Category: General (Page 6 of 29)

Turns out I messed up my back some while playing monkey-mechanic on the truck. I had purchased some SummoSpring helpers to give the rear suspension of the truck some extra capacity when towing the trailer but had not had the facilities to work on it. One (bad) thing about this constant downsizing is fewer and fewer tools! I was counting on using the Auto Hobby Shop at the Air Force Academy and it worked out that Wednesday morning was free. I was up there when they opened and got one of the Lube bays first so I could change the oil. That went fine and I then moved the truck over to bay #12 which had a lift.

By all respects this is supposed to be a simple thing. One nut to be loosened and removed which allows the rubber “spring” to drop out and then simply install the new one. Ha Ha Ha…right. It would not come off and I ran out of time and had to stop so Rhonda could use the truck that afternoon. So…back up there Saturday morning and several hours of working under the lift in varying degrees of monkey-like contortions and it was finally done. But so was I as it turned out…by noon of the next day I was hurtin fer certain.

We were scheduled to pull out on Monday morning and head for Buena Vista and with Rhonda doing the bulk of the work we managed to make it happen. the “staging” is over and “The Adventure” truly begins now! By mid day we were headed west, up Ute Valley Pass on Hwy 24, towards the Mountains. This also happened to coincide with an afternoon thunderstorm which hampered our travels and got the truck and trailer filthy. But we made it! The truck pulled the rig up the hills without any hesitation and we arrived at the Arkansas River Rim campground in a few hours. It didn’t take too long to set up and we spent the evening relaxing.

Tuesday was a day we had been waiting for. A long time actually. This sounds a bit silly but neither of us has had a bath in nearly 9 months! One of the side-effects of our move to Brighton was a bathroom that only had a shower. I prefer showers, if the truth be known, but on occasion there is nothing like a good hot soak. So this little luxury had been missing for awhile. Now, there is a place just outside of Buena Vista called the Cottonwood Hot Springs. We’ve been there several times before usually after a hiking or snowshoeing adventure and it is just awesome! We went over in the morning and bought a day pass. Spent an hour or so soaking in the different pools (some cooler, some hotter) and then went back that evening for a second round!

The original plan was to pull out on Wednesday morning but we decided my back would benefit from one more day of rest so we held off another day.

Well, here we are in one of our favorite spots – Buena Vista, CO!! We left the fire behind this AM with 70-75% containment!! Thankfully there has been rain everyday since Friday. Everyone we know has returned to their homes safely. Everywhere you go though, some one has a story of their friends that evacuated. At our lunch stop in the lovely town of Florissant, a rancher came in to The Costillo Street Coffee House to visit someone and spoke about how their friend from Black Forest moved all their horses and cattle here to their ranch. It is just one story of how far reaching the fire, as any disaster, affects people. We forget how connected we all really are. The owner of our RV Park also had a story, his high school classmate was one of those in Black Forest who lost everything. His friend’s house was one of the 500+ homes to burn. The only one burned on their block! The oddities of disaster.

The point of going to Colorado Springs was to celebrate a birthday with our Wendi, see her Mom, Janette- back on Summer break from ministry school at Bethel in Redding, California, see our Grands and wrap up the last details of ‘The Glorious Adventure Plan’ before launching West. We still needed to shed one more time, get our kingpin extended allowing enough clearance between the truck (Clifford)/trailer on corners and add some “spring helpers”. Clifford is a truck, after all and spring helpers soften his ride a bit and minimize the bouncing uneven roads often cause. Because of who we are, bouncing roads are a part of life. We don’t often choose the road most traveled…..

Most of our goals were accomplished and, once here, we immediately found ourselves at the Cottonwood Hot Springs for a long soak and, with a day pass, the opportunity to return for more soaking later in the day!

We apologize for several posts in a small time frame but thought you would like to know what is happening with the fire.

As I sit to write this update, there is a tapping on the top of our home, rain – round #2! The Lord is good, we (with you) have all been praying for decreased winds and RAIN without lightening. Overnight the winds decreased, the temperature did as well, and the fire gained no ground! Today we had cooler weather, cloud cover, winds from the west to blow the fire back on itself on that boundary, later a wind from the northeast to blow against that boundary and then rain to cover it all. How awesome is THAT??!! The Sheriff had joked this AM in his press conference that everyone who had not gone and washed their car needed to do so AND park outside so it would rain. ;-). Then tonight he thanked everyone for having done that! Who says you can’t have a sense of humor in times of adversity?!

