The End

Candy: Well, the time has come to put this blog to rest. Tim and I had a great time writing about our trip in 2006 and we hope that you enjoyed reading about it and seeing the pictures.

This content will stay online in archive form indefinitely, so if you want to come back and take a mini roadtrip through the posts, feel free. We just won't be writing on this blog any more.

To catch you up to speed before we close for good, Tim is still at Enterprise and having lots of good days and some bad days. Only God and time will tell whether he returns to college athletics or remains in the business world.

I have been hired as a marketing manager for a lead generation company in the south metro, and am working mostly from home, which is nice. I am also writing a business plan for a photography business and hoping to secure start-up funding by summertime.

Chase is still getting about 16 hours of sleep every day in his favorite spot in the house...our closet. Life is good!

Thanks again for hanging out with us on our road trip, and for your encouragement, recommendations, and support throughout. We appreciate you so much.

I have started a new blog which will be focused primarily on daily doses of candor, which I hope will spark some interesting conversations. If you're interested in joining the discussion, hop over to Candor is a Compliment (note the Peggy Noonan reference) and put in your two cents' worth.

See you on the other side.

New Site Goes Live

Candy: I've been working hard for the past week or so to update my website, and I'm pleased to announce that the new design is finished and live. The graphic design portfolio is still in production and should be live by the end of the week.

To see it for yourself, just click the photo above or the Candy Rice Photography link at the right.

Tonight begins my first night of shooting sports photos in Colorado, with three basketball games at a local high school. I'm excited to be behind the camera again at a game.

That's it for today. I hope you're having a super Tuesday and a terrific week!

16th Street Mall

Candy: On Wednesday afternoon I spent a couple hours wandering the 16th Street Mall in Denver, trying to be brave enough to approach a total stranger and ask if I could make his/her portrait.

No luck. Not enough courage yet, though I came close with a street musician.Instead, I made some images of the interesting light patterns and objects in the area.

I revisited the Denver Pavilion sign from the last post, and this time found some better angles. I also liked this one, because it's one of my initials.

While at the Pavilion, a three-story shopping area, I couldn't help but notice the way these strings of lights looked almost like a transparent ceiling of lights.

The light was incredible here and I waited for quite a while for people to walk through in the right spots, finally settling for this shot.

I liked the way the Paramount Cafe's sign was lit with the neon and partly in shadow, partly in sunshine.

When I saw this store's sign juxtaposed against the gothic building and modern skyscraper behind it, I had to stop and find an angle that would show the unlikely mix of architecture.After a little while I wandered a few streets north and south of the mall. I liked the diminishing perspective of this building's glass wall.

As I was walking by Denver's tallest building, the Republic Plaza, I was struck by the light on the numerous railings out in front. As I was making this picture, a man walked by and said to me, "Hollywood! Action!" Funny.

Then I looked up and couldn't resist taking a classic picture of a skyscraper. This is the upper third or so of the Republic Plaza.

I then made my way back to the mall and as I was walking into the bright afternoon sunlight I saw this.

As I got closer I saw the vent in the street with the backlit steam rising from it.It was cathartic to get out and spend some time by myself with the camera. The weather was nice, 40s and sunny, and although it was a little chilly (I was forced to stop at Caribou Coffee for a hot apple blast) I had a blast.

Most of yesterday and today has been spent finishing the design of some business cards. They're finally at the printer and I should have them back Friday night. I made several designs as a temporary fix and am posting several of them here for you to see.

These two are for my sports photography launch next week (if I can get my website finished...it's going to look like the top of the first card below).

This one is for graphic design services, which I plan to roll out by the end of February.

These are the other cards designed to promote my photography.Special thanks to those of you who gave me input during this process--I appreciate it more than you know.

On Friday I'm having coffee with an amazing wedding photographer from Denver, Steve Tinetti. He makes absolutely incredible images of the kind I'd like to make someday (check out his cool website). He's a fellow Minnesotan and I'm really looking forward to meeting him.

So that's it for tonight. This post was image-intensive and for those of you on dial-up I apologize.

Have a great Friday and an even better weekend. Remember this: Enjoy yourself. It is later than you think.

Downtown Denver

Candy: This week we explored parts of downtown Denver, spending a good share of Wednesday afternoon at the Denver Art Museum during Tim's day off. I decided not to take the camera along so that I could more fully experience the art, so I don't have any photos of the museum to share with you.

The museum has chosen to make fun of its own abbreviation (D.A.M.) by using it everywhere, from the line to "get your D.A.M. tickets here" to "Hot D.A.M. this is exciting" in the museum maps.

The museum itself is comprised of two buildings connected by an enclosed bridge. One building is 4 stories and the other is 6 stories, with each level filled with various exhibitions including pre-Columbian pottery and artifacts, modern and abstract collections, photography, and sculpture, to mention a few.

