Settling In

We are settling in at our new home, Lathrop State Park in Walsenburg, Colorado. We will be here till mid July. Lathrop is a park where we have camped many times over the years, mainly when we wanted to get out from Denver either early or late season or on our way to or from Colorado from the south.

We arrived Monday. We had planned to spend three nights at Trinidad Lake State Park, 35 miles to the south. We pulled in to look for a site, only to find the campground there is being upgraded and is closed. So we drove to Walsenburg and spent three nights in a campground host site with a great view of the Spanish Peaks. Then Wednesday we moved into the volunteer site where we will spend the summer. It is in a large open area near a ranger's house. We will enjoy our privacy here.

Part of our responsibility at Lathrop will be operation of a park store. But beyond that, we won't know much until Sunday when we begin our orientation. The park has two lakes for fishing, one that also allows swimming and water skiing, the other that allows wind surfing. There are several duck ponds with bird watching opportunities. Since our arrival, we have picked up our running, doing three runs at 6459 feet above sea level, an altitude we haven't seen since February 3. In the process we have discovered areas of the park we hadn't seen before and will spend more time exploring soon.

While getting settled here, there were other issues on my mind. We have a lease on our house in Centennial. When I contacted our current insurer, I learned, to my dismay, that they will only insure rental property if they also ensure our primary home—which we no long have. I made an internet search for insurers, and then visited an insurance agency in Walsenburg. Thank God for internet and cell phones. It has been stressful, with lots of phone calls and emails. Today we settled on a policy through the local agency here.

I am also looking for new insurance for our truck. When we sold our second car, our auto insurance didn't go down, it went up. The two-car discount was greater than the cost of insuring the old Buick. So we will try to find a more cost-effective policy.

I really don't mind taking care of these details, but it is something I would rather not have to worry about. Life goes on, even when you are retired and on the road, I guess.