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.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Day 70 - 3/30/10 - Fighter Jets





Iceman: You two really are cowboys.
Maverick: What's your problem, Kazanski?
Iceman: You're everyone's problem. That's because every time you go up in the air, you're unsafe. I don't like you because you're dangerous.
Maverick: That's right! Ice... man. I am dangerous.







Today is Tuesday March 30, 2010. I’m relaxed today. I’m nearing the completion of my second full month in Colorado, I have a routine and the people, environment and lifestyle in Telluride gives me a good piece of mind. The weather is perfect today. It is warm, but not hot. Snow is still falling in general and conditions on the mountain are great. It would be a day of sunshine, a slight threat of snow and powerfully loud noises that I love.

I spent some time in the parks. The parks have all the jumps and rails that can teach you balance in a quick way. As you will see from the video of the day there was no harm done, but landing off some of the bigger park jumps was tricky. Telluride included, most mountains have beginner, intermediate and expert parks. For today, I drew no line and went into the expert and intermediate.

I remember a long time ago I was at a ski mountain in New Hampshire. It was either Wateville Valley or Loon. It was mid day and after a ride up the mountain, I got off the chairlift and moved to a flat area to get myself locked into my snowboard bindings and ready to go down the mountain. I was with friends and at one point someone was trying to say something when I heard a loud sound. I had heard the sound before. It's a sound where no matter what is going on, it grabs your attention and you stop to see what it is. It can rip through any flat area, but in the mountains, the valleys and canyons enhance the depth and power of the sound. It was fighter jets. Whether it's a fly over at a sporting event or fighter pilot training runs in the mountains, I love the power, agility and grace of a fighter jet flying over head.

I remember wanting to be a fighter pilot when I was younger. It was the 80's, I was ten years old and I enjoyed (who did not?) the movies Top Gun and Iron Eagle. Top Gun was more famous and everyone has seen that. My quote of the day has turned into dialogue for the day. From Top Gun.....an exchange between Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Iceman/Kazanski (Val Kilmer). It is classic. Iron Eagle was the lesser known, but it had Louis Gossett Jr. All his best movies were from the 80's including An Officer and a Gentleman. The Top Gun and Iron Eagle movies should make a comeback like all the 80's bands do. For the pictures of the day, I have included promo pictures of each movie to aide in their comeback tours/remakes. I went with these particular pictures because 1) Tom Cruise's stance (with tight jeans) and pose in the Top Gun pic is awkward, and 2) the guys in the Iron Eagle pic are not in awkward stances, but rather confident and manly ones. I know Top Gun had a bit of love saga to it, so I guess his pose is somewhat of a seductive one. It just looks funny.

Fighter aircraft were developed during World War II and introduced into combat during the later years of that war. The aircraft are classified by "generations" for historical purposes. At a stage I was old enough to take interest, development was into fourth generation aircraft (70's to mid-90's). The largely successful plane was the F-15 Eagle, the plane you would think Iron Eagle was based off of. Irony comes in because the fighter jets in Iron Eagle were actually the F-16 Falcons. Why was the movie not called Iron Falcon? The answer is because one of the main characters, Doug Masters (great name), belonged to some group w/friends called the Eagles. Anyway, before the F-15 was the F-14 Tomcat. After F-15's and F-16's came the F-18 Hornet and the current cutting edge fighter of the US military, the F-22 Raptor (price tag - $142.6 million). My favorite jet is the F-18 Hornet....it is the chosen model of the popular Blue Angels (Navy Demonstration Squad) that you see in their flight shows.

Here on the mountain today, I was fortunate to see two of them today. I stopped as soon as I heard the rumble make its way through the valley and my helmet earphones. I quickly reached for my video, pressed play and looked toward the sky not knowing where they would come from. It was quick, but based on sound and look these were two F-18's. For today's video of the day I send a tribute to both fighter jets and 80's music. There was one perfect song for what I saw today on the mountain. Because of the jets, I was excited to make this video and I hope you enjoy it:


If I could go back, I would have perfect vision and become a fighter pilot. Good night from Telluride and I hope you are well.
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