Off to California

Although Tim and I had not traveled since settling into our condo, we decided to look for a winter museum project at a national park with a climate much warmer than Colorado. In October 2019, we happened to see a possible opportunity at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SAMO) and made inquiries. The park was interested in our services, and we made plans to set out for California just after Christmas.

SAMO has no RV sites for volunteers, but we were offered a small apartment at the LaKretz Field Station, where we would be working. We would actually have a Malibu address for two months!

It felt a bit strange traveling to California by car, not by RV, plus staying in hotels, but we quickly adapted. The Kitty also adapted to traveling in the car. We had purchased a rooftop carrier for most of our things, and we gave her the entire back of the Subaru. Although she had her bed back there, she still ended up on my lap for most of the drive.

There was snow on the ground when we left Colorado on December 29, but the highway was clear. We had decided to take our time on this trip and stopped early in Grand Junction, Colorado, for our first night. We then continued to Cedar City, Utah, the next day. Although I’m not a huge fan of interstate driving, I-70 is one of the more scenic routes, and we enjoyed the views.

Colorado to Utah on I-70

The following day greeted us with bright blue skies as we made our way from Utah, through Arizona, and into Nevada.  The drive through the Virgin River Canyon was one of the highlights.

Utah to Arizona to Nevada on I-70

Although we were spending the night in Boulder City, Nevada, we exited the highway early to drive through Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  I try never to pass up visiting a national park unit, even if it’s only a drive-thru. 

Lake Mead National Recreation Area

We arrived in Boulder City in time to have lunch with the National Park Service Regional Curator, with whom we would be working at SAMO.  Blair is based in Boulder City, and we had planned our route so that we could meet her and learn about the project we would be working on.  It was a great meeting, and we felt much more prepared for the work ahead.

Holidays

Holiday time in Colorado wouldn’t be complete without a major snowstorm.  Snow, what’s snow?  We had almost forgotten what that was like since we always tried to avoid winter weather while RVing.  We reacquainted ourselves with the white stuff in late November but sat back while someone else did the shoveling.

Our RV, Covered with Snow

For the first time in many years, Tim and I spent the holidays with family.  We were invited to spend Thanksgiving with Tim’s brother Rex and his wife Linda, and we had a wonderful time. 

On Christmas day, we joined Rex, Linda, and Linda’s brother and sister-in-law, who have a second home in Estes Park.  Another fabulous dinner and great company. 

Sarah and Tim at Christmas

A Project for New River Gorge National River

When we decided to settle down, Tim agreed to continue to look for volunteer opportunities at national parks.  We had kept the RV primarily for that purpose, in fact.  While we were traveling full-time in the RV, we volunteered and/or had contracts at national park units throughout the United States.  Most of these projects involved working with museum collections.  In exchange for at least one of us volunteering 32 hours per week, we would receive a free RV site.  Our assignments had ranged from two weeks to two months in length.

In addition to travel, working at national parks has become my favorite activity and something that has given me purpose.  In a small way, it’s enabled us to give something back in retirement.  Plus, it gives us extended time in each park, allowing us to really get to know a park.

During the summer and early fall of 2019, we completed a museum project for New River Gorge National River (NERI).  We didn’t travel there, but worked remotely at home.  NERI had sent us boxes of archeological artifacts to photograph and rehouse.

We set up a small photo box on the desk and laid out each set of artifacts.  We photographed them and then rehoused them into new bags.  Kitty was always available to help us with the project.

Tim ang Kitty Hard at Work

Photographs of Archeological Artifacts

Adjusting to Life "Off-the-Road"

Tim attended his high school reunion in June and began volunteering twice a week at the Larimer Humane Society in August. 

I never quite found a niche for myself.  As someone once said, travel feeds my soul, and it’s probably my one and only hobby.  Although I’ve been stationary in the past, I’ve spent the vast majority of my retirement traveling.  I love the excitement of seeing new, and old, things and waking up to new adventures every day or so.  I’ve never developed other hobbies and have not yet found friends in Loveland.  Frankly, I was at a loss as to how I was going to spend my day.  I still haven’t quite figured it out.

