Back to Oregon
In 1988, searching for our ideal retirement spot, we found a lot at the Independence Airpark in Oregon, a community with about 40 homes adjacent to the Independence State Airport. Each lot had taxiway access to the runway and most homes had hangars. It ws an easy choice for us. Good runway, good approaches, and we could live with our plane. With Erral's input we did the plans for our airpark home and managed to include features Erral wanted. A porch around the front entry was one, and she got her own hobby room for her sewing -- right next to my hobby room, our hangar.
We brought our dually pickup and fifth wheel trailer to our lot and started building our personal Launch Pad -- our retirement home. While, it took us a couple of years to have the home finished enough to occupy, it took about 10 years to make the transition to full-time retirement. We commuted between Alameda and Independence every two or three weeks until we were fully committed to cutting our ties with California. It was a great opportunity for the two of us to get in a lot of flying. And during the two years we were building, just like old times, we lived in our cozy trailer when we were at the Independence end of our commute.
The full-time move came in April 2000.
(to be continued)