The life adventures of a Chilean Millionaire

After my Grandfather's passing a few months ago I headed back to Austin with 1 thing in mind, work. Well, that changed to work and a puppy. Meet Lola...

Jump to now... August 22. 

I'm on a 3 week snow shred SBX training mission to Chile with a number of other athletes from North America and 2 coaches. So far we have ridden Nevados de Chillan, Corralco, and are now at El Colorado for the next week and a half. Snow was stellar for the first few days instantly hopping into a powder day and then first flight of the season came by way of the South America's Cup in Corralco... Tomorrow we get to start training on the track here, looks pretty good but needs a little hand work.  

A new chapter, back on the road

Well the beloved STI finally went, after months and months. It took less than 3 hours to get the new ride, a 2007 Audi A3 quattro. Needless to say the great state of Texas didn't make life any easier on me. 

I spent a week to 10 days off in Utah freeriding with Jonathan Cheever and Maria Ramberger and just trying to heal up before I took off for Colorado. With the lack of snow in Tahoe all plans of racing at Squaw were eliminated, giving all of the SBX family another few weeks to go , "now what". 

Back to the automobile dilemma... 

I left Utah on March 1 headed to CO to take some more time to freeride and just enjoy snowboarding for what it is and have fun with friends. On the way the STI was sold in Fort Collins and later that afternoon I purchased the new car in Denver. TEXAS wouldn't let me do a plate transfer without seeing the car first, in fact, they wouldnt even register the car without a safety inspection. What's a safety inspection you may ask? Let me explain.... does your vehicle have headlights? taillights? blinkers? seatbelts? do your brakes work? horn?.... I had to drive 2000+ miles for 8 minutes in an inspection station to make sure I had a working horn! I could have flown down, taken 1/4 of the time, and still registered my car. Texas, you need to get your shenanigans together, if I still lived in Wisconsin I could have handled my plate transfer over the phone.

The next journey sees me travel, with Kellie in tow, 7200 miles in the next 25 days. Colorado twice, Banff, Big White, and all the fun places to hit on the way back to Austin. Stay tuned, the fun continues!

Trying not to Throw Up

You may think I'm ill from the title, but I'm not. I haven't posted anything in a little while but there has definitely been a few developments. 

My close friend Logan and I had thought we found a place to live in Breckenridge Colorado forJanuary and February. We signed a lease and submitted a deposit on the 22nd of December with a move in date of the 28th.  All was right in the world, Christmas was the usual family affair of crossing Austin to show face and not really relaxing... maybe Kellie and I should leave town for the holidays?

When we arrived in Breck a few short days later we walked in to collect our keys and found out that we had been scammed. The letterhead, the Realtor ID #, and even Breckenridge address were real, but the condo was not for rent and we were out a place to live and our money, which we are still trying to recover.  The feeling of throwing up is the worst when you find out you've traveled 1,000 miles, lost a large sum of money, and have no where to go all in an instant. 

Needless to say we dealt with the blows as they were coming. Called family and friends, told them our predicament and held our heads as high as we could. We are resourceful and aren't afraid to talk to just about anyone. Thanks to Logan's dad Norm we had some accommodations for a few days at the Dillon Inn to try and figure something out. In summit county a condo can be filled in a matter of hours and we found out just how tough the scenario is, especially for 2 guys only staying for a few months. 

We left the mountains on the 1st headed back for TX, and as a guy who makes his winter months living in the snow it was a hard thing to do. We understood that fuel costs right now were in our favor and that free lodging and the ability to cook for ourselves outweighed loosing hundreds of dollars in a few short days staying in the mountains. 

Our search continues for a place to live, we are not tied down to stay in Colorado but have the ability to head further West to Utah or Tahoe. If ANYONE has a lead, be sure to leave a comment or shoot me an email.