Tonight at 5PM, yesterday’s extended evacuation areas were rescinded and those folks were allowed to go home. That puts some of our friends back in their homes, in their own beds. We are so thrilled for them!! The fire is 30% contained, the smoke has greatly decreased! Breathing clearly is a good thing. The weather is for cooler, moister air over the next 4 days and into next week so barring anything unforeseen, we are beating the wildfire. To God be all the Glory. THANK YOU for your prayers.

We are working on the truck tomorrow and getting some last minute things done in preparation for travel. Sunday, one more mail pick up and one more trip to the storage unit. Then Monday, we saddle up and head this wagon train west to Cottonwood Pass. Long soaks in the hot mineral springs for a couple of days, hikes and some much needed vacationing! We will keep you posted. We promise to get back to posting pictures….thank you again for your part in supporting us and also this community. It has been a long week. This has been a good reminder of what is important. Health, family, relationships, faith, not stuff!

Well it may be simpler to write a blog about The Black Forest Fire than to text those who have written me tonight. As Matt wrote earlier, we spent alot of the day in town repack and sorting our storage unit. We worked in the heat and some smoke while we repacked unable to see the fire from our vantage point on the south side of the Springs. The bluffs we used to hike so often, were in our line of site.

We monitored the fires progression on the radio as we are living at the Air Force Academy just across the Interstate from the fire. With the unpredictable weather – relentless heat and gusty winds, there is no way to know where the fire will go or when. We have gone everywhere together (including Abby) and carried all of our “to go gear” with us in case we couldn’t get back home for whatever reason. The fire has doubled back on itself at least a couple of times in some of the hot spots so you don’t know what it will do. The alternative northern routes to Denver have been closed and requests have been made that the Interstate be avoided if at all possible. With over 38,000 people evacuated (some of them our friends) and the emergency crews, fire fighters, officials and news crews trying to get access to the places that others are trying to flee, it has been a challenge. Matt and I tried offering our assistance yesterday with evacuees coming onto the Air Force Academy but were told that we weren’t needed. We are trying to interact with some of those who have evacuated but they are quite closed off emotionally and are tough to engage. We will continue to reach out.

We have been working hard to get ourselves ready to leave on Monday and have had a group of things to complete as Matt wrote about below. Continue reading

Silence is descending on the campground. It is dusk, the lamp post a few spots down has just come on, illuminating the trunk of a tall pine tree. Quiet time is still over an hour away but aside from the occasional laughter of children up by the volleyball net the stillness is welcome and relaxing. The contrast with the windswept prairie that we left last Friday is startling.

We departed the windswept prairie the morning after my last day at Raytheon. It was a welcome event in many respects. Finishing up the J.O.B. and leaving the campground at Buckley AFB…which had become a bit tedious after three weeks. It is a newer facility (year old) as far as campgrounds go but the constant wind and the repetitive drone of the Blackhawk helicopter got to be wearisome. For some odd reason the pilots would fly around in circles from early evening till 10pm and their orbit brought them right over the campground each time. Some sort of training mission I suppose but not sure of the purpose.

We didn’t really mind the F-16s even though they made a heck of a lot more noise because they generally left the area after taking off. Then there was the occasional transport aircraft heading out.

A transport plane lifts off from the adjacent runway

Arrival at the Air Force Academy campground was a refreshing moment. It felt really good to be back in our old stomping grounds, in the foothills with Pikes Peak in the background. We got checked in (super friendly staff) and found our campsite nestled in the pine forest. We got the trailer unhitched and leveled out and proceeded to “make camp” which has taken on a new twist.

We’ve had plenty of tasks to keep us busy here in the Springs as we finish up our purging and last minute acquisitions before we hit the road. We stopped into New Life Church on Sunday evening for the service and had an epiphany. Continue reading

Gee…who would have thought that hitches could be such a challenge. You never saw John Wayne have a bunch of trouble hitching up a wagon and moseying off into the sunset with the beautiful girl. I’ve learned way more about hitches recently than I really wanted. Getting the right combination pulled together into a smoothly operating rig can be a bit of a challenge but I think I have all the right stuff now. Horsepower…yep, wagon, hitch…yep, beautiful girl…yep, just need the right sunset on the right day 😉

Horsepower: comes from a Ford PowerStroke Turbo Diesel motor in a F250 SuperDuty Crew Cab 4×4 Truck. We wanted a diesel so there would be no question about towing capability in and through the mountains. The other important checkbox was towing capacity. The trailer (wagon) is pretty stout and weighs in around 9K lbs so we had to eliminate a number of trucks that were in the price range we wanted to stay in. We eventually found this truck which we bought from a dairy farmer up a little east of Greeley, CO. Being a work truck it is showing a little wear and tear but it had only seen two owners, has been well maintained and we even have the receipts to prove it. The only real downside was that coming from a dairy farm there was an embedded cow manure smell to the interior included at no extra charge After a couple of serious cleanings including Rug Doctor units rented from the local Home Depot and an Ozone device I bought we are finally getting it tamed. Which is a good thing as it has a pretty spiffy leather interior (Lariat Package). “Crew Cab” means it has four doors with a full-size back seat. Abby is pleased but still hasn’t mastered getting in an out yet.

