Hey, people. Sorry to bore with the last post. I didn’t get a chance to say much last time. I’ve been living without the internet since I moved into my apartment last July. And about a month ago, I began acquiring an internet signal from my neighbor who lives a few doors down from me. (I paid her), but it’s too far away, so it doesn’t work very well to say the least.

So, I’m back to invading coffee shops and wherever I else I can get the internet until I decide to breakdown and just fork over the $40/month. Life without it isn’t terrible. For that little time it did work, I found myself sleeping less and waking up late because of the luxury of having something to distract me at home.

It’s becoming more unnecessary as the weather warms up, though. I’m pretty excited about the weather warming up here. My first Durango winter wasn’t terrible, but there’s a lot more cheap/free things to do here during the warmer months. Although, these days my mobility has been limited to my legs and the Durango transit system.

On the evening of St. Patrick’s, I drank about one or three too many Guiness’ and made the mistake of trying to ride my bicycle home. Upon mounting my steed, I immediately fell, which introduced my bike to the pavement, and I as well. I think my balance was a little off. So, I got up, tried, again to mount my steed, tried to pedal, and it wouldn’t go. Why? Because the combination of my 180-lb frame and the hard surface of the road was too much weight my bicycle’s fragile, 60-lb, 20-year-old frame and separated the aluminum from the rear gears.

Gah!! I looked at my bike the next day and was slightly befuddled. Ah. When drinking goes bad. It’s never good. The sacrifices that one makes to have too much fun in downtown Durango.

It’s just a bike. It can be replaced. And it definitely will have to be replaced. I took it to a welder in Durango to get fixed a few weeks ago. He still has it. It’s being held hostage. I think it’s kind of fixed, but I will probably never know. I went to pick it up the day before Easter. I looked at it. I ran through the gears without riding it. And the chain was rubbing against the front derailer in some gears.

That worried me a bit. I expressed that to the arrogant welder, who proceeded to talk down to me and express to me that it had nothing to do with his craftsmanship. To my surprise, even with a half-fixed bike, he told me it was going to cost $275 for the repair. I told him I wasn’t going to pay that and left.

I went back the next Monday to take it for a test ride. He didn’t like that idea. We continued to argue about the price and his competence in fixing things. That didn’t work. I think he got a little mad at me. He called me the next day and offered to bring down his price $50, after which, I told him I’d give him $100 and that I wasn’t sure if it was even worth that.

I haven’t heard from him since. So my bike remains a hostage. He probably knows it’s a nice bike and thought I was dumb enough to pay his initial price. I actually asked him an estimate a couple times while he was repairing it, but he wouldn’t give me one. He knew what he was up to in this dealing, and I’m sure he does it to multiple customers. I’m almost positive it wouldn’t have taken him four hours, as he said, to weld the bike. I paid $90 for it. It’s simply not worth my time or energy from this point on.

Oh well. I’m on my way to building a new bike with some some parts people have been giving me lately. So that’s good.

Other than that, just been doing my thing at the paper and trying to get on a hike once in a while. I’m looking forward to May 13. I’m getting a much-needed 5-day staycation.

Here’s a photo I took today when I was out.

Spring has arrived in Durango

People are playing instruments along the streets of downtown Durango; in the parks; on the bus; bicyclists are abound, people are walking their dog(s), trails are being hiked, coffee is being consumed on outdoor patios at coffee shops, rafts and canoes are meandering down the Animas River; ah yes, springtime has finally arrived in Southwest Colorado.

This place really is about as good as it gets for not being Hawaii. Winter, eh, not really my thing, unless I start skiing, then I can imagine how much different it is, but so far, I can see why people like living here. There’s a plethora of things to do, the weather is incredible and, on top of it all, it’s beautiful.

Most places in the country are experiencing warmer-than-average temperatures. And that could be a bad thing, but for now, I’m breaking out the shorts and flip flops and enjoying it while I can. For Durango, and several other places in Colorado, warm weather this early in the spring season can lead to forest fires in the summer. There was a really bad fire in 2002 here called the Missionary Ridge Fire.

It didn’t affect the actual town of Durango, but it came close. The fire could be seen engulfing the forests north of here, and by driving about 5 miles north of Durango, you can still see the aftermath of the fire. Tree are no longer are there, or the ones that are still standing, are basically giant, charred toothpicks.

So, that’s a photo of that fire. Apparently, the winter of 2002 was even drier than the one we just had. It must have been pretty exciting to be working at The Durango Herald when that was happening. I heard people were putting it a lot of overtime. And, one of our reporters actually put a book together, and the Herald published it.

So, besides being super excited about spring, I’ve just been doing my thing at the paper.

Is it summer, yet?

