind of year for the couple, both 69 — he’s a retired Journal editor — who’ve dubbed 2026 their Year of the Pilgrimage. The funny part: they’ve avoided group travel. The pilgrimage found them anyway.
Fifty-five temples and sixteen pies
On Japan’s Shikoku island, the pair set out on a six-week, 1,250-mile tandem-bike tour and kept crossing paths with the Henro, a 1,200-year-old circuit of 88 Buddhist temples roughly 750 miles long. The incense, the chanting and the cheers of fellow pilgrims won them over, so they redrew the route and ended up at 55 temples; at Temple No. 1, a young Japanese pilgrim congratulated them on a job well done. In July came Ragbrai, Iowa’s 390-mile ride, now in its 53rd year, with about 20,000 registered riders rolling from Onawa on the Missouri River to Dubuque on the Mississippi. There were church suppers, 16 kinds of pie and, of course, Wayne. Their conclusion is a lovely one: retirement travel feels more and more like pilgrimage — family visits, hometowns, rituals. They aren’t done, either. This month they’re finishing the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route with the Oregon-to-Golden-Gate stretch, and November brings their annual Amtrak trip to the Midwest.
Spend the energy while it’s there
Here’s the planning lesson hiding in the pie. Retirement spending rarely runs in a straight line, and it’s a mistake to budget it as if it does. The years when you can ride 1,250 miles are the years the big trips actually happen — planners call them the go-go years — and they deserve their own line in the budget, not whatever’s left over. Plan around health and energy, not just the calendar: put the most physically demanding trips first, let the gentler ones — a train ride, a hometown visit — fill the later years, and keep enough safe money set aside that a rough month in the stock market doesn’t cancel a trip.
The Yoders didn’t plan a pilgrimage; they planned a bike trip and left room for one to happen. That’s a fine way to retire. List the three trips you’d most regret skipping, put a rough price and a target year beside each, and bring the list to your next review. We’ll check whether the plan can pay for them while your legs are still voting yes — and leave a little room in the budget for pie.
What It Means For Your Portfolio
Hold — give the go-go years their own line in the budget
Retirement travel tends to happen while health and energy allow it, so the early, active years deserve a deliberate budget line and a safe-money reserve behind it — planned around the body’s calendar, not just the one on the wall.
General planning principles, not advice for anyone in particular: retirement spending seldom runs in a straight line, and the most active years often carry the biggest travel bills. Give those years their own budget line, schedule the most physically demanding trips first, and keep enough near-term spending money in safe, short-term holdings that a bad stretch in the market doesn’t postpone the list.
In the book, there’s no ticker attached to a tandem bike, and nothing is being bought or sold ahead of Friday’s inflation report. The relevant piece is the income plan: the book keeps its safe money in short and floating Treasurys, the kind of sleeve that lets near-term spending — a trip included — skip the stock market’s mood.
