Differences in One Year

One year ago today, we left San Antonio, TX to stay in Ft Hancock, TX on our way to Happy Trails in AZ. We had some great times while traveling on that trip from Campbellsville, KY last year to begin our adventure with the retirement community. We were excited and anxious to get started in what turned turned out to be a sometimes rewarding and other times bad experience. The nearly 5 months we spent with that company could have been longer with better local management in that area. Our efforts to transfer to a facility in AZ were blocked by our area manager who didn't want us leaving his area, offered a transfer to another community within his area, and that led to our resignation.

As we have always believed, things happen for a reason. That led to our wonderful experience in Jackson Hole, WY which will be one of two locations that we have returned to in the 4 years we have been on the road. The only other location was Amazon. It also served to convince us that northwestern WY is a location where we could easily spend summers in the future. The experience we had in Cody the year before last also reinforces that feeling. Cody would be another area that we could return to as the same attractions are there that draw us to that part of the country - easy access to the National Parks and the beauty of the surrounding mountains in a perfect summer climate.

Our arrival in Surprise AZ following a terrific trip which included a stop in Southern Utah to see Zion National Park was the perfect ending to a perfect summer. It's nice to be able to take some extended time to just do nothing but relax before going back to work. In many ways, we are looking forward to settling in one or two locations, and in other ways, we want the variety and freedom to go where we want, when we want, to continue. The one conclusion we've made during these years on the road is that we will settle in the west - somewhere. Another conclusion is that we ruled out CA as one of those places to consider for settling. We've lived there enough - in both northern and southern CA - to know that the state has serious fiscal problems and the cost of living is out of line.

The coming year will bring new and happy experiences for us and we just hope that they are as rewarding as the ones we've had in the past four years, and that we remain healthy enough to continue this once in a lifetime experience.