And How Many More?

It was five years ago today that we moved out of our home in Centennial, Colorado, and made our 5th wheel trailer our home. The moving van came and took the furniture we hadn't sold and put it into storage and we took our trailer to Chatfield State Park--in January! Thankfully, it wasn't snowing and not too cold. The weather held steady and we spent four days making sure we had everything we needed and seeing our son and his family before leaving for our first winter away from Colorado. Five days later, we were in Tucson. Ah, warm weather with no threat of snow.

What have we done in these five years? We have traveled in 33 states and 3 Canadian provinces and volunteered in 5 different locations. Three summers we volunteered at Lathrop State Park in Colorado and three winters at Casa Grande Ruins NM in Arizona. We also volunteered at 7th Ranch RV Camp in Montana, Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Texas and Mueller State Park in Colorado. It has been fun, interesting, challenging. We were really in a rut when we lived in our Colorado house. After retirement, life fell into a regular, and fairly boring, routine. Three mornings a week we visited the local recreation center to work out on weights and run on the track. We left the house before 7:30 and rarely returned till sometime between 10 and 11. One day a week, we volunteered at the Colorado Historical Society. There was always a house to clean--one way too big for just two people who didn't entertain like we had before retirement. Everything was very predictable.

Living full-time on the road isn't predictable. Our front yard changes each time we move, the people we see and interact with change. One month we may be in a remote area shopping at a small local grocery store. At the next location, we may go to a chain grocery we have not experienced before. We still do weight training--we carry some weights in the RV. We walk or run regularly, trying to get 10,000 steps each day. But the scenery for that changes frequently. When we volunteer, our assignments change from place to place. We live in a wonderful country with great variety in land and environment and people. There is always something new to see and learn. It's a great life we have on the road.

How long will we continue this lifestyle? We really don't know. We will both turn 71 this year, so we know we don't have too many years of good enough health and sharp enough minds and reflexes to pull a large trailer around the country. But we plan to do so until we get a little older. It's a wonderful life!