Welcome to CO

Today's forecast for Longmont: high of 45* low of 12*.  Our FL blood is going to take some time getting used to this.
Fortunately, we have electricity at Suzanne's "campground".  Chris installed a regular 30 amp RV plug last year. The little cube heater is doing a fine job.  Put some RV antifreeze in the grey and black tanks. Installed the insulated vent covers and hung the blanket across the cab. We're good to go.

A fairly heavy snow started about 11am. This weather doesn't slow Gopher down for a minute. We took our after-lunch walk in the snow. When I was a kid, we had a cocker spaniel, Smokey was his name. Whenever he walked through the snow, it would ball up in his long hair. Same with Gopher. All around her feet, "feathers" and stomach. 

Gopher of the Yukon.

Found a good RV storage place this morning. Month-to-month for $45. Plus they have a dump station.

Our move here is progressing well. Found what I hope will be a good primary care doctor for the both of us. We have our appointments on Thursday. Ran into something we haven't experienced before along that line in FL. When we were looking for a new doc., we called four small medical practices that came well recommended. None of them take Medicare. Seems they can attract all the patients they want who have insurance policies that reimburse at a much higher rate then Medicare and without all the Medicare paperwork.  The receptionist at the last place I called recommended a doctor who is employed by a subsidiary of the Longmont United Hospital. Seems that if a hospital gets any Federal money at all, they must accept Medicare.  As our incompetent Congress works through the budget process, it will be interesting to see how much more the doctor's reimbursement rate gets cut.  Wouldn't surprise me if the Medicare system didn't evolve into a system of public clinics, much like the local health departments run for the very poor,  as more and more doctors refuse to participate. 
If we hadn't found a, hopefully, decent doctor, I was going to approach one of the small, well recommended, practices with this idea and see what they thought. Bill me at the same rate you bill a patient with  a regular insurance policy. Medicare pays what they pay, our Medicare Supplement, United Health Care, pays what they pay, and I make up the difference. It didn't come down to that, but a plan like that may be part of the future if a person wanted to avoid the public Medicare/Medicaid/Indigent  clinics.

The house is coming along well. Tomorrow I have a meeting with the construction superintendent and the wood flooring guy on Friday.

Made it to Longmont. Our new home.

On Wednesday afternoon, the 27th, we left the main Elephant Butte area and drove north looking for some of the other camping areas. Besides the area we were in, the are a dozen more camping areas in the EB State Park. The ones we came across we're very rustic. The dirt access roads were marginal looking and should be investigated with a  car before trying with a camper.  We wound up at the South Monticello Point campground. Water/electric sites for $14/night. We camped right next to Ken. The lake in this area is really low. The only water is in a rather narrow channel on the far side of the lake. The boat ramp is closed.

On Thursday we continued north. Stopped in Soccoro for a WalMart run then on to ABQ. Picked up some goodies at the Trader Joe's then went to the Sandia Casino where we spent the night.  We didn't go inside the casino but did fill up with some Indian gas for $3.17/gal. The cheapest gas we've come across in quite sometime.   

Not as nice as Elephant Butte

Friday we drove to Trinidad, CO and stayed at the WalMart for the night.

On Saturday we continued to Monument to have lunch with our friends John and Linda continued on to Longmont; our new home.

We arrived in Longmont on March 2nd at 2:30pm. 2,708 miles from our old home in Fort Pierce, FL to our new home in Longmont. A wonderfully, uneventful trip. No mechanical problems, no wrecks, no major traffic tie-ups. Just perfect.

First thing, Gopher and I took a walk around our new neighborhood then I drove Carol around.  The house is locked up but we got our first look at the outside.

We'll meet with Becky the sales lady, on Tuesday or so.

We are so glad to be here.

Elephant Butte

We're enjoying our stay here. So far, except for one 5th wheel on Saturday night, we've had the beach area all to ourselves.
Ken Fears is staying at the Monticello South campground. He stopped by for a visit on Saturday on his way into T or C.
Sunday was a stormy day. Depending on what weather guesser you listened to, the winds were from 30 to 50mph. The lake was covered with white caps.  We had some brief snow flurries as well with an overnight low of 27*.  

A stormy Sunday

It was so windy it was blowing the seagulls away!

