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.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Days 15 & 16 - 2/3/10 - 2/4/10 - Steamboat to Telluride
















"The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences." - Christopher McCandless

Today I will cover my last day in Steamboat, Wednesday 2/3/10 and my journey from Steamboat to Telluride on Thursday 2/4/2010.

It is nice to always take time and reflect. My guess is that many of you do not have enough time in the day to do so. Prior to this trip, neither did I. It is one of the greatest things that have come out of my adventure. Of course I did not go into this expecting to think as much as I have or even write to this blog as much as I have. With a new experience it is often hard to predict how you will deal with it, react to it and reflect upon it. I do not know what my next months of my travels will bring, but since my departure I have appreciated my country more, enjoyed meeting new faces and reflected more than I ever have.

These two days are days of reflection for me. I spent much of Wednesday writing and thinking. It is quiet in the condo and my body needs some rest from the mountain. It's a shame that work has to get in the way of being creative because rest assured if I were working, I would not be taking pictures/videos and writing to you. One of the things that has been pointed out by several of you is how special it will be to always have this documentation of my adventure. What is ironic is that what I am doing now is something I have thought about doing at various points in my life. Not necessarily the travelling part, but it's that time where you say to yourself 'I wish I had a video of this.' Of course there are videos of certain milestone events like graduations, weddings, newborns, etc, but think of how interesting it would be if you had video of yourself from random high school and college days, or your first day of your first real job. Not only would you never have to rent movies (even if you hate it, everyone is intrigued by seeing themselves), but you would also have an interesting full length (and some) film of your own when it is all said and done. It is nice to think about, but unless you are a documentary specialist, it's probably not realistic. Keeping a journal however is realistic. I had never kept one until this trip and not only do I have my public journal in this site, I also have started to keep some of my own thoughts in a private journal. Reflection is good. Whether you are reflecting on good or bad things, I think it is healthy to clear your mind and write things down. Each time I have done so in my life, thought few and far between, it has made me feel good.

With these days of reflection (one being my day of travel to Telluride) I only have three videos. First two are video compilations of my drive. I try to give you a little perspective on the Colorado back roads and how curvy they are, as well as the Colorado Rockies and how big they are....and they only got bigger as I made my way to Telluride. Amazing.

- First is my departure from Steamboat. This video has some commentary along the way and its to a song called "Use Somebody" by the band Kings of Leon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aV6aiLzRaA.
- Second is another great song by Eddie Vedder called "Hard Sun" (from Into the Wild) and it just seemed to fit my long journey into the Rockies. As you can see, I tried to make the video fit the song. A little dangerous recording while driving, but I could argue that it's an art. There is no commentary to this, but an amazing song and some beautiful scenery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4-Jbt_oAC0
- Third video was an unplanned pitstop in Grand Junction, CO. In order to get some of my video the way I want it, I decided to make a purchase. Here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGucVNXOzxo Truth is, I have been thinking about getting this gadget for a while. Great media applications and just a better fit for me. This is the first blog I am typing to you from the purchase and I enjoy it thus far.

The ride was long (6.5 hours) from Steamboat to Telluride. I passed a lot of nice scenery including the large rock pictured above. I also passed an interesting landmark in my journey. My 1997 Audi hit the 3,000 mile mark for this trip! I don't have video of me praising the car for the effort, but I am thrilled it got me here. I've arrived in Telluride safely and I'm ready for my new experiences. The quote of the day is from the main character in the non-fiction book/movie Into the Wild. I have referenced Into the Wild several times before as an inspiration to my Colorado adventure. Each and every day is a new experience for me and my spirit is alive. Good night to everyone.
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