We left Leadville, our mountain home for ten years, at the end of August 2010 and hit the road in our 17' Casita travel trailer. We're blogging about our travels and life in an 80 sq. ft. fiberglass egg at www.imperfectdestiny.com.
Rough year so far
Wow, this 2011 has been quite crazy. Julie's grandparents, who we were on our way to visit in MN this spring, passed away within a couple weeks of each other. In June, our sweet dog Siri passed on peacefully. Julie's dad was diagnosed with cancer this winter and hopefully had it all removed in June--test results pending. Good thoughts and prayers are appreciated.
News from the Cloud City January 2011
Looked like Climax may be reopening; hell hasn't frozen over yet though.
Summer in the ville
It has been a bizarre and busy summer.
Two weeks ago there was a murder-suicide three houses down. We went to the vigil for Vonnie—amazing—a sea of green out on a Monday night in rememberance of Vonnie and in support of people affected by domestic violence.
Work on the Casita for boondocking is complete. We have two new RV batteries, a battery charger, battery monitor, a solar system, our wireless communications system (router, antenna, amplifier), and a generator that's been converted to run off of propane. Having an airplane mechanic (Jim) around is definitely handy! (Albeit he's noted already that some of the work done at the factory would never pass inspection. Good thing this is a travel trailer and not an airplane.)
Also working on a couple new Wordpress blogs: www.imperfectdestiny.com and www.hikebikelife.com.
Off to a great start
Memorial Day weekend was incredible! Probably the best weather in the 10 years we've lived in Leadville. Some years it snows; this year we had blue skies and sun.
Freedom
After ten years, Jim has moved on to new work adventures. And we'll no longer be tied to Leadville once our lease is up. So where to next? Officially, Montrose; however, we plan to spend winter elsewhere.
Smart move
We are really loving living in a smaller house—one that we don't own! The location is great; a quiet street, south facing with huge lodge pole pines. We've only had to shovel snow maybe five or six times this winter. Oh, and the tiny JØTUL wood stove is keeping us warm and toasty too. Highly recommended for a small space.
And feel very lucky to have sold our home last November. The day after Jim resigned, most of the IS work was outsourced to a company in Denver. Cronyism at its worst.
Cheers to 2010! Laissez le bon temps roulez!
Seems like just yesterday we bought our first house in Leadville. In 2001, we moved in with Fiver, our chinchilla, and enough stuff to fill three rooms. We were climbing 14ers (14,000 ft. mountains) regularly, skiing, and looking forward to exploring all the public land in Lake County on foot and by Jeep. We were hoping to grow roots and become part of a community in Leadville—and we did. We thought we’d stay here forever.
Yet little by little, our community uprooted and moved to lower altitudes and warmer climates. By the end of 2008, our friends were gone; we’d tired of snow and long winters; and we’d explored just about every hiking trail and old mining road around. So in August 2009, we decided to list our house for a few months, not expecting a sale. In late September, the offers poured in. (Okay, two offers but in a good market it can take a year to sell a house here!)
In November, we sold our first house. We moved out with two aging dogs, Star and Siri, no Jeeps, and just enough stuff to fill a rental the third of the size of our old house! For now, we're hanging out in an 800 sq. ft. bungalow that was probably a miner's home in Climax years ago. We love being in a house that takes 15 minutes to clean, 5 minutes to shovel snow when it's light, and maybe 20 mins. when the snow's heavy. Now if winter would hurry up so we can start hiking again, we'd be most happy.
Hope 2010 brings you happiness and peace!