I did enjoy having time to read at leisure once more, and it was fun to be able to spend time in libraries.  Although I still love my Kindle, I could now hold a real book in my hand.  Before the year was over, I had read 38 books.

I also occupied some of my time with cooking again.  I’m not sure how, but Tim discovered the MIND diet, a cross between the Mediterranean and DASH diets.  I quickly jumped on the bandwagon, learning everything about its guidelines and following it to the letter (I can be a bit compulsive about things from time to time!).  We purchased an Instant Pot and enjoyed experimenting with all that it could do.  We became believers!  For the first time in way too long, we began to eat a healthy diet, and I really enjoyed cooking.

Cooking with the MIND Diet

Our Kitty didn’t seem to have much trouble adjusting to life in the condo. Although she missed going outside to eat grass, she contented herself with fresh air on the balcony.  Still, her favorite spot continued to be Tim’s lap.

Kitty's Favorite Spot

Settling Into Our New Home

We spent our last night in the RV on May 23, the day we closed on our new home. It was somewhat bittersweet for me, but I must admit I was looking forward to settling down.

One of Our Last Nights in the RV

The first order of business the following day was to empty our storage unit and move everything into the condo. The movers we hired did a great job, and we had everything mostly set up by that evening. The boxes could wait!

We Had Packed Our Storage Unit to the Brim

We spent much of 2019 settling into our new condo and re-acquainting ourselves with the possessions that we had kept in our 10’ x 10’ storage unit. It’s amazing how much furniture we had been able to keep. In fact, we ended up having to purchase only a dining room table, a dresser, and a desk and bookcases for the office.

Decorating Our New Home

It was fun to decorate a new home and make it “ours.” We still have a few things we want to replace, such as the “boob light” ceiling fixtures, but those can wait a bit.

A New Beginning

After five years of traveling full-time in our RV, Tim and I hung up the keys in 2019. Although I would have been happy to continue the full-time lifestyle, Tim was ready to settle down. Since he had indulged me for five years, I thought it only fair to go along with his wish this time. He had adjusted to RVing, so I figured that I would adjust to staying put in one place.

We had traveled to 49 states while RVing and had kept our eyes open for possible locations where we might eventually settle down. No place jumped out at us, so we decided to return to our “roots” and look for a place in the Front Range of Colorado. We both agreed that Colorado was where we wanted to be.

We also knew that we were only interested in a condo, not a house, and we even quickly eliminated townhouses because it would have been too difficult for our Kitty to negotiate the stairs. Not only was she getting older, but we realized that we might want a home where we could age-in-place. Therefore, no stairs for us either!

Size was another matter. Although we could have qualified for a large, expensive home, we had decided early-on that we would rather spend our money on travel, not mortgage payments. A two-bedroom, two-bath unit would suit us just fine. Remember, we were used to living in an RV about the size of a walk-in closet!

Although we had hoped to find a place in Fort Collins, Colorado, we soon realized that the prices were more than we wanted to spend, so we narrowed our search to the Loveland area, just a few miles south of Fort Collins.

We returned to Loveland in the RV on April 23, 2019, and began our search for a home. Although we had been looking at online listings for some time, it wasn’t until now that we began our search in earnest. With our wonderful real estate agent, we looked at a few possibilities and narrowed our choice to several units in two new condo complexes by the same developer. We weighed the pros and cons of each and decided on a unit at The Flats of Centerra. We signed the contract on April 29.

Our New Home

One feature that drove us to The Flats at Centerra was its location within walking distance of restaurants and shops. In addition, this was a secure building (easier to lock up and travel) and had an elevator (remember the age-in-place idea), an enclosed garage with interior access to the building (it snows in Colorado), as well as finishes that appealed to us (design was still an important consideration).

The features that we especially liked about the unit we selected were its top floor location, the placement of its two bedrooms and baths, the separate shower, the large kitchen and laundry room, the coat closet at the front entrance, and the south-facing exposure. The complex had a more suburban feel than I would have liked (it is definitely not a new urbanist design), but the plusses outweighed the minuses.

This Floor Plan Had All that We Needed, and Wanted

We closed on our new home on May 23, 2019, exactly five years and two weeks since we had sold our house in Estes Park and embarked on our full-time RV adventure.

Closing On Our New Home