Today was a more typical day. At, or below, freezing at night but close to 60* during the day with winds in the 10 to 15mph range. Our Wave 3 heater is doing a decent job. When it's right at freezing outside, we've been waking up to about 55* inside. Cool, but manageable. Ken is staying in a site with electricity plus he's an engineer by training. Here is his cold weather solution. He has three heaters with thermostats. An electric  free standing one, the reverse cycle part of the A/C system and the propane furnace. He sets the thermostat on the free standing heater at 68*, sets the A/C to 66* and the furnace to 64*. That way, according to his engineering calculations, he's keeping warm in the most efficient possible way.  Our non-engineering solution to cold weather boondocking  is another blanket or layer of clothes.  Everybody is happy. What else matters?

On Friday we continue north to arrive in Longmont on Sunday, March 3rd.

Elephant Butte SP

We drove to Truth or Consequences (T or C) early this morning. Did a load of laundry which just happened to be right next door to Carmen's Kitchen. While waiting for the laundry, we both had a breakfast burrito. Carol was good and had a veggie one but I had chorizo and extra green chili sauce on mine.

Then we made a WalMart run and topped off the propane tank in anticipation of boondocking with freezing temps. at night.
The Elephant Butte SP offers three camping levels. Water and electric sites, dry camping in a developed area or primitive, i.e. no facilities of any type.  We're camped directly on the shore line in what's classified as primitive.

The lake level is near the historic low because of the extended drought throughout the Southwest.
In this link, you will see Rattlesnake Island near the bottom of the park map.

Park map

This photo is Rattlesnake Island taken from our campsite. The tower is a small weather station.

I climbed to the top of the "mountain" and took this picture of our camping area. We have this entire place to ourselves. Now and then, someone would drive, or walk, down mostly to let their dogs run around. Gopher generally has the beach to herself. Fortunately she didn't go swimming today. She's really a mess when wet and sandy.

We'll be here probably until about the 28th when we'll start heading north.

Got some good news today. Our house is coming along very well. The closing has been moved up to March 28.





My mother passed away on this day last year.  If you have things you would like to say to someone you love, do it when they are alive. I know.

Finally. We made it to NM

Friday, February 15.

We were finished with the closing on the house and on the road about 10am. After driving for most of the day, we spent the night at a Love's Travel Center near Live Oak, FL.  There is an Arby's attached to Love's and Carol noticed a sign advertising two fish sandwiches for $5. That plus a large order of fries was our celebratory grease bomb dinner for the closing on the house this morning. 

Saturday

We left about 7am heading for the Sand Lake campground to join up with our Lazy Daze friends Ted and Liz. Sand Lake campground is part of a FL State Forest.  Each campsite has electric and water hookups plus there is a  central dump station. Our site is directly on the lake.

Ted and Liz are escaping the MA winter by drifting around FL.  They are talking about joining us for the Balloon Fiesta this year. We first met them in Burlington, VT in either 2003 or 4 $10/night if you're 65 or over.

 A beautiful sunny, but very cool, day.

I filed our tax return today. The internet makes traveling so easy.

Sunday

We left the campground about 10am. The plan was to take a leisurely drive along US 98 which follows the beach all the way to Pensacola. I didn't think it was the height of The Season. It was a mad house of traffic all the way. Not a relaxing drive at all. We did drive by the SanDestin development. When I was working for the bank, we foreclosed on the entire development. My job was to manage the property on a daily basis. Jennifer was in college in New Orleans at that time. Now and then, she and some of her friends would come down to SanDestin and I would set them up in a luxury ocean front condo. for the weekend. One of the perks. of the job. :-)

We left Florida about 2pm for, I suspect, the very last time.

About 3:30 we got to the Mississippi Welcome Center. We're here for the night.

 

Monday:

Left about 8am for Beaux Bridge, LA. Our destination was the Crazy 'Bout Crawfish and Cajun Cafe we heard about on the Yelp! app. We split the crawfish festival platter which included  crawfish salad, crawfish gumbo, crawfish etouffee, fried crawfish tails, crawfish boulette, crawfish pie, crawfish macque choux and crawfish jalapena cheese cornbread.  What a great lunch.

 The plan was to stay at the WalMart in town for the night but we decided to continue on to the Texas Welcome Center. We're here for the night. The mile market here is 880!!. It will take us three days of steady driving to get to the NM border. Our initial plan was to go to the TX Gulf Coast for a few days. We've been there several times so decided to just continue west to NM.

Tuesday:

Headed west about 8am. We stopped at Texas Paddy's Texas Kitchen in Schulenburg for lunch. We shared a pound of brisket, some onion rings and sweet potato fries. A very good lunch.  The brisket was enough for tonight's dinner.

It's 3:30. We're at a rest area for the night on I-10 just west of Bourne which is just west of San Antonio.

