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Written by Babbling Brook

Category: Blog

Published: 21 May 2021

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Hello and welcome to my blog. I am Brook Perkins, or AKA Babbling Brook.  This is a short version of my story that began leading me to the "laptop lifestyle" that we all seek.  I'm not quite there yet, in fact, not even close!

First, I was working at a casino here in Colorado.  I hated my job. Working graveyard was not for me.  I missed my family so bad.  I was about 3 months into the second casino I worked for. Two days after my 45th birthday, I began feeling very ill.  I had a stomach ache and my chest hurt.  I was with a guest when she asked me if I was ok.  I really wasn't.  In fact the paramedics were called and wanted to take me to the ER.  I told them I would drive.  Fast forward 2 days.  I am really sick now, and needed to go to the ER.  I asked my husband, Jerry to take me.  After all the testing and scans were completed, I found out I had appendicitis.  While the Dr. was getting me ready for emergency surgery he told me, after I heal from this surgery to come back and take care of my kidney cancer.  The surgery was over and the Dr. was there telling me how lucky I am to be alive and that I was septic.  He said the appendix had ruptured and blew itself apart.  He had to move my organs to find the other piece behind my right kidney.  He had to move them again to wash me out thoroughly.  I still had to go back to get my kidney looked at.  I did, and 2 month and 12 days after my first major surgery I had my second, a complete nephrectomy, or kidney removal for us lay people.  I quit my job and was driving for Lyft until a customer said I should be a tour guide.

Jerry and I discussed that possibility.  He decided Babbling Brook Colorado Tours would do great for me.  I hated the name Babbling Brook!  So, I adopted the "Babbling Brook" persona.  I found some of the walls I had put up were getting smaller. Then, COVID-19, and the end of the tour industry for the foreseeable future.

The year 2020 was not a very good year for most of us.  For Jerry and I, it was one of the best years we've had together, and we've been married 25 years this past March 2021, so it was pretty good.  I had to have Jerry retire 5 years ago.  Two years ago he survived a stroke.  Now we don't take anything for granted. I decided I wanted to work from home or the road.

We decided we want to tour as many National Parks as we can on our motorcycle.  During the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a lot of down time, so we decided to try to upgrade his motorcycle.