[bonus] Moving to Boulder, CO from Bozeman, MT #DougShow Bonus Episode

hey what's going on

this is Huntington this is the Doug show

and this is a special episode I'm

chatting with my wife Elizabeth hello

I'm Elizabeth and Georgie's here too she

can't talk she's a dog but she is

sitting here right with us today our

episode is going to be about moving

because we're moving we're moving from

Bozeman Montana down to the Denver

Boulder Colorado area so that's what

we're gonna talk about today and we've

been in Bozeman here which we like very

much for about four years or so and

we're just gonna kinda take a trip down

memory lane I've been thinking about

this a lot as we've been driving back

and forth from Boulder up to Bozeman

which is about a 10 hour drive so we've

had time to time to think on the road

and stuff but let's go back let's go

back to like when we first moved here so

what are what are some of your memories

Elizabeth of moving to Bozeman well

we've talked about this earlier one of

my first memories when we pulled into

Bozeman off the highway on 19th Street I

thought

EW gross and for those of you who

haven't been here when you come down

19th Street off the highway no offense

to any of these businesses but you pass

like a Costco a Home Depot a Target

you know so you go down this main sort

of retail corridor and it just kind of

looked like any town USA now you could

see mountains all around but I don't

know I think my expectations were

somehow different that it was going to

be smaller or quainter we had just come

from Whitefish which is a very small

town yes and we pulled in I think we

both were like yeah but now we live you

know about half a mile from from where

we thought whoo gross

right that's one of my that's my first

memory and you bring up a really good

point we were we were driving around and

traveling in Montana we were in

Whitefish which is like sort of one of

the it's one of the closer towns to

Glacier National Park which is very

picturesque it's like the classic you

know Rockies there's alpine lakes and

beautiful mountains that are you know

topped with snow it just looks amazing

and you know we had been driving all

through Colorado and it's looks it looks

awesome and then we drove up to what is

generally like suburbia looking kind of

stuff but you know now that we've been

here a little while it's like those are

convenient things we actually like to

have Costco love Costco and like Walmart

and all the normal normal things but

we're still like surrounded by mountains

which since we were around a lot of very

beautiful mountains I don't know if we

like paid we didn't pay them as much

attention but yeah anyway

it looked a little crappy when we first

pulled in but that is that was like you

know right off the interstate the most

commercial sort of district in the area

I would say what about one of your

memories I have another one but I don't

wanna monopolize we went to this

restaurant called Montana ale works and

I got a my birthday is in the you know

May time period months that is what we

call a month so it's in May and that's

around the time we were visiting and

stuff so my sister and brother-in-law

game gave me a gift a gift card I guess

they sent it up and it was for Montana

Hale work so I remember that and part of

the reason it was like one of the first

restaurants we went to they have a good

beer selection the food's really good

and I think all of the people that visit

familywize like we've gone there and I

got a gift card a couple months ago so

it was like one of our one of the last

places we will be eating at as well so I

kind of remember that I'm all about food

and beer and that kind of stuff so it

was like spending time with family like

both of our both of our families we went

to Montana ale works it's a good place

it's a good place they're a good memory

about that gift card is they bought it

in Montana like they bought it off the

website in Montana but you couldn't do

like an e gift card or printout so a

actual physical gift card was shipped to

Virginia and then I think from Virginia

they mailed it to Georgia to us there

and then we carried it across the

country when we traveled to eventually

eat there so it was a it was a well

traveled gift card that's what I

remember it was for your birthday I

think that's right yeah yeah so one of

my memories early memories here playing

tennis at one of the like country clubs

up here you know it's it's a small

community and we're from the big city or

whatever and you don't leave your stuff

unattended and I remember playing tennis

and ladies just left their purses just

sitting out on the grass or you know

just left their valuables sitting around

and I mean it's it's so small there's

like a tiny little clubhouse and people

just go into the bathroom and there's

always people around and I guess

everyone knows everyone but that's

really not the way it was in Georgia and

I think you had a similar experience in