 

Wednesday/Thursday:

On Wednesday we had lunch at the Rix Pit Bar-B-Que and Discount Warehouse in Fort Stockton, TX.  Before you get to the restaurant part, you walk through a junk store then a used book store. We split an order of fried catfish.

  Stayed the night at a rest area west of Fort Stockton.

On Thursday, we finally got out of Texas. It was just over 1,900 miles from Fort Pierce to the NM border.  We were really glad when we saw MM 1 on I-10.  On our way here, we passed through FL; a tough place to beat in the winter. AL and MS. LA, a the state with our favorite Cajun food then TX, a great state for Bar-B-Que.  I doubt we'll ever be back to any of these states again.

 It was very windy today plus close to freezing. The weather forecast said the winds were from the west between 30 and 50 mph. Most west bound traffic on I-10 was driving at about 60mph vs the typical 80mph. We were driving straight into the wind which is much better then having it blowing from either side.

Today we're camped at the Leasburg Dam SP just north of Las Cruces. Water and electric site for $14/night.  Nice to be off the road.

 Now things slow down a bit. We don't want to be in Longmont until March 3rd or 4th.

We're Full-Timers

 Cross country moving is a real learning experience.

On February 1st, the company we contracted with to ship the car to CO picked it up. Car shipping was an education. All the companies I looked at had the same statement about pickup date. They said the car might be picked up on the first available date, or *several* days later. No one would define *several*. The companies are shipping brokers who, I'm supposing, notify on-line any of a number of independent truckers. Depending on what trucker is in the area looking for cars to haul toward CO determines when the car gets shipped. My concern was that we would be leaving here on the 15th and the car would still not have been picked up so I put the first available pickup date on February 1st but was really hoping it would be closer to the 10th.  I wondered just how many truckers would be driving from FL to CO in February.  The guy who took our car lives near Denver and runs a constant route to/from CO to FL. His company name is From Here To There Trucking. He charges $977 door-to-door. He will haul six cars on this leg. Of the $977 he keeps $800 and the broker gets $177. From here to there took five days.   So for the last two weeks I have been using my neighbors car to run important errands. Here's hoping our neighbors in Longmont are as nice as they are here.

The buyers, Rosa and Gustavo, came over on Sunday. I took them through the house showing them how to operate everything. They are two really nice people. They are so excited to finally be able to own a home rather then renting.  First priority is to paint their daughter Natalie's bedroom pink.

We spent three days, on and off, packing everything in boxes. On Tuesday the 12th, the U-Pack Moving ReloCubes(pods) were delivered.  U-Pack Moving is a company that delivers storage pods to your house, you load them then the pods are put inside an enclosed  trailer and delivered to your destination anywhere in the Continental U.S.  The delivery to CO takes five days. You have three full days from when the pods are delivered until pickup or you are charged $50/day extra. The cost worked out to be about 2/3 of the cost of a full service mover. For the shipment to CO, the pods are loaded into a fully enclosed truck so they are not exposed to the elements.  Besides the cost difference, what really motivated me to use the pods was the miserable on-line ratings of the major cross-country movers.  It seemed like one horror story after the next. Damage, actual cost significantly higher then estimated cost, late delivery, surly employees, you name it.  Plus U-Pack will store the pods in their warehouse until the customer is ready for delivery. $125/month/pod.  The price they quote is the absolute and final price. In our case, the cost for the three pods is $3,200.  This includes pickup at our house and delivery to our new house in Longmont. Roughly a $1,000 per pod and another $1,000 to ship the car. $4,000 for a cross country move.  Besides, we got that much from the stuff sale we had through Palm City Auction. So we sold what we didn't need and shipped what we did and came out even. We're happy.

 The fork lift is carried on a rack that unloads it from the truck.

On Wednesday, the two guys from the temp. agency showed up about 8:30. The minimum time you get help for is four hours. $112 for both guys. They were both very good workers. By about 10:30 the three pods were all loaded. I gave them each a twenty dollar bill and sent them home early. Two big smiles.We moved into the camper and spent Wednesday and Thursday there.

Friday morning at 9:30 we met with Rosa and Gustavo at the office of Treasure Coast Title Company for the closing. They are really excited. No more renting.  We left some furniture behind to  get them started. A couch, two end tables, a coffee table, some bedroom furniture and six lawn chairs. The end tables and coffee table are really solid with very heavy slate tops. We bought them in Miami in about 1967.  I suspect they will last almost another 50 years. They have a bed for themselves and are going to buy their daughter Natalie a bed today.  Other furnishings will come as extra money becomes available.

