Catching up to May 2015 As we moved forward with our
plans to retire and become full-time RVers, we failed to keep up our blog posts
so here's our catch up. Our much loved downtown Colorado Springs house closed
on October 24, 2014. We both agreed that it felt better to sell a house than
buy one. After the closing, we walked directly from the title company to the
bank feeling free. The bank teller deposited our check and at the same time
told us that we pre-qualified for a new car loan. Ha ha NO THANKS.
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| Sergeant Melody Burns |
Beginning in late summer, Kristy's sister, Melody, started having health
problems. Although her symptoms were severe, visits to doctors and hospital
emergency rooms failed to find a cause. Finally, a 105 degree fever and an
aggravated cough forced another emergency room visit and a hospital admittance.
After several misdiagnosis and pain filled weeks, Melody was diagnosed with
metastic melanoma cancer. Melody, a police sergeant and lifetime athlete fought
a warrior's fight against the cancer and couldn't beat it. She passed away
February 8, 2015 at age 52. One thing we are grateful for is the extra time we
were able to spend with Melody in her last months. Because Kristy had already
begun the process of closing down her practice and cutting back on hours she
was able to spend that time with Melody. Melody's death left a gaping hole in
our lives, and we move forward with her in our hearts.
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| Garden of the Gods RV Park in Colorado Springs |
Life got a bit disorienting during this time. We started living full time
in our fifth wheel, Biggie Moms, in mid-December at Garden of the Gods RV
Resort on the west side of Colorado Springs. The learning curve for starting
one's full-time RV life in a Colorado winter is pretty steep. We did not know how
Biggie Moms would fare with the freezing temps, but we armed ourselves with
internet research and tips from the park manager, put a space heater in the
pass-through and some heat tape on the pipes and hoped for the best. Of course,
the winter ended up being one of the coldest and snowiest in decades. Waking up
to temperatures like -13 or -17 can be pretty scary for first timers. However, not only
did we survive without freezing the pipes or tanks, but we loved our winter
camping experience. Biggie Moms became a refuge in that painful time in our
lives. Fortunately for us, Garden of the Gods RV Park is close to Manitou Springs home to the Mate Factor cafe, one of our favorite comfort spots where we spent many early mornings
sipping Mate, eating muffins steamed with butter, and talking about life and
death.
Spring dragged her feet and stayed cool and wet for weeks on end, but eventually May
rolled around and Annette finished her last semester as a high school librarian
and officially retired. Before we left Garden of the Gods RV Park, we threw a
big retirement party for ourselves at their event center. With some really good
BBQ and some local mico brew our friends and family shared in our excitement in
starting this new phase of our lives.