I realized last week that I haven’t posted anything in a very, very long time. I actually went the whole month of January without a post, and if I don’t post something quick, February, too.

Winter has been similar here to every other cold climate I’ve spent it. Cold, snowy, dark – you know, the usual depressing things. But alas! Spring is quickly approaching. That is a good thing. Actually, winter has been fairly mild and easier than a Nebraska winter and easier than my winter in Korea.

So I’ve kind of made it sound worse than it is. I think I was a little spoiled with my Hawaiian winter last year. It doesn’t get too windy here, which really helps. And there are many fun things to do in the snow here. You can go snowshoeing, cross country skiing, downhill skiing … umm … and probably many other things.

I participated in a traditional Durango event called SNOWDOWN. It was in early February.

Gosh. I can’t believe a month has gone by since that happened. I’ve been working about 50 hours a week for the last two weeks, or 3 weeks, including this week. That makes time go by pretty darn fast, I think. So, yeah, let me tell you about that winter festival thing I just mentioned.

Snowdown 2012 

This event has happened every year the first week of February in Durango for about the last 34 years . Basically, it’s for the the locals. There’s not much to do during this time, the tourists are gone, there’s good beers to be drank in the winter – what better time to have a festival and do crazy, weird things? I heard it actually scares some locals away. 

There’s also a theme every year. This year it was “fairy tales.” So people basically dressed up as their favorite fairy tale character and paraded around it in downtown Durango for 5 days and got belligerently drunk. I didn’t take it that far though.

I should probably mention that there’s events. People need a reason to drink, so they have made up all kinds of different games and events that involve mass amounts of drinking. There was a 3-day pub trivia match, for example. There was also pub golf.

And then there was this crazy event at one of the local breweries where they had a pool of  beer outside, and if you were dumb enough, you could jump in it for prizes. They call it the Polar Beer Plunge. I should probably admit that was among those dumb enough to do it. How can I resist such an opportunity? When else am I going to the chance to hurl myself into a pool beer in freezing temperatures in front of a 200+ or so strangers?

Well. Life is short. So, I got myself a Speedo and a swimcap and went for it. Why not? Really. Why not? I can’t believe I was even a little apprehensive about it. I thought I’d be more nervous, too. But when they called my name to jump, I felt an overwhelming sense of excitement wash over me, and I just went with it.

One of my co-workers was actually there filming the whole thing. He was there anyway because he had to take photos for the paper, but when I jumped in the beer, he got video of it. When you get in, you have to get a prize. The prizes are inside little plastic containers, and you are supposed to get it with your mouth. That’s really difficult because they are floating all over the pool. But I tried to obey the rules and it get it my mouth. That failed. I just ended up finding with my hand and put it in my mouth when I went underbeer.

The prize inside was dinner-for-two at Carver Brewing Co., which was the location of the plunge. It’s a good place to eat, and they make good beer. I was kind of concerned what my co-workers might think of  this crazy adventure of mine. But, turns out, they thought it was pretty damn funny, and that video circulated throughout the office for about the next three days. I got pats on the back from my bosses and colleagues at the newspaper. What a relief.

I even inspired a few others at work to do something similar. The next weekend, there was an actual Polar Bear Plunge. This group invited people out on a Saturday morning to jump into the Animas River (it runs through town). And four of my co-workers did it. They said it was really refreshing. I might have to agree with them.

Many of you probably saw the photo on Facebook, but I’m also happy to explain the situation to you to put the picture into context. So. I hope I explained myself well.

Here’s the photo for those of you haven’t seen it.

Cross Country Skiing

Last week … I tried cross country skiing. What is that, you ask? Well. It’s kind of like hiking while wearing skis.

It’s really easy. You basically just need two healthy legs, arms and a brain. And I’m sure you could still probably do it if you were missing one of those three things. That’s not even the best part. On top of all that, it’s free. That’s right. Free. You just have to find  a way to get to the spots. In my case, my good co-worker and friend, Steve (the one who took the video of the plunge), drove us to the mountains for this amazing adventure last Thursday.

Again, I can’t believe I was apprehensive about cross country skiing. That’s what I’ve learned from these two experiences. It’s basically pointless to be apprehensive. I’m done with it. I’m just going to go with my gut feeling for now on.

It only costs about $20 to rent a pair of cross country skis and boots. These skis are a little different than downhill skis. They are a little smaller and skinnier.  We went up to a great spot called “Molas Pass.” It’s in the San Juan Mountains about 40 minutes north of here.

It was gorgeous. I’ve never seen something like that in person, only in photos. But it was like one of those perfect, serene mountain landscapes that you see in movies and stuff. And there was so much untouched snow. It was a sea of snow. It was also very deep, as a I found out. Steve and I went off the trail at one point and found some fresh, untouched powder. He went down it no problem. But when I went down, I went down. Literally. The snow was so deep that I couldn’t get myself out. All of my attempts failed. Steve climbed up to give me a hand. But ’twas the experience!