a coffee house right you said people

left laptops everywhere it's crazy

yes so we're from the city like not just

like the suburbs of Atlanta but you know

the city so some I mean like

legitimately I lived in a city in the

city and when we talk about the place

and I used to live I mean it was like it

was pretty rough

like pretty sure it was a some sort of a

drug house right next door to me

anyway yeah so around here you go like

what we'll mention these places not

sponsored at all Costco didn't sponsor

us but there's a there's a coffee shop

over here that I could walk to called

cold smoke and cold smoke is probably

the most frequent or the place that I go

most frequently to work and stuff like

that anyway when I for example I would

go get a refill on my coffee so I bring

my laptop with me right up I bring my

laptop literally I carry it up and I'm

like oh why did you bring your laptop up

like puzzled right if I go to the

bathroom right to go pee luckily I I

don't have to go take it into a stall

and go to the urinal and hold it you

know hopefully keep it out of harm's way

in the bathroom there but I carried my

laptop around because those are

expensive right anyway other people

leave their laptops it'll go to the

bathroom they'll go order food they'll

leave their purses out like they just

leave all these valuables and I was

thinking it's just bananas I can't

imagine doing that I mean it makes no

sense to me someone can just walk off

with it

I also like as we're sitting here it's

Sub Zero or a very very cold week

there's snow drifts as high as our head

it's just pretty miserable right now but

in the wintertime up here if someone

pumps gas or runs into the gas station

to grab a beverage or something they'll

just leave their car running they just

leave the keys in it with you know the

car running because it's so cold I guess

it's just not worth it to turn it off

and they don't think anyone's gonna

steal it right and I was gonna say I

leave my my I park outside I don't have

a garage space so I will in this cold

weather start at my car let it run for

20 minutes to heat up

hopefully defrost a little bit yeah and

we're so paranoid

this summer I was outside doing lawn

work and we never have the garage door

open partially because the kegerator is

in the garage and there's children on

the block and we don't want to have

alcohol flowing you know for the

neighbor kids if we're not monitoring it

but also because we just have a lot of

stuff in the garage

never leave the garage door open it's

always down but I was doing the yard

work and so I was outside in the front

in the backyard the garage door was open

for maybe 20 minutes and our neighbor

came over because she thought something

might be wrong because our garage door

was open

so no no thanks for checking in all good

but yeah we don't leave our garage door

up quick clarification even if we we are

around we don't let kids drink beer all

right just used to be yeah it was a

little you know big us in let's see

though we do have some adult neighbors

that I think would sneak by with the

pitcher they would they would actually

want one of our friends over here he

came by he has a it was a big mug it was

like one of the I don't know like a

thirty two announcer mug it was a Stein

that is the proper proper word for yeah

it was a Stein and he was like hey do

you have some of that you know blah blah

blah paleo and it's like sure buddy come

on in you know he was he was working in

the yard all day so I could appreciate

that he wanted a cold one so any other I

guess like what were some surprising

things living in Bozeman that you didn't

really account for that's a tough one

what you're thinking I can I can go so

because it's tough it's tough to think

you know there are several there are a

lot of breweries in town for a city of

this size so I think when we moved here

there were like seven and there's about

45,000 people in town maybe a hundred

thousand in the you know the the valley

sort of the greater Bozeman area and I

think as we're leaving there are about

11 I I think there there has been even

growth from that so quite a few

breweries and there I mean there's a

there's one we can walk to and there's

several where

I mean it's such a small community we

end up knowing quite a few people in the

breweries around here which you know for

me like I said beer is a big deal like

most of my friends are out of the

borough club so I think well two

surprising things one when we first

moved here we had an experienced in

northern winter and I remember or like

lived in here we've both travelled but

people said nothing stops in the winter

and I thought they're exaggerating some

things have to stop but really nothing

stops in the winter even I don't know

today but yesterday which was just as

cold people were outside jogging so that

was a surprise just business goes on as

usual and then I think I was surprised

at the the culture that's up here

