We are Steve and Queenie Malcolm. From lots of places but for 21 years we were in Ouray, Telluride and Grand Junction Colorado. Now we home base from Charlotte, NC where we have been living since 2005, just in time to catch the downturn. We will become full timers this April (that's the plan anyway). After 30+ years of construction management, 2 years ago I became part of the new group of unemployed. I have never have been without work more than a few days in my life, but this time was hugely different. About 6 months ago and after a very traumatic 18 months of growing concern and dwindling assets, we were hired be a company to represent their products at Home Shows and Festival venues. We found out we are really good at it. We have been recruited by other companies to do the same for them. We got tired of driving 1 1/2 hours to various locations and working a 12 hour day then driving back home only to repeat the process the next day even though we loved the work and were very thankful for the paycheck. We also did not like leaving our two 12 year old dogs (Llahso Apso and Yorkie) and one 12 year old cat (Russian Blue) alone for that much time. (Don't get all your animals in the same year; we will remember that next time).

When we were first married and only had one son and a Doberman, we purchased a Starcraft swinger 6 pop up camper pulled by an FJ40 Toyota 4WD. We spent EVERY weekend in it. (We lived in Corpus ChristiTX, not far from Bob Hall pier on Padre Island). Later as family grew and careers changed we sold the pop up and did not have another camper until we moved from Kansas to Ouray Colorado. We borrowed a very old and in desperate need of remodeling Shasta Class C (I think 14') camper. Redid it and moved family of 5 with 2 dogs and 3 "don't touch me kids" from Arkansas CityKS, to Ouray Colorado. We had thought that we were going to move to Durango but the camper broke down in Ouray on a side trip, and we stayed for 11 years. We lived in that camper for 42 days with those pre-teen 2 boys and 1 girl and a very patient good dog (rescued Mutt), until the home we had rented could become available. We later purchased a 24' Class A that had no name on it anywhere but we think might have been a prototype for a Winnebago. It was also very old and particularly unattractive. We made a 3,000 mile trip in that from Colorado back to Iowa and Kansas to visit family, in the winter, at Christmas with teenagers and a Rottweiler. If you saw National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, you saw the Malcolm family, really. (Note: at no time in this diatribe have I claimed any particular penchant for brilliance or even common sense).

Now all of the above is to let you know that we have discovered that my wife and I love the lifestyle of working festivals, we are very good at it and enjoy working with each other (after 38 years of marriage-surprise, surprise, surprise!) and we have fond memories of our times together when we were younger in our various camping vehicles. As time goes by the memories do distort somewhat, usually for the better, you know, the old “the older I get the better I was” adage. We are of the opinion that the first 30 years was more or less for our parents, the second thirty years was for our children and the next 30 years is for us (and our animals of coarse) so we are hoping to start our new camping adventure in about 29 days. No height for a stepper as my grand father used to say.

If possible we would love to come to the RV-Dream Rally next month, but we will have to see how that fits with our schedule. None the less I believe you all are stuck with us on your forum.

You all look like good folks to ride the river with as they used to say out West.

-- Edited by Traveling Light 2 on Tuesday 2nd of March 2010 08:32:17 AM

-- Edited by Traveling Light 2 on Friday 5th of March 2010 06:56:43 AM