While we were trekking along the snow, all you could hear was skiis gliding across the snow and avalanches in the far distance. It sounded like thunder. It was extremely quiet, so that’s probably one reason we were able to hear them.  We were nowhere near to getting hit by one. But avalanches are a problem this time of  year because the new snow falls on top of the old, wet snow, and there’s not enough cohesiveness, so avalanches form.

So there’s been a few avalanche deaths around here. These people are crazy for skiing and snowboarding around here though. They are the fearless type.

This was a typical view on that day.

This is the trail we skied.

That's after falling in the deep snow.

Playing in the snow like that makes you feel like a kid again. I want to get a pair of cross country skis, now. It’s time to do fun stuff like this in Colorado more often. While I can, right?

I should mention that the Herald won a bunch of awards recently. http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120226/NEWS01/702269900/-1/News01/Herald-wins-71-top-press-awards#/storyimage/DU/20120226/NEWS01/702269900/EP/1/9/EP-702269900.jpg&maxw=620&maxh=400

Cold and Cool Colorado

Well, so far so good in Colorado this winter. Newspapers don’t observe holidays, so I’ve mostly just been doing my thing. Christmas Eve and Christmas were on the weekend this year, so I don’t know what people do other years, but reporters turned in their articles before they left for the weekend, and the copy editors stayed and laid out the pages for the paper on both days.

It felt like Christmas. It was great to be surrounded by snow, pine trees and mountains during the holidays. But I think I’ve become kind of immune to not being home for the holidays. It really wasn’t possible to take off and go home because only so many copy editors at the paper.

Actually, there’s three primary copy editors and one of them had her last day this past week. I will miss her at the office. She taught me a lot about copy editing and design, but she found her dream job out in the middle of nowhere somewhere doing something with wild horses, so I’m happy for her.

I’m sure they won’t have a problem finding someone to fill the position in this economy. They actually hired some chick to start Jan. 15, but she decided not to take the job after all, so they are staring the job search over.

The Descendants

If you haven’t seen The Descendants, I really suggest that you do. I saw it last night after it finally hit theaters in Durango. The whole Hawaiian theme of the movie was really cool I thought, but what was cool was that they actually tied in some in-depth Hawaiian history into the movie. I really regret not seeing it this past September when I had the chance at the Telluride Film Festival when my friend Tyler and I were up there over Labor Day weekend.

George Clooney himself was actually in Telluride for the screening of his new movie. I think that was actually one of the first, if not the first, screenings of the Descendants in America.

There is a huge misconception that Hawaii is just a lush archipelago paradise where people don’t have a care in the world, and they spend their days lazying on white, sandy beaches beside big beautiful blue waters drinking pineapple-mango cocktails. No. That’s not the truth. And this movie really shows that. There are people there, just as there are people everywhere else in the world, who have real lives, concerns, worries, problems, bills to pay.

I love that they tied that into the movie because there’s too many movies out there that depict Hawaii in the former fashion. Both lifestyles are there of course, but there is a lot of suffering going on in Hawaii, and most of it is because of the financial aspect of living there, and the hardships that have been created by “outsiders.” For thousands of years it was a pure, natural place where people lived off the land until the white man came along 200 years ago and brought diseases and capitalism.

Anyways, that’s not what the movie is totally about, but it does touch on it and have a big part in it. At least, that’s what I saw from my perspective. There’s definitely more of a human side to the movie than palm trees and beaches.

Happy New Year

Supposedly 2012 is the last year of our lives, so you should all make it count. I will be working on New Year’s Eve, but I think I will get off work in time to enjoy a couple of beverages.

Here’s a couple photos taken today from a trail I often take to get to the gym. The La Plata Mountains are officially snow-capped, and it’s an absolutely beautiful sight.

This is a good place for people new to skiing or snowboarding, or people who just don't want to pay a lot to slide down a mountain. It's called Chapman Hill. It's right in town too, so it's convenient. To get to the top, there's a rope-and-pulley system on the right side, and it will pull you up to the top. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm sure my day will come.

Another year ends, another begins

I find myself measuring my life not by the traditional calendar, but by the last time I moved. I remember when I began noticing how swift time moves the older I aged, and I was about 18 years old and I was a senior in high school. It is true, we shouldn’t take a second of our lives for granted. Even though so much has happened this past year, I still feel there’s plenty of things didn’t.

Exactly one year ago on this day, Nov. 30, 2010, I began a new journey in life when I flew to Molokai. I took a new course in life. I moved once again and with action, comes change, and with change, comes new experience, new people, new scenery, new foods, new ideas, new viewpoints, new things to be learned. At least, these are the very reasons why I left Nebraska a few years ago.