because of Montana State University

being in Bozeman you know it's not like

the culture you would get in a you know

New York or Chicago or Atlanta but um

there's some really cool small theaters

here that I've really enjoyed going to I

don't know how many they seat but you

know just a just a small theater and you

can go and listen to music or comedy or

a play and you know I don't know a few

hundred seats something like that

for 30 bucks and we just this just this

winter saw two acoustic guitar players

one played with that gypsy man and the

other one I don't think that's the term

you want to use a so a recent wasn't he

that's what he said right whatever

I don't recall you know who we're

talking about yeah what's your beer

Georgie bei nacht idea anyway so he

played with this very famous with Paul

McCartney the other one played with Paul

McCartney the but the guy was the that

sat down with his guitar

remember he played on the QE and and he

toured with the what's the QE Queen

Elizabeth he toured with like the gypsy

jazz musician

Django Reinhardt yeah he was a gypsy

right

I wasn't slurring like that's yeah that

is anyway you know what I sorry

this is we're going away out I heard

that that was a racial slur but in the

West in the u.s. like we we don't

realize it cause it's like a common I

see we I disagree I think gypsy isn't a

slur but to say you got gypped that is a

slur because I think both let's let's

call it the G word the G word anyway so

we went to this concert and we were in

the first row and these are just famous

like world-class musicians and we just

got to sit in the first row and watch

and play and it was really neat and I'm

gonna I think we'll be able to find that

in big cities but maybe it won't be

quite as accessible I don't know yeah

it's very cool here I've really that's

the Ellen Theatre by the way we are not

theatre yeah sponsored by the Ellen but

I really enjoyed the Ellen theatre a lot

and I think it's interesting because

like I think more will have tons of

opportunities for like that sort of

stuff and deceased show is probably way

more cuz like they tour to bigger cities

more often however it is less likely

that we will go to them because it's

going to be probably more crowded it

will be probably way more expensive and

harder to get to

so like the downtown area Bozeman is

just small which we really appreciate

because we came from the Atlanta area

where we have siblings across town and

to go like hang out and have lunch with

our sibling or a parent or whatever it

could take just an hour and a half on

the road like not including the time so

or to go like to a Braves game or a

Falcons game or go to a show downtown or

whatever unless you live downtown it's

gonna take you a while it's gonna take

you around a long time you're gonna have

to pay a little I mean as much as we

were paying for the tickets is what

you'll need to pay for parking is likely

so so anyway I think like I'm looking

forward to

getting into and watching more stand-up

comedy so I'm kind of looking forward to

having like people actually like come

around since Denver is a big enough City

people will will tour through there we

had a couple people go to the Ellen

Theatre but for whatever reason we

didn't drive the two miles over there to

check it out so alright cool so we

talked about some of the things I guess

any other you know positive type things

of living in Bozeman that you want to

mention well it's beautiful it's there's

just no no doubt about that no matter

what your season is even right now and

it's zero degrees out now we can't see

the mountains it's like a whiteout but

the mountains are beautiful in the

winter that beautiful in the summer

spring is lovely when my parents come to

visit they always say it's majestic and

it really is even though we've been here

almost four years I still am awed by

just how gorgeous it is and knowing that

we're going to be leaving and having

known that for a little while I've

really tried to take the time to just

stop and just look around and just

appreciate how how gorgeous it is yeah

and I I walked the dog usually in the

mornings in our old dog our deceased dog

Brody he moved up here with us

and I'd walked Georgie in the mornings

to our current dog and yeah like every

morning I'm like man those mountains are

awesome and they're in not man I guess

depending on where you're at it's 360

degrees but maybe in a more realistic

way if you're just walking on the ground

you're not up on a hill or anything like

that and it's like 270 you know get

getting into further all the geometry

nerds out there there's a lot of there's

a lot of mountains snow-capped mountains

that you can see like all around you so

yeah every single damn

holy that looks awesome this is

amazing because you know if I guess if

you're from around here and then you

move to the southeast or many other

areas where there's a lot of pine trees

