How did I end up in Colorado? Part Three.
So Pete and I got back to Miami with a load of beer and plans for the future. And my plans for the future definitely involved Colorado.
Even though my knowledge of snow, for the most part, consisted of school closing for a day every couple of years when I was a kid living in South Carolina, I figured that if I could get used to the heat and humidity of Miami, dealing with a little snow would be easy-peasy. Having a few hobbies, I figured I would trade big-game fishing for big-game hunting, spend time running around the mountains instead of the Everglades, and trade skin diving fooooor.... Okay, nothing can take the place of skin-diving, and in Miami, I spent more time under the water than in it.
Back at Homestead Air Force Base, I started looking for government jobs in Colorado and found an opening at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, and even though it was working for the Army instead of the Air Force, I figured since I was a civilian employee, there wouldn't be any difference, boy was I wrong, but that's a whole nother back story.
But to wrap this story up, since it's become way too long, I sold my Miami house, sold my boat, sold several motorcycles, and sold all my deep-sea fishing equipment. But kept my Yamaha 360 dirt bike, my Jimmy Buffett album with Margaritaville on it, which had become the anthem of the Florida Keys lifestyle, long before the Keys became famous as a place to ''Fish for the Square Grouper''. And not just because of the beauty of the Keys, but all the weekend rides on my 650 BSA Lightning Rocket, when I was a teenager, and after I got out of the Air Force, my Triumph 650 Bonneville.
Then I transferred to Fort Carson, we bought a house in the little mountain town of Woodland Park, where my daughter entered a K-12 school, 3 miles from the house, started kindergarten, and graduated from the same school 13 years later, in a class of 160 seniors.... Which made me happy because that was the main reason I moved to Colorado.
Did I ever regret moving out of Miami? No way. It had gone from a tropical paradise in the 1960s when I was a teenager, and thanks to President Jimmy Carter, to the most dangerous city in America by the time I was grown. infested with South American drug cartels, Cuban criminals, machete-wielding Haitians, and Colombian drug gangs that would kill you for pocket change.
So no, I don't miss living in Miami, but I do get a little teary-eyed whenever I hear Jimmy Buffett singing "Margaritaville".
Theboondork
I had high hopes for last night's sunset, but heavier clouds rolled in and made it barely worth my time to stick my camera out the window.
I turned my truck around the other day so the sun wouldn't be hitting the side of my camper where the refrigerator is. The important part of the refrigerator is actually out near the side of the camper, and an RV refrigerator that's exposed to the sun beating down on that side of the camper for most of the day makes it more difficult for the refrigerator to cool off.
Remember, a home refrigerator makes cold air that fills the box where all the food is. A normal RV refrigerator removes the heat from the air that's inside the box where the food is. The home refrigerator works way better and way faster than an RV refrigerator.
If you look at the center left side of this picture, you will see a neighbor. This is a good neighbor who recognizes the privacy needs of their boondocking neighbors.