I would love to write down every single thing I’ve learned in year since, but that’d probably be overkill, so I’d just like to tell you a few of the most important things I’ve learned in a past year between my stay in Hawaii and the La Plata Mountain Range.

1. People are people anywhere you go. They are just finding the best way to be happy. How they get there is the interesting part. In Hawaii, it might be hunting boar or surfing. Here, it may be mountain climbing or hiking. In Korea, it could be working your butt off in a good company like Samsung to take care of your family.

2.  No matter where you, every place has it’s beauty. If you are in Nebraska, you endless horizons. In Hawaii, you have amazing weather and crazy beautiful water. In Colorado, endless mountain ranges.

3. And the thing that strikes me as really cool, is that music is integrated into every corner of life. It’s one pure thing that everyone can agree on. It can transcend cultural barriers unlike anything else and speaks in a way that most things cannot.

I’ve definitely been blessed to have all of these wonderful experiences in the past year. Sometimes I try to look back on everything and be thankful God has given me the opportunity to go to Molokai and get a full-time gig in Durango. Sometimes it just seems like a dream though, but I look forward to the day when I can look back on it and be happy with the decisions I’ve made.

So yeah, just had to throw that reminiscence out there to mark the one-year anniversary of getting my butt out of Nebraska again. Enough of that though. Last week, I celebrated Thanksgiving in Colorado for the first time. In fact, I kind of see that as the first time I celebrated that holiday out of Nebraska and being in the United States. I don’t consider a Hawaiian Thanksgiving quite the same.

It was nice, I was fortunate enough to have the day off from work and even more fortunate enough to be invited to two dinners. I basically ate a lot and got really tired.

This upcoming Christmas should be interesting, because I’ll be working, but more because this will be my first Christmas celebrated in America since 2007. In ’08, I was in Honolulu; in ’09 I was in Korea; and in ’10 I was on Molokai. So it’ll be cool to be in the western world for the holidays, but at the same time, the western world’s idea of corporitization  makes Christmas what it is today.

Heck, I even got that in Korea. Coffee shops and stores were all decked out in Christmas decorations. But of course, the holiday spirit wasn’t in the air. It’s a total Western holiday of celebrating the art of gift giving and capitalism. That’s kind of a cynical way of looking at things, but really, let’s be realistic, it’s more about “things” than the real thing, “Jesus’ birth.”

But nonetheless, it is my favorite holiday and I enjoy the family aspect that comes with it. I won’t be with my family, but I will be thinking of them.

Everyone, please, do yourself a favor this holiday season. Keep in mind what is really important and think of those in the world who go without simple meals and clean water year-around.

I went hiking back in August and took this photo of Durango.

Winter in Durango

We’ve been getting some snowfall here lately.  Check it out. It’s a little more appealing to the eye when mountains are involved.

This is the mountain behind my house. It's called "Smelter." They used to mine uranium from it back in the day. And those materials were, in turn, used to create the atomic bomb that we used on Japan.

Halloween and Trevor Hall in Durango

It’s a beautiful time to be alive in Durango. The trees have started to show their color this past month, as well have the people. Last night was Halloween, so like every other year in Durango, the Zombie March assumed at around midnight.

The march consists mainly of the youngsters of Durango, and of course, anyone else who wants to participate. I wasn’t expecting much out of it, but it turned out to be more than probably anybody anticipated that attended.

Trevor Hall.

Basically, people start drinking whenever they get thirsty that night and then at around 12 p.m., the marchers, dressed in their costumes, drunk and all, they begin walking in the middle of Main street.

That's Ryan Owns, our sports writer and this guy dressed up in Beer 30 costume. That's a funny, cheap beer you can buy in Colorado.

I got off work at around 11 p.m., so at that time, I walked down to where the the march began, right outside Lady Falenburghs; a cheap bar where college students go to get a tasty pint. Its selection is rather good, actually.

So from there, the march began and we walked down to about where the Durango Herald is, so about six blocks. There were a lot of people. And basically they just got really loud, and started knocking over trash cans and whatever else was in their way. And then we turned around.

Undercover cops arresting an unruly kid.

My coworkers Ryan, Jim, Jordyn and I stopped at a bar along the way. When we came out, we were pretty surprised with what we discovered in the street. There were tons of cops, who looked highly disorganized, fighting the crowd off the street.

In the meantime, people we were yelling obscenities at the cops, throwing things at them, people were getting arrested by undercover cops, people were getting arrested by covered cops, there was a K-9 dog, batons, the national guard; all of them were there trying to instill peace. But I still have no idea what caused this, because we stopped at the bar, so we weren’t there when the real chaos ensued.