like it's interesting to have the pine

trees around but with the pine trees

around all you basically see is other

pine trees and you know like you really

can't see anything so you're just like

claustrophobic boxed in all you see is

trees but out here you can see awesome

mountains and hills and I've seen more

rainbows from like our driveway then I

have like ever in Georgia all together

and we've only been here four years you

know so beautiful rainbows couple double

rainbows I won't lie a couple double

rainbows and we're pretty fantastic and

I think I'm slightly losing my point

we're very close to Yellowstone and that

is very cool I've been D I went to

yellow or I've been able to visit

Yellowstone a few times like before we

moved here but I will tell you about a

specific time in 2006 I was changing

jobs and I had some time off I think I

I'm kind of a I'm a saver as far as it

goes to vacation time so I banked up

like the maximum I had six weeks of

vacation time and I was taking like a

few weeks off so I was like I'm gonna

take a trip I want to go to Yellowstone

and my parents came with me actually I

was like I'm planning on doing this trip

and you want to come I'll plan it and

you know we'll go so they did grieve and

it was October of I was like early

October maybe October it was like the

first week or so and we we flew into

Bozeman and we stayed down in the Old

Faithful snow Lodge which is open a

little bit longer than the Old Faithful

Inn and we stay there for a few days and

I thought it was awesome out here it was

just amazing there were like like I say

snow-capped mountains and I took a bunch

of pictures during the

that trip and I remember the reason why

I'm going into such details I remember

driving around over here on 90 right

that's the highway right here

90 so remember driving on 90 after we

left Paradise Valley like paradise

values valley is awesome and that's the

highway from 90 Dinty Yellowstone Park

and it's just beautiful

the Yellowstone River goes through there

you'll see bald eagles it's like

world-class fly-fishing

I know fish but some people are really

into that and I remember driving into

town right like the industrial part of

town that we were talking about at the

beginning that didn't look that great

you know I was looking at the hillside

and I was like this is awesome

this is just beautiful I would love to

live here it would be amazing to live

here and see this every day and I didn't

think about it again until after we had

already moved here and that was like

nine years later something like that so

something in my head was like it's

awesome here and then I never thought

about it again and I can't believe we we

actually moved here that's me babe

making your dreams come true yep yep

that's right so okay let's turn this

around and talk about negative stuff

only kidding but serious a little bit so

are there any things that you're like

I'm a little bit happy to be moving to a

larger city the Denver area

versus being in this smaller town in

Montana our dog goes crazy chasing her

town she's gonna start knocking stuff

over I don't know I'm not going to

answer your question I'm like a

politician I'm going to talk about

whatever I want to talk about so this

doesn't have to do with the big city but

I'm not going to miss the dark dark cold

winters I think it can be fun and the

novelty has worn off but not just the

cold it's the darkness up

Tanna how much darkness we get what are

we talking about here the worst of it

it's like we only have daylight from 8

a.m. to 4 p.m. it's long it's long cold

dark days yep

you know I thought there was a small

stretch of time where I I thought maybe

I'd moved to Seattle there was a show

called Frasier great show called Frasier

really good writing fantastic show love

Frasier I've seen every episode but I

was like I you know what I'm not I I

think I may like it up there but I think

I can handle the rainy grayness but I

don't know if I could deal with the

shorter days and turns out I love them I

think they're fine but weren't you

vitamin D deficient yes I was vitamin D

deficient yeah a lot of people you end

up with that but the on the plus side

well you get two pluses in the summer

you end up with the really long days so

you know you get the corresponding long

days and I think at the the height of

summer you end up with what it's like

for daylight daylight navigator here I

don't feel like Poor Richard's Almanack

over there it's the Sun rises at like

5:30 or 6:00 and then it's not fully set

into like 10 it's earlier than that so I

don't know why I asked you it's like

7:30 or 7:45 I'm not sure but anyway the

days are very long and it's kind of

crazy like word a high enough latitude

right this latitude we're at a high

enough latitude where the sunsets and

sunrises lasts a very long time so if

you imagine like being like closer to

the equator the Sun like sets straight

up and down but around here it kind of

takes a more

[Music]

