MY STORY

On January 20th 2010 I departed for my Colorado adventure. Final destination is Telluride, CO. My previous employer closed our Boston office on October 31, 2009 and this seemed to be the most opportune time to do something different. My inspirations are two things really. They are both movies. First is "Into the Wild", a movie about a person who leaves his life behind to pursue a life in the Alaskan wilderness and along the way he meets people that shape his life. The second movie is "The Bucket List", a movie about two terminally ill men who escape a cancer ward with a wish list of to-do's before they die. The #1 item on the wish list is "Witness something truly majestic". My adventures are not exactly similar to these movies, but underlying themes and life changing perspectives are. As far as the location, I thank my sister for that. She lived in the beautiful & remote town of Telluride for five years and met Paul there. Their 1997 wedding was in Telluride (Trout Lake). Telluride is nestled in the dramatic Rocky Mountains of Southwest Colorado.

BLOG 101

If you are new to blogs so am I. Here is an intro. The home page http://mycoloradoadventure.blogspot.com/ has all the posts (the write ups) in order and they work so that most recent is at top of the order. i.e. Day 1, my first post/write-up, is on the bottom page of all the posts/write-ups. On the left side of the blog site there is a "Blog Archive" section where you can navigate to pick and choose year, month and then specific daily posts/write-ups. I wanted to share this in the event you are new to blogs.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Day 17 & 18 - 2/5/10 & 2/6/10 - Telluride, CO

















"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." - Alan Cohen

Let's get to the quote a little later on. For now, I have arrived in Telluride and here are some fun facts about the place where my adventure has taken me to:
  • Telluride has the only free gondola public transportation system of its kind in North America.
  • At 9,078 feet above sea level, the Telluride Regional Airport is the highest commercial airport in North America.
  • At the east end of Telluride, Bridal Veil Falls is Colorado's tallest free-falling waterfall at 365 feet.
  • Ski Magazine rates Telluride Ski Resort in the Top 10 ski resorts in North America.
  • Telluride Helitrax is Colorado's only helicopter ski company and has been in operation since 1982.
  • Telluride was the first city in the world to have electric streetlights.
  • Once called the “City of Lights,” the world's first alternating current (AC) power plant was built here.
  • Butch Cassidy robbed his first bank in Telluride on June 24, 1889, walking away with over $24,000.
  • The Galloping Goose's oldest bus, #101, runs on non-toxic, biodegradable, vegetable oil-based biodiesel fuel.
  • There are no chain restaurants or shops in Telluride.
  • The nearest stoplight is 45 miles away.
There. Just some background on what I am dealing with here. From these two days, 2/5 (Friday) and 2/6 (Saturday) I can tell you that a few of those items on that list are true. There are definitely no street lights. One of the pictures I took above is of the town of Telluride center. It has unbelievable character to it....and not one street light. This fact is actually not a huge deal to me because my hometown of Cape Elizabeth (ME) installed it's first stop light near the high school sometime in the past decade (I think). It always had one flashing light on Rt 77, but no stop light. We also had a huge police force with three patrolling cops at any point in time. That's intimidation. While breaking up high school parties was common, pulling people over for running red lights was not. The other picture above (right) is of Mountain Village and the FREE Gondola that runs through it. I have to emphasize free because not much in any part of getting up a mountain is free unless with your own feet. The little party area below the Gondola in the picture is a place called Hop Garden. Good food and some good microbrew beers. Oh, here is one more thing I did not realize until I spoke with my sister. She lived in Telluride with her husband for five years. Telluride is it's own town and Mountain Village, with all 1,370 residents (2008 data), is its own town. I thought Mountain Village was just the area of Telluride's ski mountain where all the condos, restaurants, shopping, ski lifts were. Nope. Mountain Village is an incorporated town (1995) in the state of CO. Interesting because each town takes up a side of the ski mountain. What's even more cool about it is there are two FREE Gondolas. One goes up a face of the mountain in Telluride, hits a peak, then descends (on the same gondola line) into Mountain Village. Basically you go town to town on one FREE Gondola. It is something you have to try to really appreciate it. The second Gondola (the one pictured) runs from a ski plaza in Mountain Village to the Mountain Village Town Hall building and Village Market that are somewhat situated from the ski area.

For these two days, I walked around town, spoke with quite a few people in shops, markets, libraries, a bakery and a coffee shop...where I got a hot chocolate. It was good. It was a couple days for me to get my feet on the ground and see what the towns of Telluride and Mountain Village are like. One thing for sure is that everyone knows everyone, like all small ski towns.

So there it is. I bet you all want to visit now. And only after two days here, I think you should. It is beautiful and clean and the people here are very friendly. I'll try and capture it more in future blogs, but the way this town is nestled into the mountains is truly spectacular. And that is about the only reason you should need to come here. I have not seen any place like it.

Today's quote was cued up from some time back and I decided to use it today because someone emailed me and said "It takes a lot of courage to do what you are doing" It took me some time to think about that as courage was nothing I thought about with respect to what I am doing. It is such a powerful word to me. However when I thought about some of my moments on this trip, the elements of unknown, not having my typical comforts, it occurred to me that you have to be somewhat fearless to hop in a car and go. Again, courage is a strong word to me and its not like I had one canteen of water, no form of communication and a compass for this trip. I had modern technology to help.....well, my courage. The one part of the quote that I agree with, but does not apply is "But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful." I have not enbarked on this adventure because where I come from means nothing to me. Boston and Maine have always been home for me and I probably take for granted how secure I feel there. Anyway, I've tried to explain this before. This adventure is about opening your eyes to things you have never seen before, it's about seeing something truly majestic and it's about discovering new things about yourself that you did not know. It's really a great quote in any case.

No videos for today. Sorry. There will be some in the following days. Actually my blog for tomorrow (2/7) will be a special tribute. I hope you can all take the time to read it. Thanks for checking and stay tuned!
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