This is about going off into the sunset, literally and perhaps figuratively. 

Until 2016, I roved or was in the single operator portable category every January since I wrapped up my career as a university professor and retired at the end of 2002. Usually I operated with other rovers.  That included a rove in the northeast (almost 3,000 miles from home), two roves in East Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas and a rove in New Mexico and West Texas.  There were many highlights, including making a lot of new friends and setting scoring records in both the rover and SOP categories as I wandered across America.

This year I stayed close to home for the first time in 14 years. I did a part-time single operator high power effort at my house In Panorama Heights, three miles from home in Tustin, Calif.

A highlight was following K6FGV/R and K6WCI/R (with N6TEB) as they roved from the four grids near Mojave back to their home grids in L.A.  We worked over the San Gabriel Mountains (up to 10,000' in elevation) on all bands through 10 GHz.  Thanks, guys, for your patience and persistence.  They could have gone much further afield, but a major snowstorm in the mountains was in Sunday's forecast.  They all had to be back for demanding work responsibilities Monday morning, and Interstate 5 actually was closed Sunday afternoon, as predicted.  For once, common sense prevailed over ham radio adventures.  They were back in L.A. by Saturday evening--and I never left L.A.

There was a time when all of us would have ignored the National Weather Service and charged ahead with a 20-grid rove in spite of the real risk of getting stranded somewhere.  I guess it's proof that the years are passing when we all either stay home or cut a rove short to avoid a big El Nino-driven storm.