We sent a letter last year and thought we’d put the first part here on the web site that we’re going to start using. Here’s that letter from April 2008:
Hello Dear Family & Friends!!!
Yes, we are still here. We apologize holiday greetings never made it to you the last couple of years. We seem to catch bad winter colds November to December.
Broad brushing of our happenings, MaryAnne ‘graduated’ from Social Security this October after 32+ years (yahooo!); & in November Ray successfully passed the very intensive 2-year study program in Certified Financial Planning. Prior to that MaryAnne had more health problems in ‘07 with hospitalizations & 2 surgeries during the 2nd one. With Ray’s colds-with-no-end it was one challenging year.
And just to make life even more exciting we are in the process of tearing our lives literally from the foundations & moving into our new RV to travel full-time. Yes, we are going to join the retiree nomads on the open road—big rig & all! A very major life changer. Except for a full storage container 5 x 7 x 8ft already shipped to Seattle, to be near Suzann & Mark, if it doesn’t fit in the RV it’s disposed of—in one of oh soooo many ways. Ray said recently it’s like disposing of our ‘estate’ while we are still alive. Both an amazingly freeing & scary experience—quite exhilarating.
The new ‘rig’ is a 38ft Alfa Leisure brand, model ‘See Ya’; the kind that looks like a bus. We will tow our Jeep Cherokee & carry Ray’s motorcycle dirt bike on the back. Quite a set up. So much to learn—even the awning has a remote control. Oh, & a diesel engine that fills 100 gallons, as if we could afford that much at a time right now.
Short-term plans are to get the house ready to go on the market (yes, the Longmont market is way down). We have some local camping out coming up & an RV convention in Gillette WY in June (with side bus trips to Rushmore, Devils Tower, & the Badlands). We also hope to be in Winterpark CO to visit with friends (from Montana) who will be attending a family reunion there in August. Winter plans will probably take us to the Phoenix AZ area & other places around the state.