Catching up to May 2015

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.

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.

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.