circuitous path I guess you would call

it is a that work there it's a lot of

syllables there anyway the sunsets and

sunrises lasts a very long time so

especially in the summer it's like the

Sun like it's still dusk until like 11

p.m. or something like that don't check

me on that exactly but we're very far

north is what I'm trying to say so

longer days is something you're looking

forward to yeah cool

or lack of shorter days what about you

you were city living

you already said with our trip down to

Colorado that you thought the beer was

better there sorry Montana I do think

that yeah I mean there's just more

people in the there are you know and I

have a lot of friends that work in

breweries and none of them will listen

to this most likely so I feel safe in

saying this actually I would say it to

them because I think they know it's true

to most of the breweries in town have

one or two very good beers and then the

rest are okay there's a couple breweries

that just suck and I won't mention those

I don't know the people that run those

or anything like that but some of them

are just bad and they have maybe they

have a great location maybe they have a

good space and they had a lot of

investors or something like that but

there's a few there's a few breweries in

town that are just really really good

and they they do have more they have

more good beers so yeah I think I think

Colorado with a hot with a greater

population right you're gonna have more

beers coming in you're gonna have just

more opportunities to have good beers

with greater population comes greater

responsibility yeah that's right that's

right Uncle Ben say that in spider-man

yeah that's right that's the rice guy

right

it makes the instant rice Uncle Ben's

Peter Parker's uncle yeah the great

power comes great responsibility

yeah great philosopher yeah great rice

philosopher yeah I thought it was a San

Francisco treat

that's right sir oniy right so it is it

is a little bit colder here so I think

especially this week right I mean this

is look we got back in town from Boulder

on like last Friday and it was cold then

it was I think it was single digits

maybe negative degrees when we got back

and then it's been snowing since

Saturday it's been I think it may have

been below zero more than above zero so

your last week here Elizabeth has been a

little bit cold it's been pretty

miserable because when I have days off

of work I try to spend as much time with

Georgie as possible walking or you know

being outside playing with her and if

mean it's just flat out too cold to be

outside for long we put boots on her but

you know that doesn't protect her nose

doesn't protect her eyes and it's just

it's too cold this is quite a farewell

week for me in Montana it's not really

making me miss it

right I wouldn't say I'd been missing it

Bob okay what else what else do you want

to talk about Doug show I think food I'm

really looking forward to more diversity

in food well and I think like in a

greater sense so we're from the South

right southeast us and there's a lot of

diversity especially in Atlanta there's

a lot of like international people and

actually it could be interesting to like

run look at the stats and just look at

the demographics and places where

there's more racial diversity you end up

with like better food just in general

you end up with better food and it is

quite homogeneous in this little area

here

and they do really good burgers and

steaks and pizza and some people will

tell you that there's some other ethnic

food that's pretty good but I haven't

seen it you know I'll check them out and

sometimes it's just not that good you

know so I'm looking forward to food

Denver is Denver's pretty international

and I know actually I remember there's a

couple nice like Indian and Nepalese

restaurants and a boulder that I've been

to in the past and yeah it's just it's a

bigger city there's going to be more

diversity thus better food but there are

a couple restaurants that are actually

out of the Georgia vicinity that we

really enjoy that are in Denver and in

Colorado so that's chick-fil-a and

Waffle House Oh mellow Bosh there is a

mellow mushroom at least as it as of a

couple years ago there was a mellow

mushroom in downtown Denver and that was

another great one and both actually a

two of the three have roots in Georgia

Tech so I think the the I think they

were all dropouts the other one mellow

mushroom pretty sure Wow yeah I think

yeah I was like the original one was on

like Spring Street or something like

that

so I spent spent a few years at Tech on

my four-year degree I was there about

seven so alright anything else you're

looking forward to in Colorado no I'm

looking forward to my new job we didn't

really mention that Bozeman's such a

small town there's not a lot of work

opportunities so I'm really excited

about my job and the people and yeah I

mean I know that's meant Denver but the

company happens to be located there

so yeah that's the reason we're going I

know another I know - for you so one is

