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Since my readership is estimated to be a strong 5 people and because Trailrider is a hard to find magazine, here it is folks. The previously written about article in PDF format for your viewing pleasure. Don't tell anyone that you got it from here. We don't need any legal problems. And when I say "we" I'm speaking on behalf of my revolutionaries. Ok, I need to stop typing.

Warning, the file is rather large, as in like 2 of those megabyte thingys. I did the best I could but you may need to tilt your head a couple of degrees of the horizontal to simulate a straight page.

Trailrider Article

If you have no idea what I'm talking about....refer to this post.

The First Press Release

Old Logo - Image courtesy of alabev.com

Keystone has been a big part of my life lately (recently I worked at Keystone Resort as America's Favorite Seasonal Bus Driver). So it was only natural that I participated in a market reserach group for Keystone Light beer, a Coors Brewing product. More specifically the powers that be at Coors Brewing Company were researching the potential of a new logo/packaging/can for their lower premium brew, Keystone Light.

Our task for the night was to take on one of life's bigger questions...Just how much emotion and impulse buying power can a revised beer logo incite?

Keystone Light is considered a lower premium beer and counts among its rivals other fine refreshing brews such as Busch Light, High Life, Natty Light and Old Milwaukee's Best Light original lager.

I've drunk (or dranken or drunken) my fair share of beer over the years but my vocabulary to uniquely describe beer was tapped out after about 5 minutes in this study. The following words were used countless times. Smooth, modern, refreshing, and cold.

The market study group was very fun actually. It was a very enjoyable two hours. Consensus was never easy to reach and it is interesting that everybody has a different taste for design.

One thing I really like is when companies embrace the street lingo of their product and use that on their packaging. For example, Keystone is sometimes called a 'Stone and they have the phrase '30 Stones on their big packages. I'll never forget when I was at the Miller Brewery Tour (one of five times that summer) in Milwaukee and the tour guide referred to Old Milwaukee's Best as "The Beast" which is what the younger generation calls it.

After the market study, I may or may not have gone home with a 30 cube of a lower premium beer and a small sum of money for my highly valued opinion.

So, if you see a new Keystone Light logo soon, don't say that I didn't warn ya. The new one will be much gnarlier.

***I'm pretty sure we weren't sworn to secrecy on this whole thing. If not, the cat is now out of the bag.

And when I say "featured" I really mean that you can find me buried in an article and if you are familiar with my backside you can find me in a picture or two. I'm in an article that is advertised on the cover as "Your exclusive on-trail reports! Mexico".

If you can find this magazine on the newsstands of your favorite book store, flip towards the back somewhere around page 72 (give or take 28 pages) and you will find a nice four page spread about our November trip through the Copper Canyon region on horseback. The article was nicely written and submitted by Mr. Jim Anesi, the guy who I recently stayed with in Durango.

The article is a good summary of the trip and provides some interesting details. I am visible in a two of the photos and actually my backside is relatively prominent in the first photo. The second photo I am in is the one where we are crossing the river. You can tell it is me if you know me. I'm sure that it is the first time that pretty much all of you has ever seen me on a horse so don't be surprised if you don't recognize me. My name does appear in print as well, I believe I'm referred to as "seasonal worker/construction engineer." I'd kinda forgotten the construction engineer part but come to think of it, I do have that degree.

Hastings, your entertainment superstore, is the only place I've been able to locate the magazine. If I find myself around a scanner at some point I'll try to scan it in for my ones of loyal readers to enjoy. If you are looking for the magazine, make sure you look for "The Trail Rider" and not "Trailrider," the latter being a dirt bike/motorcycling monthly. I'm not in that one, at least not to my knowledge.

If you'd have told me five years ago that I would be appearing in a horse magazine, I probably certainly would not have believed you and called you a liar. At any rate, it is cool to be in magazine and the trip was awesome. If you see me in any other magazines, let me know!! There's no way I can read them all.

The Trail Rider Magazine - The magazine I'm in. (Yes people, it actually does exist.)

Trail Rider Magazine - The magazine I'm NOT in.

