Monday, May 23, 2011

Coming Full Circle

Deciding to rebuild the cabin, and the year and a half it took to get it done, has been a life-changing event.

I never saw the original A-frame; it burned in the Hayman fire in 2002.  At that time I'd known Bob for less than a year and we'd been a couple for only a few months.  More than two years later, a few months before we'd marry, he took me on a Colorado road trip, a time that still ranks at the top of our many wonderful travels.  Our last night in Colorado was spent on his land, camping on the exact spot the old cabin had stood.  We had a bottle of Chivas Regal that had belonged to Bob's father, long departed, and we raised a glass to Fred while the firelight danced across the red rocks.

Toasting Fred in September 2005
The next morning we decided to find a way to make staying on the land a little more permanent than a tent and within two months Bob was back to take delivery of a 33 foot Airstream Argosy, home for as many weeks as we could manage for the next six years.  In 2009, with retirement two years away, we decided to build another cabin on the same spot, to give us a summer home and create a new retreat for a family missing its history. With the expert craftsmanship of builder Brian Shelton, the cabin was completed in December, 2010, and we once again raised a glass from the same bottle of Chivas, once again toasting Bob's parents for having trail-blazed the way and building, themselves, the original cabin.  We were only following in their footsteps.

Toasting Fred in the same spot in December 2010
We are one week away from returning to the new cabin.  Bob is in his final days of work before retiring, and we'll arrive with the freedom and time to spend the whole summer and more, setting a new precedent for this most precious of places.  Honoring the past, we move ahead into a new future of many months a year at the cabin, sharing it with family and friends, for the rest of our lives.  We've come full circle, only to find ourselves at a beautiful new beginning.