Reflections
When I moved up to Colorado from Texas as a young 20-something, I initially assumed that the Pikes Peak Region would be a temporary stopping point on my journey onward. Perhaps my next stop would be the inland Pacific Northwest (i.e. Idaho panhandle or Montana). As beautiful as Colorado was, my heart was on fire for something new, different, more. It didn’t take long for me to decide that I’d just go ahead, live the Rocky Mountain High and grow old and die here in Colorado.
In Colorado, I bought my first home (and eventually this home we’re currently in for the past 20 years). I forged friendships that have lasted well into our 50s. I got married and widowed early, then found the man of my dreams, ’til death do we part. My home survived the devastating 2013 Black Forest Fire. I summitted all of the Colorado Fourteeners, which were the least of my worries compared to the hundreds of other Rocky Mountain summits I suffered on. My husband and I took up kayaking as a way to give our bodies a break from the rigors of weekend mountain warrior life. I bought a place in the Sonoran desert with my senior parents to escape the long, frigid Palmer Divide winters. I’ve rescued a dozen dogs, grown a healthy, nourishing garden and took up chicken tending. My only decision through most of this was which part of Colorado to move to next. (For the intellectually curious, for some time, we’d settled on the Western Slope, where we could ski Powderhorn in the morning and mountain bike through the desert along the Gunnison in the afternoon.)
Then something happened. Something changed. Mike and I realized that Colorado was no longer home. The Front Range crowds become overbearing. The people became rude and short tempered, the drivers aggressive and rushed. The government became face-smackingly oppressive. Flying in and out of DEN (aka “DIA”) made my skin crawl. Many good people started leaving, to be replaced by newcomers that had no interest in becoming Coloradans. Our housing prices launched in an insane upward trajectory, causing our friends’ adult kids to move away so they could afford to buy homes and start families. Taxes and insurance costs grew by leaps and bounds. Mom and Dad grew too old to enjoy the Arizona home and it’s now a vacation rental for folks over 55. The Forest Service started buzzing with plans to put reservation systems in place for popular hikes. The state’s National Parks became insufferable. Peaceful mountain towns degenerated into overpriced, crowded Disneys where people bought 7-figure A-frames for status. Beloved hiking trails were packed with people and their music speakers and lots and lots of dog poop. In just a few short years, Colorado became a hell we needed to escape.
My Solution
We’re outta here! We are leaving Colorado, the place that we thought we would call home until our last breaths. We are packing up our home of 20 years and calling it quits. We are leaving dear friends. Leaving behind the kind of shirt-off-your back neighbors most people dream of having. We’ve set detailed, scheduled dreams of outdoor adventure aside. I guess now we’ll fly to Tucson once a year to perform maintenance and updates of the Sonoran desert rental, as the drive has gone from 12 hours to 26 hours! The new owners get to enjoy our old Colorado rootstock rhubarb patch and our oversized chicken run. The grand Ponderosa Pines standing guard over the gully will have another family to watch over.
I’ll miss the almost countless mountains above timberline waiting to be climbed. I’ll miss the proximity to the Colorado and Utah desert, and the mountains and prairies of southern Wyoming, never mind the northern New Mexico rabble of high alpine peaks and rugged desert. I’m leaving mountains unclimbed, reservoirs unpaddled, routes unbackpacked and Rocky Mountain sunsets ungazed upon. Those last few authentic cowboy towns, well, someone else will need to saddle up to the bar for a Coors Banquet and Rocky Mountain Oysters.
Oh well. On to the next place to call home! I’ll go into more details about our future destination in upcoming posts.
Your Key Takeaways
It’s easy and natural to sink roots. This is astronomically so if you have family near your home. We get used to the weather, know intimately every place within a four hour drive and really identify with the place we call home. If you’re completely content with your current location, enjoy yourself and be happy. But if you’re like many Gen Xers, you’re starting to look around and wonder if there isn’t someplace you can move that’s a better fit for this stage in life. Someplace with a more reasonable cost of living, milder winters and a slower pace of life. If you’re hearing the call, don’t ignore it.
Mike and I started with a simple spreadsheet where we tracked key variables for communities of interest: Summer high temperatures and winter lows; growing zones; precipitation; elevation; voting patterns; hours of daylight in winter. For a long time, we were stuck between the Colorado Western Slope and a few leafy, mountainous regions back east. Eventually, a return to our ancestral Appalachia won out. I hope that you’ll have a similar breakthrough and find a place that you’re ready to call your new home.