Goal Achieved

Friday July 8th, 2022

For the last 19 months, my goal has been to retire, sell my house, and live in a camper full time while roaming the mountain and desert west. Today, I reached my goal. It was my last day of work, which ended at 2pm Mountain Daylight Time. I said goodbye to my son at his home near Boulder, Colorado and tried to beat the Friday traffic up into the mountains. Three hours later, I was set up overlooking a trout stream a little south of Leadville, Colorado.

Leadville is at 10200 feet above sea level. So when I left the Boulder area, the temperature was 95. But here at elevation, it was only 72. Now, after sundown, it is cooler than that. Humidity is about 4%. Pine scent is in the air all around me. I can here the cascading stream just out the window. It is quiet. Peaceful.

I worried that leaving my son’s home and camping in the back country would result in loneliness this evening. But, as I was setting up, a gentleman from a site upstream approached to have a look at the trailer. He has an older, larger camper and is thinking of downsizing. We talked for about 30 minutes. He is 70 and comes up here every spring from Arkansas. He stays camped here all summer. He was very friendly, and asked almost immediately how long I would stay, saying it would be nice to have somebody with which to talk. Then invited me up to his site after dinner for a beer.

So yes, everything worked out. I am up in the mountains. My home is wherever I park my trailer. That brings back one of those memories of something said once, that you can never forget. My first wife in anger one day said “you should just disappear up into the Rockies and become a mountain man because you don’t do well with other people. Go be alone.” Now, 35 years later, I may found out if she had a good idea.