We have started to talk about what we need and want to do here in Colorado before we move to Puerto Rico. I think of moving to Puerto Rico sort of like graduating from school and moving on to the next thing in life. And of course before graduation there is usually a checklist of things to get done first.  So here are a few that we have started to put into motion. I am sure there will be more that we do or think of but this is a start:

Curvy mountainous roads

1. Climb a 14er. If you haven’t ever heard of the term “fourteener” you probably aren’t from Colorado. Everyone here knows that a 14er is a mountain that is over 14,000 feet high. Colorado has the most mountains over 14,000 feet so there are a lot to choose from as you can tell from this list. We are thinking Mt. Bierstadt as it is a beginner mountain and can be done in about 6 hours (3 hours up the mountain and 3 hours down). And it is also fairly close -about 2 1/2 hour drive from Greeley. We’ve done most other things in Colorado that it’s known for including skiing, snowshoeing, snowboarding, sledding, hiking, bicycling, white river rafting,camping, etc but we haven’t yet been to the summit of a 14er. It’s a must and will take some training to do.

Pretty mountains in Estes Park, Colorado

2. Visit my dad’s gravesite in Meeker, Colorado. My dad decided he wanted to be buried in his hometown of Meeker, Colorado which is about 6-7 hours away by car. My mom went to see him buried, but the rest of have not yet seen his final resting place. We were waiting on the headstone to arrive before we went there, and so it should be there by now. We are hoping to time this trip with the peach harvest in Palisades and Grand Junction and have a little fun while we are there too.

3. Begin moving our rental properties to a management company. We had been waiting on this one because a management company charges about 10%, but now that we have a few whose leases are coming due (or people who want to break them), we think this would be a good time to transfer management over. There is no way we will be able to manage the day-to-day things especially if there is turnover when we are living in Puerto Rico. This year with a management company will give us a good idea of how it will work (or what we need to tweak) when we are away. Plus it should save us some stress having some help with them.

4. Stand at the four corners. I would like to go down south to the only place where four American state lines intersect. These states are: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona. Then we could say we were in 4 places at once!  On this trip I would also like to see Mesa Verde, the Garden of the Gods, and other southern Colorado attractions that I either haven’t seen or it has been a long while.

5. Visit/walk around every park in Greeley. Greeley is a park city. The city planners definitely did a good job with the parks as you would be hard pressed to live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have a park. When we first moved to our house, we were in that minority, and then they built “our” park, Ramseier Farm Park which is just about 1 block outside our little subdivision. We have visited most parks in Greeley, but Britton said he found a list with some that we hadn’t even noticed!

6. Throw a big going-away party. Yah, we’re already thinking about the party- well parties plural because we want to have a house-warming party in PR too once we get things fixed up and furnished.

Taken from the tower at The Dam Store near Devil’s Backbone

These are some of the big ones that we want to do in the next 500 days or so. Obviously there are a lot of small day-to-day things that will need to be taken care of like selling everything, packing, making arrangements for the animals (who’s going and who’s staying?), etc. But can you think of anything else we definitely should do before we leave Greeley, or Colorado or our current lifestyle?