January 2024

The new year starts with finishing a VAN BUILD!

After Christmas, we made a bee line for Denver. Here we had found a great company to complete the work that Pinecone needed in order to become our Home.

Also for the month, of course there were some doggo friends to take care of!

First and foremost, we must thank Cousin Theresa for putting up with our shenanigans and hosting us when we are in the area. Having a temporary base camp from which to organize, plan and prepare is invaluable and we will never be able to repay her enough. There are also Terry of the East and others, that deserve and will get special mention later!

After renting a small storage locker to hold our gear, we dropped off a mostly empty Pinecone to be kitted out, hoping she would be ready to go next month when we were off to the state of Washington.

Up till now the plan had been to travel with two vehicles, Pinecone to set up at camp and the other for adventuring, our thoughts were starting to turn but we hadn’t made any decisions yet. We miss each other traveling with two, but the flexibility held a strong attraction. (Spoiler? – We couldn’t stay separate, together is so much better!)

In the meantime, it is a New Year!!

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Three house/dog sits this month! TrustedHousesitters has blended into our lifestyle very well. We save on our housing costs and help out when someone doesn’t want to put their furry friend in boarding while they go away. It’s a win for all and we get to share some Love with the dogs! While not a deal breaker for Victoria, and not a problem for me, sometimes we also have a feline furry to tend to also. Such was the case this month, twice.

We are always asked, how does THS work? A simple comparison is to AirBnB. We put in the area and dates where we will be and the website shows what people and pets have been posted in need of a house sitter. If it seems a good match, we will apply. Usually, a video call and information exchange will follow, then we are booked. No money exchanges hands, this is an even swap and everyone is happy. Afterwards, ratings and reviews are posted – we are very proud of our perfect 5 star record!

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Early January in Denver? Something that needs to be seen is the annual long horn cattle drive through downtown! The streets are blocked, traffic cleared and warm beverages flowing for the crowd. Complete  with marching bands and politicians waving from cars, the highlight is the cowboys and cowgirls driving a herd of the long horned beasts right down 17th Street! This is the kickoff the the National Western Stock Show, well worth the time to see the competitions, vendors, auctions and more.

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Next on the list for a Winter visit is Rocky Mountain National Park! What in the Summer is a casual walk in the woods takes on a whole different degree of difficulty when covered by many feet of mountain snow. But a hike in the mountains, across a frozen lake and up a narrow trail that makes you wish for snowshoes is plenty of adventure for us. Also plentiful in the winter, the elk and deer will surprise around many corners.