After that, people started to sit in the street and all of the sudden, what started as a somewhat peaceful zombie march (besides the trash can tipping, which is pretty normal, I heard) turned into a riot with undercover cops, police dogs, riot gear and all, and then, a peaceful protest. Weird stuff I tell ya. Never seen anything like it. I don’t know how it ended, because I went home before anything else happened. But life in Durango has went on as normal. If you live here, but weren’t there last night, then you wouldn’t even know it happened, because downtown looks completely normal and looks like it did when they left it.

Halloween was a three-day affair in Durango. For me, it started with a Trevor Hall concert at Fort Lewis College on Saturday night. Lucky for me, I didn’t have to pay to get in, because I won the tickets at work. Every week, they hold a drawing for concerts that are happening at the Fort, and this week, I just so happened to win. So I usually work ’til about 8-9 p.m. on Saturdays, so my coworker Shane and I left when I got off at 8:30 p.m.

When we showed up to the show, Trevor Hall was already performing. I was under the impression there was an opening act, so I was surprised he was already on stage. But that’s OK. Apparently, the opener didn’t show up and Hall started performing right at 7:30. So he had already been playing for about an hour before we arrived.  I was pretty shocked to see the concert hall fairly empty for an act such as Trevor Hall.

He usually sells out venues in Denver when he plays there, and I’m sure elsewhere in the country. That’s OK, though. It was a personal show. I’d say there were about 150-200 people total in place that holds about 2,000-2,500 people. So it was pretty empty. But it was a great show. He sounded just like he does on the album, or maybe even better.

We heard some good songs, though. We heard some of his older stuff, as well as some of the new stuff.

Anyways, like I said, it’s a great time to alive in Durango. I’ve been pretty darn lucky since coming here between getting a good job and winning concert tickets to see good musicians. Life is good if you want it to be, I guess.

My buddy Wayne and I went camping in his 1983 VW Vanigan a couple days ago. It was extremely cold and I conveniently forgot my sleeping bag.

Here's my pad. It's the one with the open door (410).

Falling in the San Juan Mountains

Wow. It’s been almost one month since my last post. That could be a good sign that my life is getting a little more serious. If by working 40 hours a week is considered serious? Who knows. I also don’t have internet at my apartment, so in the early morning hours, which are usually good for writing this stuff and collecting my thoughts, I’m dozing off instead of surfing the Web.

These days are pretty good, actually. I’m starting to feel more and more like I’m getting to know Durango. When I walk around town, I’m starting to notice familiar faces; starting to get to know the good restaurants, stores, bars; and definitely getting to know the weather patterns. I know if I leave my apartment during the day, it’s definitely going to be much colder when I get off work at night.

The weather has been cooling off these days as winter quickly approaches. My mom came this past week to check out Colorado, and I think she came just in time, because the weather started to cool off the day after she left. Yesterday it rained all day basically and today it looks like it’s going to be about more of the same. I also heard it might snow in Durango tomorrow, but Silverton, which is at about 10,000 feet, has a 90 percent chance of snow. Durango’s at about 6,000 feet.

Mom had a really good time in Durango. I think it was her kind of place. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it all, because I was working most of the time she was here, but I did have a couple days off from work. Originally, I had only one day off. I went in for work on a day that I usually have off, but would have been overtime for me, but my boss said I could go home and spend it with my mom.

She really couldn’t have picked a better week to come, because it was Cowboy Week in Durango. So we attended a movie called Buck at a local indie theater called, “The Backspace Theatre”. It was really. It’s based on the cowboy portrayed in the movie “The Horse Whisperer,” which stars Robert Redford. It was a great documentary and I recommend it to all. I think mom really enjoyed it.

That day was my birthday, so afterward we went to a restaurant/brewery called “Steamworks” and we sat on the deck there and had dinner and beer. That was nice. After that, my friend from work Ryan, the sports writer (this guy knows everything about sports. everything.) showed up and had a beer with him as well. My other friend Garret showed up as well and hung out with him for awhile. Ryan and I went to The Ranch, my new favorite bar in Durango. It’s very grungy and dirty inside, but it has good atmosphere and kind of reminds me of a bar you’d see in Nebraska.

I didn’t take mom to The Ranch though. She went home. The next day, mom and I rented a Jeep Liberty and took a stroll through the San Juan Mountains. That’s what I really wanted to do with her, because I knew how much she would enjoy it. The aspen started changing color a couple weeks ago, so I thought they’d look nice by the time she arrived.

This is Baker's Bridge. A lovely view right outside Durango. Kids jump off of this for fun in the summer when the water is warm, but rushing quickly. It sounds like quite a thrill, but pretty dangerous. Reminds me of floating down that fast river in Laos.

