030103From the moment we honeymooned in Aspen, we knew we'd be retiring in Colorado. It was clean, open, and empty. There were mountains and trees. But as one retirement passed and the next crept up, Colorado grew polluted, crowded, and expensive. The Baron wanted a timberframe home as his manor. The Baroness wanted trees and hills. We began looking around: New Hampshire had lots of timberframes. Lady Terra, in college at the time, suggested a carriage house at the foot of the manor for her Grande Entourage to rest (or party) before tackling the ski resorts. The seed was planted. Wisconsin had hills and lots of trees so we toured Green Bay. Good beer, but awfully far from those we love, and that's the whole point of this retirement plan. If we are going to move at all, then it had better be closer to people important in our lives. The Baron was working the Internet hard when he came across Dale Sherman in 2002. They corresponded. Dale sent pictures. The Baron suggested good points and bad about each. Then, Dale found a parcel that wasn't on the market yet, but he thought we'd like. It's between the new (and as yet unfinished) I-99 and the old standby I-80, on the other side of a mountain from Penn State, but only 10 miles to State College. 3.5-4 hours from Admiral von UberBaron and Lady Terra and 3 major airports. 9 hrs from Lady Ariel was a bit far, so we'd have to fly. 2 out of 3 wasn't bad.
The first sight of what was to become The Barony was in a snow storm. The only road to the top was a dirt farm path covered by 6" of snow. We took a GPS reading so we could get back without the realtor, Dale Sherman. He was good: first he showed us regular citified subdivisions; then we saw impossibly steep cliff-hanging sites better suited for a peregrine's eyrie; finally the southern face of mountain mostly covered in trees. We were looking for 10-15 acres. This parcel had 100 acres which needed to be subdivided in long political process, so we put in our request.
