Lois Bailard - Broker Associate, GRIHow I Got to Estes ParkIt was time to decide what we were going to do when we grew up. Doug had spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C. I had run a marina, worked in hospital labs and then in a nice restaurant, catering. Sometime in the next 10 years he would retire and we would have to get some “real jobs”. We owned a small travel trailer and had the idea that owning a private campground or RV Park might be a good thing to do. After a year or so of research, equipped with a list of campgrounds for sale, we hooked up our trailer and headed west. I was born in Colorado, Doug in California. Somehow we were coming back west. After 6 weeks of traveling the west, visiting family and investigating campgrounds we decided that a campground in Estes Park was the one for us. Located in such a beautiful place with decent income, how could we lose? We could always get winter jobs if we had to. We found a small house on a Sunday. We signed contracts on a business and a new home Tuesday morning. That called for a glass of wine, or 2, at lunch. Then we headed home to sell our house there. Talk about doing things backwards! Friends said we were crazy. How could we sell everything, move halfway across the country, and take over a business doing something we had never done before? Why not wait for that safe 30-year Navy retirement instead of 20? Fortunately, our dream of owning a business and living in Estes Park seemed destined. A month later I was headed back in Estes Park to take over the campground (with a full house, yet!). Leaving Doug to finish his time in the Navy Band, sell the house and a couple of rental properties in the next 5 months, I drove back to Estes Park towing a U-Haul trailer. My mother and brother came along to help towing their travel trailer. Only one tire blowout marred the trip. We were determined to get to Estes Park. We had barely parked our travel trailer when one of Estes Park's summer, afternoon showers blew through. Immediately after was one of the brightest, highest double rainbows I had ever seen. It was a good omen. That was 1986. We can't imagine living anywhere else. Our friends don't think we're so crazy and visit often enough to make our house seem like a bed and breakfast. If your dream is to live in Estes Park, give me a call and let me help you make that dream come true. 
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