I'm always amazed at the emotions a visit to an art museum evokes in me. I enjoy much of what I see, even feel strong attachment for some of the pieces, and also inevitably become angry at other pieces. Always insightful.

For example, I absolutely loved one of the paintings in the western art section. It was a high-contrast painting of an old drive-in movie theater, and I loved the colors, the mood, and the memories it pulled out. Then, in the abstract art section, I became strangely angry with a painting of a piece of lined notepaper. I don't know what made me angry, but I was mad just looking at it.

The experience was great, though, and I was reminded that a visit to an art museum is always worth the money in exchange for what I learn about myself.

Tonight we went back downtown, first to Invesco Field (what used to be Mile High Stadium) for the Enterprise Rent-a-Car holiday party (aka Enterprise prom, as some call it), and then to take some photos of the Denver City & County Building.

I had read online that this particular building, which forms part of the square at the capitol, is lit in a spectacular fashion twice during the year--once for the Christmas holidays, and once during the National Western Stock Show, which is going on now. So I hauled the tripod and camera out and fired away, resulting in the panorama at the top of this post.

I then turned 180 degrees and shot this photo of the Colorado State Capitol.

By then we were chilly--it was only 25 degrees or so--and decided to drive to the 16th Street Mall nearby. When we were visiting this outdoor pedestrian-only mall I had noticed a huge Denver sign and wanted to see what it looked like at night. This is one of the resulting images.

We also walked up to the mall and saw that all the trees were still wrapped in their holiday lights and shot this image looking east on the mall.

I hope to make time next week to go back downtown and shoot some candid photos of shoppers at the mall as well as explore the interesting mix of architecture with my camera. When I do I'll be sure to post some more photos.

In the meantime, both Tim and I hope that you've had a great week and that you are healthy, happy, and gaining wisdom each day. Take care.

Tim is Always Right

Candy: It's true.

Last weekend I was feeling pretty sick, and by Monday night Tim forced me to go to the doctor, telling me that he was sure I either had bronchitis or pneumonia.

I kept saying, "No, it's just a bad cold. Let's stick it out another day."

However, Tim won out, and the doctor performed two simple tests on me and announced: "You have pneumonia."

I'm certain that as I glanced at Tim, a little "I told you so" gleam appeared in his eye. He was nice enough not to say it, though.

As a result, this week has been a real struggle for me physically. I don't think I've ever felt so sick for so long. It has certainly given me a lot of time to think, though, and I've come to some important conclusions.

First, Tim is always right. That's it. From now on, I'm not going to question anything he says. Ha.

Second, it's time I showed you the dining room, so here it is.

Third, it's time I believed all of you wonderful people who have been telling me that I have a little ability for photography. I'm finally going to do something about it. Starting with sports photography, and hopefully also before too long wedding photography as well.

I'm putting this out here on the blog because I'm terrified to head into photography as a profession, and so that you'll all hold me accountable if I don't do it. I need your encouragement and your kicks in the butt.

My plan is this: approach several fantastic photographers in the area and see if one of them will let me be his/her assistant. Additionally, I am preparing some marketing pieces to be printed by the end of January and launch an action sports photography campaign in the local high schools.

In addition, I'll continue to apply for work to help pay the bills and hope that I'll get exactly what we need (and maybe even more than we need) in order to continue to live.

Some scary times are ahead for me. I've never been afraid to risk everything to help make Tim's dreams come true, but I'm super scared to try to make mine come true. Tim fully supports my decision (in fact, he's practically forced me to the edge of the cliff), and now it's time for me to make the leap.

So, here goes nothing. Thanks in advance for your support. I'll keep you posted.

From 33 Inches to Fargo

Candy: My mom graduated from Minnesota State University-Moorhead today with a B.A. in English/Mass Communications. Oh, and she was summa cum laude, too, the highest honors reserved for those with a 3.80 GPA or better. We're so proud of her.

We drove through the afternoon and throughout the night last night to be here in Fargo-Moorhead for her special day. If you haven't already heard, Denver got hammered with a major upslope blizzard on Wednesday, dropping 33 inches of snow combined with 35 mph winds. Both our Enterprise offices closed early that day, and it took me 2 hours to drive the 4 miles home that afternoon, while it took Tim 4 hours to drive 12 miles. Crazy.

There were hundreds of cars that were stranded and abandoned on Wednesday afternoon and evening. I've never seen anything quite like it. I wasn't sure I was actually going to be able to make it home on Wednesday afternoon, and avoided getting stuck several times before finally succumbing to the drifting in our apartment complex. I had to abandon the Element in the road inside our complex and hike across the parking lot to get out of the storm.

On Thursday, after hearing that both our offices would be closed for the day, we decided to venture out around 11am to assess the damage and to see whether we would, in fact, be able to leave Denver to drive to Fargo. This is what we saw when we rounded the corner of the garages in front of our building.

We don't own a snow shovel, so we took some plastic bowls with us to hopefully help scoop some of the snow away. You can see how much fun Tim was having with that!

