The Last Time

 

"Nothing happens unless first we dream" - Carl Sandburg

Ten years ago when we built out our Nissan NV Van into a camper, we started dreaming about the day when we could retire and hit the road. We watch a number of Youtube channels and read a whole lot of blogs and have met many full timers in our many years of camping and exploration. They entertain us and inspire us to go for it. In 2014, Greg built a countdown clock to my planned retirement date. It seemed like it was such a long way off, but now it is just barely around the corner. I only have 76 days until my retirement day. Amazing and so, so exciting! We have a lot of work to accomplish in those 76 days in addition to finishing up work. My job has a lot of once a year assignments. As I complete each annual task, I think - this is the last time I will do this. It probably should feel bittersweet, but it isn't - it is just very exciting. I will miss my Finance Family at work, but I won't miss the actual work.   

So much has happened in the past ten years. Too many friends and family have passed on, especially in this past year, which really does instill a sense of urgency to pursue our dream. We have spent every vacation and many weekends out exploring, camping and hiking. We sold the Nissan several years ago and bought our Toyota Tacoma and Four Wheel Camper (Taco Belle and her Taco Shell). We are starting off with a one year plan and then we will see how we feel. But, it is a total jello plan. We have spent our entire adult lives rushing back from vacations to go to work. We don't want to have any schedule to follow or place to be on a specific date. 

Greg's Mom (Frances) will travel with us some of the time in her A-Liner, we call the Whole Enchilada.  She calls it Annie. So, we aren't saying goodbye to Los Alamos, just see you later. We will make cloverleaf trips to pickup, drop off and hang out with Frances. We also plan to visit friends and family that we haven't seen in what feels like years. 

Greg has been developing a map for us to use with thousands of campsites marked, many of which are boondocking sites. We have so many trails to hike, hot springs to soak in and dirt roads to explore. We will be removing the maps that are here on our blog because Google dumped their fusion tables which Greg used to create these maps. We have an alternate solution, but it isn't easily shared. 

We plan to make some Youtube videos and want to write regular blog posts. The blog is primarily for us to look back on later and for our friends and family to see what the heck Greg and Karen are up to and where they are camping. In the meantime, we have 43 years of accumulated stuff to thin out, get our lives into a small storage unit and the truck camper. We are also finding a tenant for our house. We have lived here for 17 years which is the longest either Greg or I lived anywhere in both our entire lives. This is our comfort place, our home and we love this community. But, we have had this dream of full time traveling for ten years, so time to turn the dream into reality.  See you down the road. 

Clothes Helping Kids, an excellent Albuquerque organization
picks up donations two times a month in Los Alamos

A whole lot of hikes are in our future

Enjoying a relaxing evening near Gunnison, Colorado

Greg, Frances and Buddy driving in Belle