an airport that services more locations

so Elizabeth is she doesn't like flying

she'd prefer not to fly even though she

I mean you traveled for work you flew

every week yeah twice a week yep twice a

week you flew for years I do not but

Denver of course has a much larger

Airport you could fly international like

much more easily and just direct to

other US cities like so and then the

other part is you I think you miss your

family more than I miss my family and

maybe your family loves you more than my

family loves me something like that but

your family will be able to visit much

more easily - I think it was a little

tougher for your family to get out here

just in general so it'll be a little

easier in fact well my dad doesn't like

to travel either okay yeah well let's

still have to travel some but it's

easier yeah and I was gonna say I'm

looking at the calendar over there and

we're you know we have our move-in date

and then we don't know when we're

getting our stuff in and then

Elizabeth's parents were so excited they

were like hey we're gonna come and visit

very quickly so it's like within just a

couple weeks of us maybe getting our

stuff so that's true yeah so we overall

yeah I guess we didn't cover it at the

beginning but Elizabeth got a new job

that's why we're moving so where or even

selling our house were like you know

we're moving it was quick yeah yeah and

I guess the the other part the other

part of my story this is the Doug show

after all but the other part is I looked

I mean I really wanted to move to the

Boulder area when I got out of college

so I worked in the

Rocky Mountain National Park for two

summers thought it was great really

enjoyed it

I stayed up in Estes Park and then

worked in the little I guess it was a

like a cafe the little the little gift

shop in cafe near the Alpine Visitors

Center if people are familiar with it

and basically I loved it it was

fantastic so I interviewed with a

company after I graduated but it didn't

get the job and ended up staying in

Atlanta which was fine of course

but I guess Denver the Denver area was

another place that I wanted to move to

anyway so all my dreams are being

fulfilled through through Elizabeth

she's taking me everywhere there you go

he said it before I could he saw me

raising my eyebrows at him once again

Elizabeth he was come true yep actually

I think it's more like Doug subtly

maneuvering our lives to make his own

dreams come true and I'm just getting

dragged along in the wake because this

job metaphor was sort of he found the

contact to get me in touch with this job

so I just want to make it clear for the

record that everything is his fault

I'm a good networker do you want to say

anything about just like what we're

moving and we have movers coming so

we're just among boxes I think we should

probably or you should if you would like

me to come in and join you to talk about

the moving experience once we're

actually moved I think that could be

interesting because we're this is the

first time even though we moved from

George in Montana we packed all our

stuff up and did it ourselves but we

actually have professional movers coming

to you know take all our stuff up put it

on a truck and then you know fingers

crossed it actually shows up shows up

you know at our home right in 3 to 20

days that's what I was

they say so I've never had movers before

and I've had a truck for many years and

generally I've been able to move a lot

of stuff on my own and you know it's

gonna be an interesting process and by

the way I talked to my mom today and she

was like if you have trash in your trash

can

they will box it and move it so I think

they just come in and they you know we

were talking about how much easier it is

gonna be for them to pack because

they're not gonna be looking at this and

that and remembering when they got it

and blah blah blah

oh grandma gave this to me they're just

gonna be throwing stuff in boxes and so

that's what she said she said if you

have trash in your trash can they will

box it up and it will show up show up so

it's gonna be very interesting yeah yeah

well so yeah we could definitely do that

episode it'll be another actually it'll

be is this recording equipment getting

packed by the movers no now you're gonna

take Brenda with me okay bringing this

with ya so we'll be able to record or we

could even do Skype calls we should be

able to do that so awesome

yeah all right thanks a lot for joining

me today and Oh before we go I meant to

mention this or drinking a beer here

we've been sipping on this beer it's

from the rogue brewery which we love

based out of Newport Beach Oregon and

this is a special beer it's a quadruple

with I think blueberries and raspberries

do you get the berry out of this baby I

do get a little berry and we're not

sponsored by rogue but we'd be happy to

be sponsored by rogue and shout out a

beer every single time rogue nation yeah

we love them we are a member of the

rogue nation we are indeed all right

thanks a lot and we'll catch you next

time