Fortunately, two guys from another apartment offered to help shovel away the drift behind the El, and with their help pushing while I drove, we eventually came unstuck. After a quick check of the internet to see whether I-25 was still closed, we decided to venture north and take our chances getting out of Denver.

Fortunately, the roads were open, and except for a bad stretch for about 100 miles north of Cheyenne, Wyoming, we had great roads and ended up driving across the western part of South Dakota & North Dakota before reaching I-94 and heading east to Fargo. We arrived in Fargo around 7am and slept for a couple hours in a mall parking lot before checking in early into our hotel.

The commencement ceremony went pretty quickly, despite the large number of graduates. My younger brother Clint and 2 of his sons also showed up, and then my older brother and his family joined all of us at Clint's house for a reception/supper, after which we gave our nephews their gifts.

I would have had more photos to post from this trip except that in my hurry to pack up and get out of Denver I forgot to make sure I had the battery charger for my camera, so when we arrived in Fargo I realized I had low batteries and no way to use the camera today.

We are heading back to Denver tomorrow afternoon, planning first to spend some more time with my mom and Clint & his family. It'll be nice to have a couple days away from work to spend together, and of course the captive time in the El is always a treat.

Enjoy the holidays. I'll leave you with this photo of Chase in our hotel this morning. He's fast asleep now, having been worn out by 5 little boys under the age of 7.

Our Place

Candy: We finally hung some photos in our apartment today today, and are getting close to beind fully unpacked. I'm hoping that by the end of this week we'll be all set up.

We were able to sell several of our extra IKEA furniture pieces online at craigslist, which helped both in having extra cash as well as helping us be rid of stuff we don't need.

I took a few quick snaps of some of our rooms so that you can get a sense of what our living spaces are like. The photo above is obviously our living room, with a huge vertical blind covering our patio door. This is a closeup of our media center and photos. Notice the baby picture of Tim next to the lamp on the left.

I began working with Enterprise last Monday. After three days of classroom training I spent two days at my branch in Broomfield. I have been driving around town like crazy, but it makes the time go by quickly, which is great. I'm not sure where this career path will lead as of yet, but I'm interested in exploring the several different directions Enterprise has to offer.

We were snowed on last week (10 inches) and it's been pretty cold, setting record lows for Denver in fact. I had to drive from Broomfield to south Denver for training, and after it snowed all evening and overnight on Monday, my commute (normally 45 minutes with rush hour traffic) lasted two and a half hours. I actually clocked one of the many sllllooooooowwwwwww miles at one mile in 12 minutes. Crazy. However, I arrived safe and sound to training, albeit an hour late, and all was fine.

Tim and I are working the same hours, usually 7am to 6:30pm, which are long and early. You know neither of us is an early bird, but Tim has already adjusted after six weeks with Enterprise and he assures me that I will, too. For now, I'm taking his word on it! Not sure I'll ever adjust to the early mornings. I may have to learn to drink coffee.

One good thing about being up and about so early in the morning is that I've seen some really incredible sunrises this past week. That helps. This place is so incredibly beautiful. I need to get a pocket camera and just take it with me all the time.

Chase seems to have adapted easily to being home alone again, and I think he's actually kind of happy to have such uninterrupted sleeping time. He's such a great dog, and we're really fortunate he's so easygoing.

Tim is still enjoying his job very much and has nearly convinced me that I will enjoy it too, simply because it doesn't have to consume our lives like our previous professions have. I'm having a little withdrawal from managing 16 people and having 15 projects going simultaneously all the time. When it's slow in the branch I think I'm going to go stir-crazy, but fortunately so far it hasn't been slow for more than three hours at a time. Still. It's been a little rough for me that way.

This is a shot of our kitchen. As you can see, it's all white and a bit of a mess right now. You can also see from this photo and from the photos of our master bathroom that the apartment is wheelchair accessible, which provided us with a great apartment for a great price.

Here are photos of our bedroom and master bath. We especially love the painting of the Coliseum we bought in Italy last summer, along with the photos of our two favorite beaches in France.

We also have a second bedroom and bathroom, as well as a dining room, but they're not even close to being set up, so no photos for now. I'll take some when they're done, and include them in a future post.

We bought some frames this year and have finally printed and framed some of our favorite photos from Europe and from our Pause on Purpose Tour. It's so awesome to see the places we love every day.

Not much else is new these days. We're working and learning to have fun in our off hours. It's actually kind of nice to have time outside of work to spend time doing things we like that are unrelated to our jobs. Kind of a novel experience for us. The reinvention that we've undertaken seems to move both quickly and slowly all at once. Some things are quick to change, and others not so quick. That's life, though, and we're embracing it all, even the frustrations, because we know that we'll be better people as a result.

Please write or call when you can and let us know how you're doing. We'd love to hear from you.

Enjoy your week.