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 20, 2010

Day 32 - 2/20/10 - Telluride Mountain








"I'm from Georgia. I've moved out to Colorado to be a cowboy" - Lanier from Georgia who now lives in Telluride.






Today is Saturday February 20th 2010. It is the 3rd day of the 4-day Jim Drew Memorial FIS Colorado Ski Cup. In previous posts I have explained my work as a volunteer for the races, both as a gatekeeper and on the start gate crew. Our video today gives some visual action to working in the start gate. Here it is:

I want to step away from the race itself and focus on the photo and the quote for a minute. You might ask why I selected this quote. First of all let me say that I had lunch with Lanier today. I snowboarded off the mountain, from the race, and I went inside TSSC headquarters to have lunch. They make sandwiches and bag them with chips, snacks and a bottle of water. It is very generous of them and I certainly appreciate the level of work that goes into doing this for a team of 25+ people involved with volunteering for the race. Back to Lanier. I was sitting down and Lanier came over and said "I played soccer with you two nights ago. I forget your name." I answered and told him to grab a seat for lunch. He sat down and to keep conversation going, I said "Where are you from and what brought you to Telluride?" His response everyone.....was the quote of the day.

Honestly, I can't really explain why I find his words so intriguing, but I do. I even phoned a couple people back in the east and told them about it. My main thought is that it is simply a response that 1) I have never heard before in my life, and 2) is just a cool thing to say. Imagine if I started off my blog back in January saying "Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know I left Boston to be a cowboy" Minus the fact that my bow-legged attribute would support it, all of you would fall off your chair laughing. It's just a not-so-typical thing we all hear in the Northeast. That is my intrigue and last time I checked Georgia is not know for Cowboys either. Lanier confirmed that adding that there are so few Cowboys left in the country; guys that truly do ALL their work on horseback and heard cattle for 16+ hours a day, 7 days a week. I respected what he said. So much that my picture of the day (above) is of Lanier. He is the tall dude on the left with orange pinnie and red shorts. Lanier is 28 years old (I think) and in a strange twist I had this picture of him playing soccer from 2 days before when we played. Random huh? Also pictured (and a nice random find) is Zach...in the orange pinnie and black shorts. Zach was the good man who filmed my soccer video from my Day 30 post.

Here's a test for everyone. What is the origin and meaning of the name Lanier?
Answer - Lanier is of Old French origin and its meaning is "woolworker"

Cowboys herd sheep too right? Lanier, just by name you were destined to be a Cowboy. Great quote and even if it does not work out, I admire your courage for pursuing something of significant legend in our country. Good to meet you and good night from Telluride.
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