Goodbye 2013

Wow, what a year.  It started off unlike any before.  We had sold our house in the summer of 2012 and were learning how to be fulltimers in an Atlanta winter.  Yes, Atlanta does have a winter, freezing temps, ice and sometimes even snow.  But it is the south, so none of that lasts very long.  Still, when the temps did dip into the teens and single digits we discovered just how quickly two 42,000 btu furnaces can consume a 30 pound propane tank.  Even though we have an artic package, it is still just a thin-walled trailer.  You can only put just so much insulation in a three inch space.

While we were still both working at the turn of the calendar, it was not going to be long before retirement.  Cyndee had already announced her intentions but John had to hold off until March to announce a May departure.

Work kept us pretty busy but we also had lots of to-do items in order to get completely free to be nomads.  There was the store room of stuff that had to go somewhere.  A good deal of it was handed off to the kids.  This was well above what they had already agreed to take.  Thanks, kids.  The rest went to Goodwill.

The last load of things from the house/store room to the kids.

May came around and retirement parties were had.  Cyndee and I were blessed with well wishes from near and far.  We already had our first volunteer position lined up and would spend the last of June and most of July getting to it on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  But first we had to make a stop in Livingston, TX to make the switch from being Georgians to being Texans again.  I have to tell you, getting a driver's license in a new state under The Department of Homeland Security rules is exhausting.

As arduous as it was, we managed to get our vehicles registered, driver license and registered to vote.  From Texas it was off to Kansas for some warranty work and upgrades on the Majestic. Then, after a week of that we embarked on a zig-zag course from Junction City, KS to North Rim, AZ.  This included stays in Siebert, Co, Colorado Springs, Royal Gorge, Albuquerque, NM and Winslow, AZ.  Lots of beautiful country and then it was topped off by landing in our home for the next three months, the Grand Canyon.



Caprock Canyons, TX

Cheyenne Mountain, CO
















Royal Gorge, CO



Winslow, AZ



Meteor Crater, AZ

Petrified Forrest, AZ

North Rim, AZ

North Rim Camp Ground, AZ

The time at the North Rim was an experience.  Being campground hosts was a blast and spending a summer without needing air conditioning was great.  But having all that did require some adjustments to our lifestyle.  For the three months that we were there we had absolutely zero TV, a highly unreliable and unbelievably slow internet connection and a cell phone connection that required a hike to find a signal.  But we would not trade for it.  In fact, we have been asked to return next season, and we accepted.

Our time at the North Rim was cut short by the government shutdown but it all worked out for the best.  We would have been hard pressed to get from our post at the Grand Canyon to our new post at Big Bend.  Just a hard drive of over a thousand miles and then go right to work.  With the shutdown we stretched our time off to almost a month.  We had a great stay in North Las Vegas and got reacquainted with civilization.  John also has a cousin that lives in Las Vegas and we had a couple of great lunches with him.

Several trips to the strip



The Hoover Dam was about the only thing not closed by the shutdown.

From Nevada we moved into Arizona and spent another few days in a suburb outside Phoenix.  While in Vegas we learned that another of John's cousins had also converted to the fulltiming lifestyle and that we would be in the same area at the same time.  We were able to arrange a get together and caught up on goings on with our families.


From Phoenix we drove through lots of desert to get to Deming, NM for a one night layover and then on to Fort Stockton, or as the residents of Big Bend call it, Fort Stock Up.  It is a 126 miles from Ft. Stockton to Big Bend and the closest place with a Walmart.

 

Our first days in Big Bend saw us returning to the use of air conditioning, but that did not last long.  The fall in the big park turned to one of the coldest and wettest they have seen in a decade.  It was really hard to remember that we were in a desert.

 

Our workday was very different at Big Bend, we traded our shovels and rakes and ATV and clipboard for maps and books and sales counter and registers.  We switched from 100% outdoors to almost 100% indoors. 

 

Chisos Basin Visitor Center and The Window.

Unprecedented cold and wet.  Ten year drought broken.

We got indoctrinated in how to do all things Big Bend and a chance to practice for a few weeks before the big Thanksgiving rush.  Good thing since our visitor ship went up 500% that holiday.  There was a lull in the intensity for the time between the two big holidays.  Good thing because our food stocks were depleted and we needed to make a personal appearance at a bank.  Nearest place that had a branch of our bank was 226 miles away in Odessa, Tx.  All told it was almost seven hours of driving and five hours of shopping and banking.  A long day.

 

On our way home from Odessa we were just about to "go dark" by leaving the reach of any kind of cell phone signal.  Cyndee's phone rang and the caller ID read that it was her brother.  But the voice on the other end of the line was not her brother.  It was the call that everyone dreads, someone had found Cyndee's number in her brother's phone and called it to let her know that her brother had passed away.

 

We drove on home, stored all our food and used the next day to make arrangements for being gone for a week.  It was a nice service and we got to see family that we had not seen in some time, just wish it could have been under different circumstances.

 

Our 1,200 miles and 22 hours of driving roundtrip went without incident but it was hard to get back into the swing of things after returning to our camper.  Our first few days back were spent mostly just going through the motions.  It has been hard, especially for Cyndee, to get our heads around the thought that she is all that is left of her immediate family.  There was just the four of them, her mother left us in the 80's, her dad a couple years ago and now her brother.

 

Finishing out the year and being away from the kids at Christmas time tough.  We knew it would be going into this adventure but it didn't make it any easier.  We have had several discussions that next Christmas we'll figure out a way to be in Atlanta.

 

The last two weeks of the year has brought us weather that has been far more agreeable than the first couple months.  It has been a little more like what we expected for being this far south.  But we have been assured that winter will return so we have been trying to make the best of it while the sun shines.

 

I'll say it again, Wow, what a year.  We hope you had a good year and wish you the best for 2014.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!