Carol the bride, myself and Big Jake in Cedar Falls, Iowa, May 2007

I found myself in Iowa this past weekend for a wedding (not too surprising for those that know me). This wedding was the marriage of Jacob Nielsen and Carol Stepan. I know Jacob from wayyy back, we went to school together for as long as I can remember. His dad was a teacher and my parents were teachers at the same school district. So yeah, I've know Big Jake for a long, long time. We even randomly lived on the same floor the first year of college at Iowa State.

I was a groomsman in the wedding party. By now, I've got the whole wedding thing down pretty well. "Walk slowly, the women are in heels." "Dab, don't smear (the makeup if/when you cry)." Anyone want to wager on how many more weddings I will be in? Hopefully my own sometime.

The wedding was a real fun time and it is always an honor to be asked to be in someone's wedding.

Here's to the Nielsen's!! May you have many, many years of happily wedded bliss!!

Another sunset in America's Southwest. Photo taken by my friend Aaron Langan.

At some point during my travels through the Southwest, I spent a week back in Las Cruces, New Mexico. I seem to gravitate back there every once in a while, the last time being in early December when I was returning to Colorado from Mexico. I also spent almost a month down there last April/May before I went to Mexico. I can't explain the phenomenon but there's just something about the place that keeps me coming back.

I rolled into town just in time to go to church at Peace Lutheran. It's a good way to start the week because I can see a lot of people that I know all at once. A lot of the people involved with the Border Servant Corps, the volunteer program I was in for a year, go there as well as many Habitat for Humanity people that I used to work with.

A week in Las Cruces for me is pretty much planned out before I even get there. Monday night is dinner with the James' family (our electrician from Habitat and his wife), Tuesday night is Community Night with the current group of Border Servant Corps volunteers, Wednesday is dinner with Habitat supervolunteer Jane Carter, Thursday I spent time with my friends Zac and Sahra and their precious little girl Bailey and then Friday it was supper with Mac (you might remember Mac from our Las Cruces to Milwaukee Road Trip back in '05) and his lady friend Donna. Of course I had to spend time with my old roommate Ryan in there too. And see Reyes. And Dick and Lorna.

I spent from 8:30 to 1:00pm every day at the Habitat job site. I helped Don and Jill hang a lot of sheetrock and I actually enjoyed rocking far more than I remember in the past. The wildcard in the chore of drywalling was the appearance of Mr. Warren Pollard, Las Cruces' most famous Habitat drywaller. Warren is a retired Army colonel and former electrical engineering professor. The guy is hilarous and his dry sarcastic one-liners and his not-too-racy jokes make the day go really fast. It had been a while since I last worked with the Colonel and he didn't disappoint. My favorite quip that the Colonel shared was this...
"Murphy 's First Law of War: If the enemy is within range, you are too."

Las Cruces is ALWAYS a good time. And the sad part is, I didn't see nearly all the people that I would have liked to. That only means one thing...I'll have to go back.

Carmen brewing English pale at Kelly's Albuquerque, April 2007.

Ryan and Carmen in Albuquerque, April 2007.

Albuquerque – I got my first real taste of the city of Albuquerque courtesy of my good friend Carmen. I’d been through the city numerous times but I had never really stopped for too long. I know Carmen from the year I spent in Las Cruces, New Mexico, as a volunteer.

Carmen told me that she works at a microbrewery and I naiively assumed that she was a server or maybe a bartender. Wrong! Carmen is a BREWER! Pretty gnarly. We walked down to where she worked and the brewer that was working at the time was trying to get out of work. So Carmen (and I) stayed to work for the guy and I helped Carmen brew my first keg(s) of beer. We made 4 kegs of English pale. It was super fun.

Kelly's Brew Pub (Carmen's employer) also offers a "Brew Your Own Batch" deal for aspiring brewers. You can come in and use their brewing facilities and make your own. Then two weeks later you come back and bottle it. While we were brewing there were a couple of people bottling their own stuff and it was fun to talk to knowledgeable beer guys.

After brewing all afternoon and "sampling" numerous different beers, I ended up, well, how do I say it..."feeling pretty good."

We went out on Saturday night in downtown Albuquerque to a Spring Music Festival and then to some bars. The next night we went to somebody's birthday party and that was a good time too.

Many thanks to Carmen for showing me a good time in Albuquerque!!! I hope to be back soon!

