Rocky Mountain Reflections

Lots of bloggers I follow are in the National Parks out west, Dave and I have enjoyed many of these places ourselves and it is bringing back some great memories. When we started traveling we were inspired by my little brother (yes I know he's taller but I'm older-hence the little)  Andy's pictures and tales of seeing the parks.  Since our family tenting vacation to CO in 1976 Andy had wanted to live there so in 1987 he moved to Colorado Springs and has made his life there since. Through a round about way Andy has turned into a very successful outdoor photographer and has a job that allows him to be outdoors and travel around the country. He now not only has a large gallery of photos taken at  many of the national parks, he also takes photography tours through many of them and has now started some overseas photography tours. We are very fortunate to have been able to find a place for our favorite print of Andy's in the RV the rest have gone in storage or reside with our friends Deb & Les. If you would like to see some of his pictures or get some ideas of sights to see while in some of the national parks check out his website Rocky Mountain Reflections there will also be permanent link on the side.

Sell the house, give up the corporate job and move west, my brother has been after us ever since our first trip to CO in 1999 and upon seeing Dave's love of the west. While the idea was intriguing but we didn't want to give up the time Dave had worked already, he was already up to 4 weeks vacation and knew that he wouldn't have that much vacation or make as much with a new company. That was  Dave's first trip west and the start of our travels around the country, it was also the beginning of our thoughts of moving west someday. So while we haven't quite broken the ties with work or the northeast we are well on our way to fulfilling a dream that was born 15 years ago, having winter in a place with no snow-can't wait.

These days our sons live in the west and have no desire to move back east so I'm sure one of these days we will settle out there but for now we're looking forward to our travels. Andy was the first one I called when we bought the RV and the first I called after we closed on the house, so looking forward to seeing him and his family when we get to CO in early Nov. Last week I learned he has bought a vacation home in Port Aransas, they will rent it out when they're not using it, hope to see them down there this winter.

Off to see the latest damage to the tenters following last nights bad storms, more about them later, now if only I can remember the camera.

Until next time...