First of all, a very Happy New Year to everyone and apologies for the lack of entries! This blog was originally designed as a forum to share our experiences in a new country. After almost 2 years it is still an adventure, but the "experiences" aren't as new and in fact Sweden has become our home away from home.
But I digress. Mark your calendars my friends. Today is an important date. My birthday? Easter? Midsummer? Nej...much more important. Today is the anniversary of two hillbillies leaving their home-state of Alabama and moving to Aspen, Colorado.
Yes, it was on this date 17 years ago that Scotty (not “Scott” as his now professional colleagues call him – if they only knew!) and I packed up everything we owned (and everything we couldn't pawn off to our friends) and started driving to Aspen. How did it come to this? Why would two guys who had never lived anywhere outside this little southern state drive half-way across the country?
It would be really cool if I said skiing, and that was partly true, but never underestimate the power of a woman. Yes in fact my main man Scotty and I were casually dating a couple of Auburn co-eds and they asked if we wanted to follow them to Aspen for an extended ski vacation. I think it took us about 4 seconds to look at each other, look back and them and say "affirmative."
As it happens we had a friend from Auburn who had also moved to Aspen a few months earlier, so we knew we had a floor to crash on. We called up our buddy Jeff and told him to expect us in a few weeks. In the meantime the "girls" decided that we should change plans and go to Vail --. I hope they had a good time in Vail. We never saw them again…who the hell would move to Vail when you could live in Aspen? I hope they had a nice time.
Next thing you know, the car was loaded and we were headed for the Rocky Mountains. If you are starting to picture a couple of cool guys like the movie, "Aspen Extreme" I can tell you that is way off base. For a better movie reference, you should think "Dumb and Dumber" because I can tell you...we didn't have a clue.
Chronological order of events:
-> Left Birmingham and headed for Aspen
-> Got lost in St. Louis. Put the SUV in 4-wheel drive and drove UP the grassy overpass to get to the interstate (you can take the boys out of Alabama, but not the Alabama out of the boys)
-> woke up in Kansas. 8 feet of snow on the ground. Coldest I have ever been. Starting to think this was a colossal mistake.
-> American motel. $19.95 per night and appropriately priced. Never did get my pillow back.
-> Drove into Aspen. Majestic mountains. Snow. Gorgeous...looked at each other, "we are never leaving."
-> Moved in with "Weird Family Robinson" - three surfers from Florida: One is nicknamed "Krusty the Clown”. He saves the environment by not showering and subsists on beer and bean burritos. Those of you that knew Krusty are now laughing. I think he is a professional parachutist in Arizona as we speak. Second member of Robinson family is Andy. Andy has hair down to his waist and is studying Sanskrit as a “hobby.” He is the only guy in the history of world to readily invite Mormon Missionaries into his house and debate religion with them until they wished they had never knocked on the door.
-> Bought snowboards. Accidentally got on a black diamond. Almost died. Walked down the mountain snowboard in hand. Even tourists making fun of me. Improper ski clothes. Frozen head. From Alabama.
-> Snowboarding starting to improve. Still falling a lot...sore, but getting better.
-> Finally get our own place
-> Landlady chases us out of our "own place" at midnight 2 months later. She was NOT happy. - Moved in with more weird people.
-> Continued snowboarding. Getting better.
-> Spring arrives and we are now really and truly never going home!
-> Head off to Moab for mountain-biking. Get lost in desert.
-> Grateful Dead for Chinese New Year in San Francisco. Pictures made at Height-Asbury. (hint - don’t trust shady-looking people in Berkley, CA
-> Decide to climb shale face of Aspen, Mountain. Here is another hint. No one should EVER climb anything made of shale. Almost died again. I blame Scotty.
-> Summer is amazing. No....AMAZING.
-> Still have the snowboard bug. Hiking glaciers...continental divide. We would literally hike one hour with our boards to get a 5 minute ride. We decide dudes from Alabama are more hard core than others.
-> Lost in the backcountry. Dudes from Alabama are not always the sharpest knives in the drawer. Ski Patrol not happy. Again...Scotty's fault.
-> Bought Ski Patrol case of beer. Everything smoothed over.
-> Scotty met future wife
- Dwight met future wife
-> Future wives had no clue what they were getting into. Bless them. :-)
Ironically when Scotty sent me a note that today was our anniversary (awwwwww), I looked out the window and saw it was again snowing. Scotty lives in Steamboat Springs, Colorado today. He gave the east-coast a chance, but after a brush with fate decided to live his dream and moved back to the mountains with his family. Good for him.
And I am living in Stockholm...two feet of snow on the ground. And yes I am thinking...Alabama is a long way away.
