Frisco, Colorado: Mood Swing State

See The Frisco Video Here

If we stumbled into Sterling running on the potent mix of labor-driven adrenaline and sleep deprivation, we tumbled out of Frisco resuscitated with anticipatory cool.

Gracious hosts, starlit hot tubs, and homecooked chocolate cake in tiny mountain towns have a way of doing that.

Colorado has been good to us. Starting with the two towns we had no plans to shoot in.

Frisco is everything that Sterling is not.

People visit Frisco when they want to be free from the confines of their day jobs. People visit Sterling when they get sentenced to the confines of the local prison. For fun, the post-hippie kids in Frisco blaze up with locally grown pot, while the hard pick-up truck youths in Sterling mix meth in their bathtubs. Sterling's college students plan on getting into the local agribusiness, Many of Frisco's have come from somewhere else with the intention of working so that they can play in the snow.

Both run a deep streak of defiance. And as we've found everywhere, there's a mix of governmental skepticism and confident defiance as the economic news worsens.

Politically colored, Sterling is scarlet and Frisco, deep indigo. It says much about the pendulum position of the state (where our visit overlapped with that of John and Cindy McCain, Obama will be in Nevada when we pass through) that two of the more compelling stories we heard we're from people from opposite sides of the spectrum in the town not atune to their opinions.

In liberal Frisco, Josh Poland, who by all outer appearances could have been another crunchy kid bumming around a ski resort, but in fact is a deeply conservative seasonal worker who finds McCain to be too moderate. He offered an intelligent assessment of the tax system that would have made Milton Friedman's day.

And in traditional Sterling it was stay-at-home dad, Matthew Propst who believes an Obama presidency will give his daughters the chance to get the college education he for which he never had time or money. He matched Josh for his detailed evaluation of tax policy, but his would have had JK Galbraith beaming.

If these two towns are at all indicative of where Colorado and the West are moving, no state save Morman Utah can be considered "safe" for either party. Demographics may change, but independence still rules out West.

(Special thanks to Hope De La Rosa for today's photos)

See The Frisco Video Here

Sterling, Colorado: Nebraska Can't Stop The Madness

See The Sterling Video Here

This is madness.

18 Episodes. 18 Days. 18 Hours of Sleep.

Total.

And then there was Nebraska. Perhaps annoyed that she is the first state we passed through plans to shoot or sleep, she did everything she could to keep us at bay. What can you say about a state that we spent 18 hours in without escaping the downpours of an occluded front?

11 miles inside the border and 11 miles over the limit, flashing lights and $119 later, we made our acquaintance. No strong radio signal left me following the first World Series game played by my cherished Phillies in 15 years via text messages from my sister in California. Then the steady rain turned to tempestuous snow slowing than halting forward progress.

Flakes ran horizontal across the highway and we for the first time on the trip we indulged in a motel. But while the trip could not go on, the show must. At 6:30 am, Graham wrapped the Denison episode and at 7:30 am we were traversing I-80 again.

At 7:40 am we were on the side of I-80 with a useless right front tire.

But that was the last and best that Nebraska could challenge us with. A kindly tow truck driver, a neighborly tire center and a changed shoot location kept us on schedule

The appealing tale of urban Greeley, Colorado became the compelling story of rural Sterling, Colorado. Location, it is clear does not matter, While the stories are each unique, what remains the same is the plethora of engaging local issues, articulate characters, and spectacularly scenery to be documented in each area.

And while I've spent this entire piece self-indulgently reveling in our simple tales of woe, I'm as comfortable as I've ever been ever on a story or a shoot. This is madness. But there's a lovely intense calm to it all.

See The Sterling Video Here