Going to Colorado
We were married in June of 1968. I had been teaching at Arsenal Technical High School as was Mary. We went back to our teaching after spending the summer being married and going to Canada (taking Sid to school and a 2nd honeymoon). The school atmosphere in that spring of 1968 was turmoil. We had experienced the killing of Martin Luther King. Then Bobby Kennedy was killed a short time later.
I decided that teaching was not the area I wanted to be in. I had previously thought about wildlife biology and now wanted to pursue that road. I did some research and determined that Colorado State University located in Ft. Collins, Colorado, would be one of the better schools for that study. I contacted them and they confirmed that the program was available so we began to think toward moving to Colorado.
When we decided to move to Colorado (we decided in the spring of 1969), we had about $2000 to work with. We didn't have any place that we needed to go. We were just going to go and see what happened. We had no jobs, knew no one out there and didn't know what was going to happen when we got there. I was going to hold back enough money to get us back to Indiana should we be unable to find suitable living conditions in Colorado.
We had to buy supplies and "the van." The van was a 1961 VW bus that I bought in Indianapolis for either $1000 or $1500. It had a 36 or 40 horsepower engine and could do almost 60 MPH if you had a tail wind. (I’m not kidding) I took it home (to Kingman) and overhauled the engine and painted the exterior. I did this in the summer of 1969 and Mary worked at the Holiday Inn in Crawfordsville. We lived with Mom and Dad.
When the time came, we loaded the van with what we felt was necessary. Our other possessions we had left with various relatives. Tents and other camping gear, camera and a few clothes and books is what we took. Dad gave me an emergency road light in case we had a break down. The light was to place behind the disabled vehicle to alert oncoming traffic of a problem. I guess he didn't have much confidence in our journey.
Well he may have been right. As we drove away I noticed that the weight distribution was not the best. The van seemed to be top heavy. When I hit a bump you could feel an unnatural rocking of the van. But I went on. We got to Main Street and turned left - west - toward the great open area of Colorado.
We drove along State Road 234 west out of Kingman for about 2 miles. I then felt and heard an unnatural bumping and wobble. At Old Harry Ratcliff's place I pulled over to the side of the road. I got out to see if I could tell what the problem was. Sure enough I could. One of the wheels was about ready to fall off. I had apparently forgotten to tighten the lug nuts. What a dummy! I was sure glad that it had happened this soon. I walked to Old Harry Ratcliff's house and called Dad. "Dad, my wheel is about to fall off."
Dad brought out the floor jack and lifted the van and got the wheel secured enough that I could drive it back to the garage. The lug nuts were somewhat damaged as was the wheel and the hub. But Dad was able to get them repaired enough that we would be able to continue. By this time it was afternoon and so we decided to wait until tomorrow to leave. Anyway I wanted to repack the load and put the heavier things lower in van in order to lower the center of gravity. And we didn't have to be any place in particular at a specific time.
The next day we said our goodbyes again and off we went. The van felt much more stable and things went much smoother the second leaving. We camped out along the way. I slept under the van and Mary slept in the front seat. We had a Coleman stove and a Coleman ice chest to keep some food in. We cooked at roadside parks and ate whatever we could buy along the way. The weather was good as I remember. I kept a journal but it has been lost to the ages. I think it was in the things that were stolen when we moved into the Dana house.
I don't remember the route we took but we came into Loveland, Colorado. My ultimate goal was to get a master's or 2nd bachelors degree in wildlife biology and I had talked with Colorado State University about doing this and they were encouraging. Loveland was close to Ft. Collins (where Colorado State was located) and we thought it might be a good location. Our first view of the mountains was not awe inspiring until I realized the formations in the distance was mountains. I thought they were clouds for a long time but finally realized the difference.
We came into Loveland and drove around. We drove along the foothills south to Boulder and north to Ft. Collins looking for a place to stay that we could afford and that had a vacancy. This took a day or two but we found a motel like place that was called "The Pines" or something like that. It was in Loveland and that was good. We settled in and I began looking for a job. I was able to find a job rather quickly working in a trailer factory. I was making about $100 a week. We were able to find an apartment to move in and after a couple of weeks bought several items at a second hand store. We actually still have some of them. The table beside my bed is from that second hand store.
Our ties with Indiana had not ended with our move. I had bought a new car a few months before our move and I stored it at the garage in Kingman. I also had a payment of $112 per month on that car that was now on blocks stored in Kingman. Talk about planning! We both had payments to make on school loans. We had rent which was $90 a month. We had utilities, gas and of course film for the camera. I figured a tight budget and we had $7 a week toward food. We also had entertainment money which we used to go to a show about once a week. I think we saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Patton while we were in Colorado among others.
One of our budget meals was a pork shank that I cooked in the pressure cooker. For some reason I thought it was a good meal when cooked in the pressure cooker. When it was finished there was a gelatin layer about an inch thick in the bottom of the pressure cooker that almost gagged me. I took out the shank and put it on the table and about all we could do was laugh at our situation. We could not eat that thing.
We went to Rocky Mountain National Park quite often as it was nearby and I went out just walking around the area. Mary found a job substitute teaching and then full time teaching. I had several jobs as I would quit one if things didn't go the way I thought they should. One of our intentions was to use the area where we settled as a base and to travel around the west and enjoy the area. I had forgotten about the reins of work so we didn't do the traveling I wanted to do.
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