And so went onward up into the San Juan Mountains to see the aspen.

7,000 feet ...

Silverton is the first town you come to on the San Juan Skyway … it’s at 10,000 feet.

She liked Telluride, I think. In the distance is the tallest waterfall in the continental U.S. Can you see?

Actually, I should not have been driving at all on this day. I don’t have a license anymore. Not because I lost my wallet a couple weeks ago, but because mine expired on my birthday last week and I can’t get a new one because …. I’m partially blind. I need glasses it turns out. I went to the DMV last week to get my license renewed and I flunked the eye exam. Dang it!

But I didn’t want mom to drive. I wanted her to enjoy the view, so I drove and let her sit back take it all in.

That day I took the most photos, all of the other days I forgot to take my camera out, but mom has plenty of photos on her camera, so that’s good. Maybe she can share them with me and I’ll post them on here when she gets them developed …

Anyways, Durango’s not the type of the place if you want to see tall buildings and lots of buildings, but rather, it’s the kind of place you’d come to just sit back and enjoy your life. There’s good all kinds of outdoors activities to partake in, great restaurants, great breweries, amazing sights and amazingly nice people. I really wouldn’t have wanted to end up anywhere else, honestly.

Look, Outside magazine ranked it No. 1. http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/best-towns/Durango-Colorado.html

When I was working, mom was able to easily entertain herself. And when I wasn’t working, it seemed like we were always eating. I introduced her to sushi at a Japanese restaurant here. She liked it. I was talking with the chef there and he said he visited Korea once so we had a good conversation about Asia and so forth.

So all in all, mom had a good time and I don’t think it will be last trip to Durango. It was good to see her and have her company.

So who’s next? Angie, Penny, Julie, Katie, Stephanie, Chris, Jim, Lisa?

Tyler Blair does Durango, Silverton, Ouray and Telluride

Well, it seems like I’ve been helping tourism in Durango quite a bit with my contribution of Nebraskans and Koreans to the economy. My Korean visitors left me mid-August, and my hometown buddy Tyler Blair graced Durango with his presence this past weekend.

Besides that, these past few weeks life has been going well. I mean, as if getting a 30 hour/week job was exciting enough, moving up to full time status these past few weeks has been quite the feather in my hat.

Can’t beat having some health insurance and getting that coffee shop job out of my hair. It was nice, but stressful keeping two jobs and nice to spend more time in the office. Sometimes it seemed like I was working harder making coffee than a newspaper. That’s not good.

Blair arrived this Thursday and we rented a car pretty much as soon as he got here and started driving north onto Silverton. I haven’t seen Tyler since I left Nebraska last fall, but we just hung out briefly and before that I was in South Korea. So we actually got some good American-bonding time. And it doesn’t get any more American than Durango.

You can kind of see Silverton in the background, well, that was the purpose of this pose, anyways.

As I said, we went to Silverton and after that, we drove to Ouray and then Telluride. These are really nice towns and I’ve enjoyed having the pleasure of seeing them. It was cool to show Tyler, one of my childhood friends, all this beautiful stuff in Colorado. I think he really enjoyed it. Telluride was cool, because we rode a free gondola. I wanted to try it when the Koreans came, but we didn’t really have time.

You can see the train below on its way to Silverton. See it? See it?

Telluride is also a nice place to visit, because it’s kind of fancy. There’s a lot of millionaires and billionaires living up there. Most people who live there didn’t make there money there. They made it elsewhere and moved there. I met a guy from Switzerland in Durango and he told me he was living in Telluride and said it was cheaper than where he lived in Swiss. Crazy, huh?

You can see the town of Telluride from the free gondola.

But they definitely move there for the beauty. It’s one of the nicest towns I’ve been to. The Telluride Film Festival occurs every Labor Day weekend, so we go to experience a bit of that. Apparently, George Clooney was there for the sneak preview of his new movie, “The Descendants.” We didn’t see him, but he was there, we heard. Glen Close was also in town to preview one her new movies, as well.

We walked by this graffiti in Telluride and I couldn't help myself. Isn't it so true? The one on the right, of course ...

This was an exciting weekend for Telluride, because the George Bushes’ niece Lauren Bush was getting married to Ralph Lauren’s son on Lauren’s ranch near Telluride. It was very exclusive and they didn’t really allow much press in, so The Durango Herald wasn’t able to interview the president or the designer, but nonetheless, was a pretty good story about it. You can read it here: http://durangoherald.com/article/20110904/NEWS01/709049884/A-’royal’-weddingWestern-style

 

Clooney's new film was shown here.

Other than that, Tyler and I explored Durango a bit. I was also working quite a bit, but Tyler hiked and biked in the mean time. On Labor Day Tyler and I went for a hike up the Animas Mountain and reached 8,000 feet. Not bad, huh? The hike actually wasn’t too bad. And we got a pretty good workout and some amazing views on top.

