I'd go contract. Some contract jobs are in the states. A friend of mine is in one of those jobs after retiring. He's waiting on his class date with Delta now. Even if it was going overseas for 60-90 days at a time. The money is better (from what I hear) and I would guess the QOL is way better. Fortunately, I just had 10 days between retirement and getting on property, but had that not been the case I'd gone contract. However, I will say that if you were to go regional you would have the benefit of getting some airline experience which would make your transition to a major easier. That and who knows when the contract stuff will dry up due to cuts, but my guess is you'd get an interview well before that happened. Just my $0.02. Good luck and congrats on retirement!