What we will miss...

I figured I ought to take some time to reflect on what I love about Durango and the wonderful life we have had here. So as time permits over the next two weeks I will upload some pictures of what I love and will miss about this great little cowboy town.






There is a town run on the river that is so easily accessed and is so much fun- where else can you run through town at 6pm?? I am sure there are other towns with fun whitewater runs right in them- hopefully we'll find one during this next year.


We will miss our rafting buddies- we love you guys and have no idea where we'll find people who can make a phone call and get everybody on the river a half hour later.


If one must work...at least I got to work in a beautiful historic building in the heart of town.




These columbine grow right under my office window.


More to come....

La vida loca

Rachel's folks at the Pyramids in Egypt this Monday! How cool is this?!?

Sorry to have gone so long between posts- we are livin’ la vida loca- (also sorry for the Ricky Martin quote). In the past two weeks we held our yard sale and peddled off all of our wares, also we sold our house and finally we have been house-sitting for Dan’s folks, who were in Thailand- wow do we have jet setting families or what !?! Wonder where we got our wanderlust???

In the midst of all of this we have been trying to pack up the rest of our belongings and putting our ducks in their various rows prior to our departure. With the sale of our house comes an expedited moving plan. We had sort of counted on being able to gradually move out throughout June, but now we are planning on being in the camper on June 13th. This leaves a mere 17 days for us to condense our lives down from 1000 square feet into our 8x11 mobile aluminum can.

Additionally I am training my replacement at work and since Dan’s mother is also my boss, I was training while filling in for her. My normal amount of free time (and thereby blog maintenance time) at work has been greatly diminished.

I am guessing things aren’t going to get any calmer in the next few weeks so I trust you’ll all forgive me if my posts are infrequent until we are on the road. However, I am happy to answer any specific pre-trip questions if you’d care to email us. Cheers to all, and check back soon.

Slash and Burn Sale

My glorious weekend was spent parceling out items from my past that at one time or another I just had to have. Now these things have been reduced to close to worthless trinkets. Yes, it was yard sale preparation weekend. You don't know joy until you put a .50-cent price tag on a dry top you paid $250 for.

After the initial sting, of the devaluation of my life's acquisitions, there is a strange peacefulness that arises out of cutting the dead weight. While we will not be able to reduce our load to only the camper's contents, we really won't have much to tote along should we ever settle down again. Our household has been reduced to a camper, a full raft trailer and a half-full Zircon container. Tomorrow is the big sale, after that we will be living pretty bare bones for a month. Good practice for us, no?

Time sure is ticking away now. A few posts back I ranted about the pre-trip depression that had set in, that has been replaced by pre-trip euphoria. This period may be the best time of our entire trip. I mean right now I am excited. I still think we can do this, that we can make it a whole year in an 11x8 foot aluminum can. As of today the truck hasn't broken down, the tires haven't blown out, we have yet to be robbed, led astray or woken at 2am at Maglight-point and asked to mosey along. This is a hopeful, fun time. 28 days to go :)

38 Days and a Degree.

This weekend I graduated from Fort Lewis College, (if you are not aware of the length of time this took me then refer to the February archives). In honor of this momentous occasion we had a good ‘ol fashioned pig roast attended by all of our friends and my parents who came to town from Ohio. Graduating was a big one to check of the pre-trip list, now all that is left is:

___ Pack up house, sell all non-essential belongings.
___ Quit job.
___ Load up camper.
___ Say goodbye to friends and family.
___ Hit the road.

Here are some pictures from this weekend’s festivities.


Dan and Rachel on the FLC campus.


Rachel and fellow graduate Jesse with their pig. (Sorry to any of our vegetarian readers ;)


Dan this is a party for your wife, not your boat!


We gave .50 cent tours of the camper, or as our friend Brook insists on calling it, the trailer.