Coming in on Durango from the west ...

I’ve found that hiking is pretty awesome here. No matter where you are, you’ll get a great view when you get to the top. It’s pretty awesome. I think I was pretty well-prepared from hiking to Kalaupapa on Molokai all the time. That steep hike pretty much  makes all the hikes here look easy. Well, not easy, but a little easier.

On our hike up to the Animas Mountain. That's the town of Durango in the background.

Anyways, it was really nice to have Tyler visit. He’s a good friend and a long-time one, so his company was appreciated.

My next visitor on my September visitors list is Mom Hayden, probably the ultimate of them all. I wouldn’t be here without her, right? Anyways, looking forward to showing her what Southwest Americana. I’m sure she’ll enjoy it a lot.

And we made it ...

From Korea to Colorado

It’s been almost a year since I left South Korea. I can’t believe it. I left there on Sept. 1, I think. Or was it Sept. 2nd? I don’t know. Although, I could have left there on the 1st and arrived in Nebraska on the 1st, or left there on the 2nd and arrived in Nebraska on the 2nd. Who knows. All I know is that I was definitely in Korea for a good 18 months out of my young, naïve life. Ahh. Those were the days.

Ju Eun, Trevor, Me and Ju Young.

Careless, free, adventurous, being the white guy everywhere I went, ordering food in Korean, meeting people from Korea and abroad … man… those were the days. Now I’m an old, grown up dude working a big kid job just being a white guy in the land of white people.

But it’s nice to have visitors from Korea to make that experience feel even more than it was. To solidify it. An experience that makes me think “Yeah. Hell yeah. I was there and I met these amazing people and it undoubtedly changed the course of my life.”

Trevor and I on the way to Silverton.

This past weekend my homies from Gwangju made their way to Colorado for a few days. First, they were in Utah visiting Trevor’s family. They were there for a few weeks.

It must have been an interesting transition coming from one of the most morally strict states in the union to one of the least strict states in the union. In Utah, most liquor stores are open really weird hours, like 8-5 p.m., so I think they were happy to be free again in the land of the free.

I met Trevor, Ju Young and Ju Eun when I was in Korea. Trevor is from Utah and moved to Korea about a couple years before me. Trevor met Ju Young in Gwangju. Trevor and Ju Young started dating. And about two years later I invaded Gwangju and made my presence known pretty soon after I arrived.

Driving into Silverton.

I can remember a couple weeks, maybe one? after I was in Korea, I went downtown for some drinks with my co-workers. I ran into Ju Young and her little sister Ju Eun. I don’t know where Trevor was. But he wasn’t there and I didn’t meet him until a few months after that. But I talked to them and Ju Young went on to tell me that she had a boyfriend from Utah.

Ju Young had mentioned in our conversation that she had a single friend, actually. And actually, I started dating her friend, Bo, a couple months after that. And so, it began. I started to get to know Ju Young, Trevor and Ju Eun over the course of the rest of my time in Korea.

This has happened a lot lately. The deer just show up on people's lawns and start hanging out. JuYoung and Ju Eun really liked that part of Durango.

I was really happy and thankful to meet such good people while I was there. Trevor and Ju Young are really cool, kind people and I think we will continue to be friends for a long time. This was Ju Young’s second time in the U.S.A. and her little sister’s first. So it was definitely exciting for both of them to be here. Trevor works at a university near Gwangju and he gets really good vacation time in the summer and winter seasons. So he was able to come back to see his family with Ju Young.

And this was the next day outside my house.

Actually, last summer they got married in Gwangju and Trevor’s mom and dad was there for it. So that was pretty cool. They then took a trip to China with together with his parents. So that’s kind of cool, I think.

Before I came to Colorado I contacted Trevor and asked him if he planned on being in the States any time soon, because I though I remembered him talking about making a trip back home this summer when I was in Korea. Colorado and Utah are right next to each other, so I thought it might be a good opportunity to hang out. Although, to his disappointment, we wouldn’t be meeting in Hawaii since I was leaving there, he said yes so we went from there and started making the plans to hang out.

Silverton.

The plans ended up working pretty good. Although, I only had one day off. The time I did have off from work was spent wisely and we had a great frickin time. I think I was so excited for their arrival that I could barely concentrate on anything on the day of their arrival. I mean, seriously, to meet your friends in another place, another country, it’s an incredibly cool thing.

A herd of deer chillin outside of Telluride, or "To Hell We Ride!" as Trevor read in a book.

I got a message from Trevor on Facebook Thursday night and he said they were in Durango, so I told him to meet me the El Rancho bar down the street from the newspaper. El Rancho is the most American bar in Durango, I think, so I thought it’d be a suitable location to reconvene.