So by about 10am we were officially Full-Timers heading west towards our next adventure in Colorado. When the girls were young, we would sing the words from a Hobbit song when we set out on another great adventure(vacation)

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said
The chances the changes are all yours to make
The mold of your life is in your hands to break.

The greatest adventure is there if you are bold
Let go of the moment that life makes you hold
To measure the meaning can make you delay
It's time you stop thinking and wasting the day.

A man whose a dreamer and never takes leave
Who thinks of a world that is make believe
Will never know passion
Will never know pain
Who sits by the window
Will one day see rain.

The greatest adventure is what lies ahead
Today and tomorrow are yet to be said
The chances the changes are all yours to make
The mold of your life is in your hands to break.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/g/glenyarboroughlyrics/thegreatestadventurelyrics.html

They e-mailed us the lyrics as a reminder of years gone by. 

We're very excited

The move to CO is coming together

Jennifer, Karen, Alexandra(Alex), Finn and Teagan("T") flew in from Virginia on Christmas Day.  Besides enjoying the perfect weather and several trips to the beach, they sorted through tons of pictures, boxes of mementoes going back to their grammar school days, "treasures" and such. By the time they were finished, they needed to rent a 10' box truck from Budget to haul it all home. Although they already had plane tickets, Alex and Finn drove the truck back to Annandale, VA. 

While the kids were here, they took one last drive by their old schools; St. Anastasia Grammar School and John Carroll High School. Finn and T got to see where their mom and aunts went to school.

They left on Sunday, December 31. This will be their last trip "home".

I about got the house ready to list with a broker by New Years day.  A 50 year old house needs lots of maintenance.  I've been working on it since we got home from last years trip in October. Our neighbor ,Carolyn, works at one of the County offices in some capacity. She told a co-worker who told someone they knew who was looking for a house that ours was for sale. The news seem to spread by word-of-mouth and after showing the house to four prospects, the fourth lookers made a decent offer.  We signed the contract on January 8th with the closing scheduled for February 15.  Of course, as goes the saying, "The opera's not over 'til the fat lady sings".  The buyers are a very nice Hispanic couple with an eight year old daughter. They have friends that live nearby.  In December I had lunch with an appraiser friend to get a sense about values, marketing times, and such. We were thinking it would take a few months to sell the place. The quick sale was a pleasant surprise.

On January the 3rd, Palm City Auction Company hauled away most of the furniture, the "treasures" the kids didn't want, most of my gun collection, etc.  The auction took place on Wednesday the 9th.  The auction house gets a 35% sales commission. In return, they pick everything up, catalog it, conduct the auction then give a detailed report of what sold for how much.  We're happy.

Since we sold most of the big items of furniture, we're not using a standard moving company. I found  a company that will drop off "pods" in the driveway. We load the pods, they pick them up and haul them to CO, store them until we're ready ,then set them in the driveway of our new house. This is all set up including the labor to load the pods. A guy I worked with years ago, runs a local contract labor place. Jim's sending out two guys for $16/hour each to do the loading.  The total cost for all this will be about $3,000 versus  the $5,000 to $7,000 quotes I was getting from full service moving companies.

We're shipping the car as well. That turned out to be a pretty reasonable $977 door-to-door.  Since we won't get to Longmont until sometime in March, Suzanne will sign for the car when it gets there and keep it at her house until we arrive. (There is nothing like family when you need help)

That's the plan. After closing, we'll drift slowly along the Texas coast into New Mexico then to Longmont by mid-March. I want to be able to get a good look at our new house while it's being built. Right now, our Colorado Casita has an early April completion date. Suzanne takes a few pictures each week and e-mails them to us so we can keep track of the progress.

Last night we went out to dinner at our favorite restaurant to celebrate all this good news. We had things we almost never have because they are so unhealthy. Started with deep fried portabella mushrooms that are served with a wonderful dipping sauce. Carol had chicken fried steak and I had liver and onions served with lots of bacon and covered with gravy and served with garlic mashed potatoes. We were stuffed.

Today we continued packing things, throwing stuff out and making yet another run to the church thrift store.  I'm on a nodding acquaintance with the thrift store ladies.  

It was in September that we first started talking about moving to CO. Here it is about six months later and we're just getting real close to being there.

On December 4, 1942 at 12:35 am

Carol Wagner was born in the city of  Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia. Carol was the first of nine children that would be born to Gilbert Clark Wagner and Antionette Katherine Vaughn.

About 1945

About 1968 with Jennifer

Today Carol turned 70 years old. After three children, a 25 year career teaching at Indian River Community College, a heart attack,a hemorrhagic stroke, a broken hip and being around me  for over 46 years she's still the same cheerful, wonderful, positive person I married. I've never met anyone quite like Carol. In all the universe I truly believe there is no  happier person. I just can't imagine my world without her.