Ryan at Chaco Culture National Historic Site, rural NW New Mexico, April 2007.

On my sojourn through the Southwest I also stopped by the Chaco Culture National Historic Something or other. More ruins in the desert southwest. These ruins are really located in the middle of nowhere and yet again I was amazed to learn that thousands of people also lived, thrived and traded here as well. One of the most interesting things is the satellite image that shows all the trails going in and out of Chaco. Trails to everywhere. It is so difficult for me to picture so many people in what's now the middle of nowhere.

These ruins are much more self-guided and therefore you can touch more and explore more which is a good thing. There are multiple sites at Chaco and there is some very elaborate construction that must have taken years, perhaps even generations. The best part about Chaco is that it is just remote enough to keep out the riff-raff and therefore the place has not suffered too much from modern human destruction.

I'd say Chaco is worth the side trip off of US550 although one could seemingly spend a lifetime fully exploring all the ruins in the Southwest/Four Corners region.

And just because I'm into educating my loyal readers...here are some external links that give an educational view of Chaco

Chaco Culture Wiki

Chaco Culture National Park Service Page

Mesa Verde National Park, near Cortez, Colorado. April 2007

From Durango I visited the nearby Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is located in between Durango and Cortez, Colorado. The drive is very pretty as you pass south of the La Plata mountains and then you ascend up to the actual national park. Mesa Verde was a settlement or gathering place for the ancient Anasazi, who we are now supposed to refer to as ancestoral Puebloans. Pretty soon, after the next wave of political correctness, we will only be able to refer to them as something really specific like "people".

The ruins are quite a ways away from the state highway and it probably takes a good half hour to get to the Visitors Center. I went on a tour of the Cliff ruins, which were very intriguing. The area must have gotten more water back in the 1200's to sustain so much life. There are estimates of as many as 40,000 people in the Four Corners area back in the day. We had a really knowledgeable tour guide which adds a ton to the experience. That's one thing I've learned, especially doing some tour guiding myself, let the experts do the talking.

So yeah, when you are in the area, Mesa Verde is pretty neat and something we definitely don't have where I come from. It almost looks like a primitive Lego set. One other word of caution, to fully explore the site requires climbing up and down ladders. Good fun or challenging depending on your age.

Ryan, Jim (the host in Durango) and Diego on the rim of the Urique Canyon, Chihuahua, Mexico, November 2006.

Southwest Roadie continued...

From the incredible Black Canyon of the Gunnison, I headed south towards Durango to see my friend, Mr. Jim Anesi. I met Jim last November in Mexico as we enjoyed the Copper Canyon region on horseback together. Diego, the generous owner of the Hotel Paraiso del Oso where I worked, does backpacking/horsepacking trips as a part of his business. Diego had a trip booked for late November and it served as my farewell trip. The guest riders came from Durango,
Colorado, and let me tell you, three better guys could not be found. Jim was one of these guys.

First of all, the drive south from Montrose, Colorado, through the San Juan’s passing thru Ouray and Silverton is just spectacular. Snow covered peaks tower above you. Ouray is home to the World Ice Climbing Championships as it is ideal for ice climbing with its many frozen waterfalls. Silverton is a pretty little mountain town and it is the terminus for the narrow gauge railroad that starts in Durango. From there you drop down into the valley that Durango sits in. My only regret is that I wasn’t about two weeks earlier and I could have skied a few of the mountains in the area.

Jim and his wife Claudia were very generous hosts to America’s Favorite Seasonal Bus Driver (me). The nostalgia really set in as we watched a video that Jim made from the horse trip. Great times. Jim also took me to see his fleet of horses down at his acreage in Arboles near the border of New Mexico. We returned through Bayfield, which was neat since one of my good friends in New Mexico grew up in that town. I also helped Jim drywall the ceiling of a playhouse that he is building for his adorable granddaughters Lauren and Bryn.

It was really good to see Jim again and also to see him on his home turf. He is born and raised in the Durango area and therefore I got one excellent tour of the region and an invite to return for a horsepacking trip. A very tempting proposition because the first trip was so much fun.

Thanks for the hospitality Jim and Claudia!!!

Stay tuned as I try to catch this blog back up to the present day!!