To have a good big day you have to be really good, or you have to be really lucky. Big day conditions aren’t an issue for Judy and me anymore. We’ve left the coastal migration behind. Jon however is still on the coast. He went out by himself on a promising day. He got both good and lucky. The migration was monstrous. The warblers were everywhere. Our previous record from earlier this year, 207 birds. The new record, 244 species of birds in one day. 244!
Last week
We spent at Chatfield State Park with Matt, Lindsay, and the boys. This week we’re at St Vrain State Park. We’re here in Colorado for a busy time. Judy has been wedding shoes shopping with Lindsay. Matt and I have been fitted for tuxedos. We’ve been to a Mother’s Day celebration, gymnastic practice, middle school scholastic awards, and rugby practice. I’ve had blood drawn for the Berkley Blood Test. We’ve taken the coach to RV Interiors to have it fitted for a new HD television. I had a nice long phone interview with a potential client in Santa Fe (We got the job.). Richard installed a new front door step for us to replace the one that rusted through and broke our last day at Gulf Waters. Both dogs have been groomed. Judy has been clothes shopping with Becky and Taylor. The Jeep has had its 90,000 mile major service, and we’ve gotten the Hydrohot serviced. Still to go, a middle school track meet, a couple school performances at Mountain Shadows Montessori, a high school graduation, a middle school graduation, and a visit with the cardiologist. After that, we’ll watch the Indy 500.
Dammit Henry!
We leave the rig for a couple hours, walk back in the door, and find shredded paper strewn all across the floor. That Henry. He just can’t resist demolishing any kind of paper. Wait a minute! Henry is locked inside his wire crate. The crate is wire because Henry ate the cloth crate and we had to replace it. Wait another minute! There is shredded paper all inside the crate as well. What happened? Did Henry escape, trash the house, then lock himself back in the crate? We don’t think so. Maybe it’s a conspiracy. Maybe Annie let him out of the crate, cheered him on, then secured the door behind him. We don’t think so. We think it’s more likely Henry was set-up. Annie planned and executed the whole incident and blamed it on Henry. She got the paper and put it next to the cage within Henry’s reach. Henry, helpless to resist, pulled it inside and ate it. Annie planted the evidence all over the rest of the room. Dammit Annie!
Aftermarket
Saturday
Last Saturday. Lathrop State Park. Our last night out before we got back to the kids. Lathrop is another special place for us. About 8 years ago, Judy and I did an out-of-town job in Monte Vista together. There was a small nonprofit in Monte Vista that needed an audit, but there weren’t any CPAs in the neighborhood to do their work. We only worked in Denver at the time, but just to do something different, and to help out a small organization, we decided to travel there in the motorhome. We did the work together. It was fun. On the way home we were struck by the potential of what we had just done. Colorado has lots of small towns that are not near any large metro area. How many small nonprofit organizations are there that don’t have access to what we do?
We could do this on purpose. We could promote this as an extension of what we were already doing in Denver. We could move into the motorhome and travel to small towns all over Colorado if there were enough organizations that needed us. If we were already living in our motorhome, there really wouldn’t be much in the way of extra travel costs, so what we do would be affordable for the organizations that needed us. People work all their lives so they can do something fun and off-the-wall when they retire, like full-timing in a motorhome. We could go full-time *before * it was time to retire. It’s an easy day’s drive from Monte Vista back to Denver, but we got so excited talking about our new idea, we didn’t make it all the way home that day. We stopped early in the day at Lathrop State Park, to spend the rest of the day talking our way through all the possibilities. That was the day that launched our life on the road.
Oh, and the view there doesn’t suck.