Still smiling after all these years

We've been talking recently, about being 70 and what it means. Age is clearly relative. We can remember at one time thinking that 50 was over the hill.  When my 90+ year old mother was living in the ACLF, she would comment that there were some *elderly* people living there as well. I guess when you're 90,  90 isn't *elderly*. What is *elderly*?  Perhaps it's when you just give up living.  We know we're not kids anymore, but we don't feel like old people either however it is that old people should feel.  Our plan is to continue our travels until we are simply no longer able to do so and then just take things from there. Our working and savings years are behind us. Going forward we do as we please, go where we want and buy what suits us. When you're 70 you're allowed to do such things.

This morning I made Carol pumpkin pancakes for breakfast; one of her favorites. For dinner we got a take-out rotisserie chicken from the Peruvian restaurant. The chicken is very good, but  mostly we went there because they have another of the Birthday Girls favorites; fried bananas. 

The girls sent a bouquet of roses and called to say hello. Jennifer sent a Care Package of great Christmas type cookies.

So happy birthday my dear.

Love, Ed

Our Colorado Casita

We're moving.

When we were on our most recent, and longest, trip we began discussing moving west.  Most of our friends live out west and the states we enjoy visiting the most tend to be there as well. My mother was our last tie to Fort Pierce; she passed away in February of this year.  We're going to miss this house and all the memories.  Suzanne, Izzy and Oliver were here a few weeks ago for one last visit to "home". Jennifer and Alex and their families are coming down for the week after Christmas for one last look. We're going to miss the beautiful back yard we created over the years. In 1999 Carol and I hand dug the Anniversary Pond as our anniversary gift to each other. Over the years we would bring home rocks and pieces of driftwood  from here and there and put them by the pond as memories of our travels. Now we look at the rocks and simply can't recall where they came from but we enjoy them nonetheless.

The Anniversary Pond

 The big oak tree out front we bought as a twig from an FFA sale shortly after we moved in.  For many years, each Christmas I would climb to the top of the tree and string dozens of lights. It became a neighborhood landmark. With time I became too old for such things.

The oak tree

 We're going to miss sitting out back in our shorts on New Years day.  We're going to miss our long time neighbor Martha Harris.  Her husband, and my friend, Byron passed away several years ago from complications related to Parkinson's disease.

We searched the MLS on-line listings for a month or so, but with Carol's special requirements, simply could not find a house that worked for us in a location we liked. Today we signed a contract to have a house built in Longmont, CO. Our casita is only a ten minute walk from where Suzanne and family live and very near two wonderful city parks.  The house should be completed in April.

Now all we need to do is dispose of 45+ years of "stuff", sell this house and take off.  We bought this house in  October, 1972 for $28,000.  Jennifer was five, Suzanne was not quite two and Alexandra wasn't yet born. I had just been transferred by Barber Lumber Company from West Palm Beach to become the manager of the Fort Pierce lumber yard. Carol was a stay-at-home mom. 

Come April, we'll start all over in our new and ,most likely, our last home. 

A few of our favorites from over the years

We enjoy beach camping

 Elephant Butte State Park. New Mexico.

I was so focused on the 10' 4" clearance sign, I didn't notice the 3 tons weight limit until we had crossed the bridge. Should have sent the PA DOT a note that this bridge had been weight tested at 7 tons!!

We only had to drive about ten miles to get to our destination along the Snake River in Oregon.

This was our destination. The Snake River. A local Bubba stopped by to ask how we got the camper down there. I told him it was 4WD. He thought that was neat.

Some rest areas are rather basic.

As are some of our campsites.

Some pictures of the three of us.

 The Seven Mile Bridge near Marathon, FL

 All snuggled up.

 Gopher the Dog

 Michigan

 The petrified forest. Bought a new multi-colored hat.

Monument Valley

 We bought new wedding bands from a jeweler at an art show in Tubec, AZ.

 We've met some interesting people

The Silverado Ranch near Douglas, AZ

We met Paul and Terry in Oregon. Paul is 93 years old and still travels each year from OR to "Q"

Some odds and ends

Christmas with the kids. Longmont, CO.

No snow around here.

 Quartzsite "Q", AZ   The Lazy Daze group.

The day we picked up our new Lazy Daze.  April 25, 2008.

A music festival we bumped into in Ontario, Canada.  It was held at a public campground. We were the only Yanks there.

A beautiful lake in Oregon.

A walk on the beach in Oregon.