After the winter in Arizona, we finally returned to our “normal” lifestyle of setting out in the camper. Our first leg was to go to southern California for two weeks to visit family and to check out the few remaining wildflowers and cacti blossoms. After that we set out excitedly on our planned itinerary; Sequoia, King Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks. Lassen and Shasta mountains, Shasta Lake, Hell’s Canyon, Bitterroots , …. (Well you get the idea).
After one nice day in the mountains of the Sequoia National Forest above 7000 feet, a freak, late in the season, snowstorm blew in overnight. Temperatures dropped to below freezing, rain turned to sleet, ice, and snow. Pat bounded out of the camper, slipped on ice, and went down. She immediately was fairly certain her left wrist was broken. The weather continued to worsen and we had no phone signal, internet, or TV to check on road conditions. We had to face a steep, windy road down 6000 feet to the nearest town, which was so small that the probability of having an ER or hospital was unlikely. Ron flagged down a driver (the only one we had seen that day so far) and learned that the roads were wet but not icy. The driver lived locally and knew the nearest ER which was another 10 miles after descending the hill. We quickly broke camp, wrapped the wrist in ice and took off down the hill. For some reason the C.W. McCall hit of the seventies “Wolf Creek Pass” comes to mind. An hour later we arrived at the ER to learn the wrist was in fact broken and would require surgery, follow-up, PT and that would require staying put for a 3 month (all summer) timeframe. Since this was a remote, small town and unfamiliar to us, after much contemplation and trade-offs, we decided to get to Colorado where we knew the infrastructure. The snow storm continued to plague us as it moved easterly with us and was so powerful that it covered most of the west. We pressed on hoping that we would arrive at least in as good condition as we started. We arrived safely with carefully driving, good fortune, and all of our support on high looking over us.
Jumping ahead, Pat had her surgery on May 23, which installed a titanium plate inside her wrist and is improving every day. With this situation dealt to us, we decided to sojourn in Colorado for an extended time. Pat can then heal properly with the proper medical care nearby and, we thought, we would take this opportunity to “toss” our storage area. In this case “toss” means to remove all those things that we couldn’t part with five years ago yet haven’t seen since, and reevaluate what things we kept and why. This would also allow time for us to visit family more often, visit longer with friends here, have a Colorado Christmas, and to hear the elk bugling in the fall.
SO we are taking a sabbatical from our nomad lifestyle. However, it is ONLY a sabbatical and we DO plan to resume again. We may also use this opportunity to do some international travel, shorter jaunts, or who knows what? This event has certainly underlined the notion to remain open, spontaneous, and flexible in life’s plans because anything can happen. Another lesson to us that we are doing what’s right for us: living and having fun in the present while making minimum plans for the future.
In these four years of our travels, we have been to 50 states and a dozen countries and provinces. We have driven very few miles, probably less than many of you in your normal year. We try to keep a low carbon footprint (i.e. not use much gas and fuel), so we drive short distances, see and do everything we want to in that area, then move on down the road and do that again. And, of course, we have rented semi-permanent places as snowbirds during the winter months. So there will most likely be few, wow- style, blog postings for awhile until we start rolling once again. We do plan on finding some new and interesting things to do and see here. Thank you all for your wonderful responses to our blogs and the support and encouragement to continue. Please keep in touch with us as we love hearing from you all!
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