Winter 2000

There were three reasons for this trip to Colorado. First, we always welcome an opportunity to see our son, Ben, and Jennifer. They’ve been married for almost four years now and really enjoy life in the mountains. Second, it was time for our good friend, Dallas Taylor, who had agreed to be our architect, to visit the site of our future home. Third, after learning about the importance of developing multiple income streams, we were keen to try our hand at buying Tax Liens Certificates. There were several Tax Lien Sales coming up in November in various parts of Colorado and we had decided to attend three of them.

“Fulltime RVing” doesn’t necessarily mean spending 365 days a year in your RV. Our preferred definition is the absence of a permanent base. So once again we put our RV in storage for two weeks, collected a small Hertz rental car and enjoyed the beautiful drive; our spirits always seem to lift as we approach the mountains. Ben and Jennifer (and the dogs – Sacha is approaching 16 years of age) were all happy to see us.

Attending the Tax Lien Sales in Garfield, Pitkin and Larimer Counties was an interesting experience. If you want to know more, try www.taxsales.com.

Dallas and Veta arrived the following weekend – and unfortunately so did the snow. “Unfortunately” because it made for a treacherous drive from Denver, and also because Dallas needed to be able to see the lie of the land on our lot and take photographs. After a couple of hours on Lot 42 and freezing our b— off, we sat by a roaring fire in the Hotel Colorado enjoying a nice warm cup of tea.

The following day, after meeting with our builder’s project manager, Marc Jaffrey, to go over our plans, the sun was shining, making conditions much better for the photo shoot.

A heavy snowstorm forced us to postpone our departure by two days. Thank goodness we hadn’t attempted to bring the RV with us – definitely not a good idea at this time of year. We’re also thankful that our business gives us such flexibility to change our plans at the last moment – no office to go to, no boss to report to. With email and telephone we can run our business from anywhere; we’re never out of touch.

We did manage to get back to Dallas in time for a Doctors’ Reception at Prestonwood Country Club. What an excellent evening with well over 100 people in attendance – many of them medical professionals. It’s encouraging that so many people these days are interested in learning about good health through nutrition – or was it merely the promise of a free meal?!

We received several invitations to spend Thanksgiving with various friends this year but decided to stay home. We went to Rachel & Simon’s on the Friday and spent a fun evening, together with their friends, Jeff & Elise, playing Cashflow. After staying the night, we drove to Austin to see Kevin, went on to San Antonio for a couple of business appointments, and then on to Houma, LA, for a few days to work with one of the newer members on our team, Cindy Bergeron.

Training is an important part of our business, so a week later I said goodbye to Mick as six of us set off for a weekend in Branson, where I had been invited to be a trainer. Mick had wanted to come but we decided this was going to be a girls’ weekend away. After spending so much time together these past three years, it felt very strange to leave him behind. (Mick: and the RV felt very empty!) Branson is so pretty at this time of year with all the Christmas lights. It was a great weekend and several of us plan to return in June.

The weather once again delayed our departure, this time from Dallas. After previously thanking God that we hadn’t taken our RV up into the mountains, a severe ice storm came through north Texas. After 2 days, even when the roads were clear, we couldn’t leave – there was so much ice on top of the slide outs of our RV, we couldn’t slide them in!

Finally we were on our way to Phoenix, AZ, where we put our home in storage for a month while once again we took care of the house and dogs for our friends Terry (our realtor) and Chris in Elk Springs, while they were in New Zealand.

We had a wonderful family Christmas. Kevin and his girlfriend, Misty, joined us for a week, and my friend, Tessa, and her daughter, Aileen, flew in from England for ten days over the New Year. While with us we took them snowmobiling!

As the year 2000 draws to a close, we look back and count our many blessings. Once again, we’ve covered thousands of miles and seen some wonderful places that too many people only dream about. Our days of traveling are drawing to a close, but we have much to look forward to next year. We hope you’ll come back and join us in southern California for a couple of months and then follow our progress as we build our house in the mountains of Colorado.

Happy Trails!