Coincidentally, that day my boss gave everyone on the news desk a bottle of pretty nice Champagne to say “thanks” so in return, I took that bottle and shared it with Trevor and Ju Young. I hurried to the El Rancho bar when I got off work to meet them. They were the first to recognize me when I entered the bar. I didn’t recognize Trevor at first, because he had been working on a huge beard for the past few months. I couldn’t believe it was him at first.

Ouray rhymes with HURRAY!

They also didn’t recognize me, I guess. They said I lost a lot of weight since I left Korea. That is really surprising me to me, because I didn’t know that I put on weight in the first place. But I think I recall a period when I kind of noticed that I felt a little bigger around the waist and thinking that I gained a little when I got on the scale.

I think I gained some weight when I was in Honolulu for school and when I initially got to Korea, because I ate and drank a lot. But being in America has been surprisingly good for my health. It’s probably not because the food is healthier, but maybe more because of financial reasons and only making $40 a week on Molokai. I didn’t drink a lot of beer there and eat a lot of junk food.

Anyways. Enough about Mark’s sudden weight loss. The Koreans and their blunt demeanor was really refreshing. It was also great to hear the Korean language again. The shots came, the beer flowed and the reminiscing began almost instantaneously.

This is riding into To Hell We Ride. One more reason that makes me happy to live here.

We tried to check out another bar that evening before the bars shut down at 2 a.m. We were able to get one more drink in at Lady Falkenburghs, before getting kicked out even before closing time. The Koreans were probably kind of shocked that bars actually close in America. In Korea they don’t really close. They just seem to stay open all night. Usually they don’t close until the last person is ready to leave.

But that is why we travel. To see how other people is pretty essential, I believe. The next day I didn’t have to work, so we decided to travel the 5 hour Million Dollar Highway. We passed through three main towns north of Durango. The area north of Durango is really beautiful. The mountains are spectacular. When you arrive at the first town, Silverton, you are the highest point of about 10,000 feet. Durango’s at about 7,000. So it’s a good climb.

We stopped in Silverton for a beer at the local brewery. Trevor and I tried a ‘sour’ beer. It was pretty interesting. Kind of tasted like lemonade. After that we were on our way to Ouray. It’s also a really nice mountain town north of Silverton. All of these little towns up there used to be mining communities. So along the road, you’ll see old mining equipment. It’s really cool.

The roads up there can be kind of scary, cause it kind of feels like you’re on the edge of the cliff on some parts and if you’re not careful, you could drive off, because there’s no guard rails.

We made our way to Telluride after Ouray. Telluride is an affluent mountain town. You pretty much have to be a millionaire to live there. The housing there is really expensive. There’s a lot of millionaires and billionaires retire there. There’s also the tallest waterfall on the mainland of America in Telluride.

So we checked that out, found that all the restaurants were either too expensive or too full to get a table, so we continued our journey back to Durango. Telluride was really beautiful I found and I’d love to go skiing there at their resort this winter. On the way, we stopped at little town called Rico at a bar and grill and had some dinner. It was good give them a true American experience of a small town bar and grill.

So all in all, to drive the Million Dollar Highway, it took about five hours. If I had a car, I would probably do that more. It’s seriously very beautiful.

So by the time we got back to Durango, we found that we were all very tired and we went to bed soon after. I worked the next day at the newspaper noon-9. Over my break, Ju Young cooked dinner for Trevor and I. She cooked an awesome Korean chicken meal. That was very nice of her.

They also had been to a garage sale while I was at work, and they had found a really nice shirt for me. I can wear it to work, parties, on dates, so I thank them for the find!

That night, I took them to a kegger at some dudes house. It was really fun. The Koreans had never seen a keg of beer before, so they loved it, I think. There was also a bonfire, so that was cool, too. They had brought me soju, Korean alcohol, so I brought a bottle to the party to show people how the Koreans do it. The people enjoyed it, I think.

The next day, we woke up very tired and confused about what happened the evening prior and carried ourselves to Doughworks, the best place to get a delicious American breakfast in Durango. Trevor and I had the breakfast burritos and Ju Young tried a omlett for the first time. I think she liked it.

After that, it was time say goodbye to them, so that pretty sad. Before they left, I gave them a tour of the newspaper. I don’t think they’d ever been in a newspaper office before, so they enjoyed that as much as I enjoyed showing them.

So, that was that. They came, they saw, they drank the wonderful Colorado beers, saw the beautiful San Juans of Southwest Colorado. It was amazing to see them again and I can’t wait to do it again. Maybe in Korea next time? Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea 2018? We’ll see. Seven years is a long time from now, but that will definitely be something to think about when the time is near.