So over the phone and with the aid of a blurry photo that Bob thought was of our lot and sent by post, we bought it. 3 Acres of Rocky Mountain hillside. As I recall and again I could check we paid $15,000. By British standards, ridiculously cheap, then and reputedly worth a lot more now but that’s beside the point as we have no intention of selling the dream even if it has been a bit slow to develop.
So there our land remains, which is good in one way, land should remain where it has always been, pretty much untouched for over 20 years. We never seemed to get round to building or having built that dream log cabin although we’ve spent a fair amount of time since looking at plans for cabins and buying log cabin building magazines and books, but nothing actually happened to the dream it just sat there behind the back burner. Eventually it became a case of ‘when we retire’, then we will spend time in Colorado and create, in some way, our American bolt hole. But the reality is that we’ve been retired for nearly a year and, far from moving to the front burner, our last great project seems to have fallen off the stove altogether. I blame our rather impetuous decision to provide a home for two border collies. Now the prospect of travelling anywhere seems quite remote / non-existent. So here we are, the great world travellers of yesteryear, home bound. Of course we have our current projects – the vineyard (and it’s been a very busy year in the vineyard so far), learning to play jazz guitar, writing my blog and of course walking those pups. We’ve lived abroad, converted our barn but this, our last great project, remains as unrealised as it ever has. It pains me greatly but I can’t quite see how we are going to progress this particular scheme.
There are some signs of hope, small ones, mainly in the form of the next generation, number one son is keen to get involved as is who we hope will shortly be number one son in law, but with my daughter you never know. Anyway it gives me some pleasure to hear them discuss the land. Number one son has seen it, prospective number one son in law and my daughter have not. Maybe when I look more carefully into flying with dogs and find it feasible we might all meet up on the land and dream jointly. The pups will probably love it that’s assuming there aren’t any rattlesnakes at that altitude – 7,000’. That would be a bad match. And, in the information we keep receiving from the resident’s association, it states that dogs should be on a leash so that wouldn’t suit them either. And while we’re on the realistic side of the dream, it’s clear from the minutes of residents’ meetings that we receive that this place isn’t really nirvana, as no place is we have found in our travels, there’s always a catch. They had to call the sheriff to a recent meeting because one of the residents who hadn’t paid his dues was threatening to get violent. So the dream does have its potential downside. It remains for us a dream as yet unrealised, but we keep chipping away at it, who knows, one day… Oh, and by the way, I’ve set one of the photos of the land (having looked at our photos for this post), as my screensaver. A small step but it might help.
July 16, 2014 at 11:23 pm
I love the Colorado mountains. Our parents took us (sisters and me) on a road trip when we were all under 12 and we had such a great time that to this day, over fifty years later, I remember Colorado as a magical place.