The bed of the truck looked like a typical farm truck that got used to haul “whatever” and was pretty rough looking so I invested in a bed liner kit for it which made a huge difference. I also found a used toolbox to go behind the cab so we will still be equipped for repairs when the need arises (notice I said when, not if, no delusional thinking here). Most farm trucks are equipped with what they call a gooseneck hitch for hauling horse and cattle trailers and this one was no exception. But our wagon is a little more upscale than that and we need a fifth wheel hitch to tow it. So, I located a used Reese 16K slider hitch and had a shop in Denver remove the old hitch and install mine. The only thing I have left to do is install some spring helpers to give the suspension a little extra help when towing.

It also has 4-wheel drive which will come in handy given my propensity for wanting to find the “perfect camping site” unvisited by humans for the past hundred years. I suppose I’ll have to adjust my expectations a bit now that I have a 31ft wagon (containing dishes and other breakable things in it) bumping along behind me.

Seasons come and seasons go. We are currently in transition from a season of Success to a season of Exploration. The season of success was defined mostly by societal norms of making lots of money and reaching the top of your career field. While I achieved this it did not end up being particularly fulfilling to the soul and the income seems to get spent nearly as fast as it comes in no matter how big the stream. I found myself becoming increasingly depressed with the prospect of punching my ticket for another ten years or so in the daily grind. It is amazing how we can fool ourselves into thinking we are actually making a living when in reality we have become nothing but drones on a treadmill with our vision being shaped by the media. Not being a conformer at heart I found my view of retirement as the goal was becoming a vacuous perspective. On the one hand it seemed to be slipping away given the hits we took in the housing market and recessions and yet, the way forward as defined by the tunnel vision of success was to see only a distant and dim light (future promises) at the end of the tunnel. One thing seemed readily apparent; plugging through another ten years of the routine was obviously not going to make THAT big of a difference and I wasn’t too sure just how much “life” there was going to be left in me by then.

If… IF… you wait ’till you’re 50… to start living? To start injecting passion, risk and adventure… the “stuff of life” … I got a lil’ bit of news for you… less than 2% of 2% are gonna do it. By the time you’ve ticked off 50 summers, you’re so set in your ways, and so locked down by the ingrained fears and “what ifs”, the likelihood of you changing the things you’ve been doin’ wrong for half a damn century, exists somewhere ‘tween not likely and ain’t gonna happen. The emotional inertia created by the fear and stagnation drilled into you by the system has become so much a part of you that it’s insurmountable by most. — B.K. Gore

So, if you find yourself following a path that is leading nowhere you really want to go there is an obvious solution. STOP, conduct a little situational analysis, and head out in a different direction. This is where the risk and adventure part come in…the “stuff of life” that makes it worth living. Sometimes you come to a fork in the trail and can make a choice. At other times there is no fork and you simply have to go “off-trail”. This is one of those off-trail times. Fortunately, I have experience in this sort of thing…Rhonda can provide a variety of stories about some of our off-trail experiences and we are still here to relate them 😉 The really cool thing about going off-trail is that although you have a basic sense of direction you really don’t know what is around the next bend or over the next hill. Occasionally, you find yourself in a box canyon and have to backtrack but usually there is a way through although it may not be obvious and may require some extra effort.

This is called exploration and people who did that in years past, e.g. Lewis and Clark, were called explorers. You won’t find that listed in the career books these days but one of my life long aspirations was to be one. My vision was modeled more after Star Trek; To boldly go where no man has gone before, but although I reached the rank of Captain it was only a desk I piloted, not a starship. Nevertheless, life is what you make out of it and sometimes you have to grab at the opportunities you have in front of you before it becomes to late. Many quotes have been penned about opportunity lost.

Halting forward progress on the path of life and redirecting is not a simplistic thing the further down the path you find yourself. We are fortunate that we have made some significant reductions along the way which have made the redirection easier; sold the house a few years ago so no mortgage tying us down, moved into a one-bedroom apartment last fall so already have a small footprint in terms of possessions, and still more or less debt-free. This allowed us to re-purpose some assets, submit the Letter of Resignation, and in the spirit of “Go West, young man” purchase a team of horses and a Conestoga wagon. Next week we “hitch up” and head out. 😉