Hutch and Roxa followed their dreams when they left Texas with their children and moved to Lake City, Colorado, a little mountain town that is over 8,500 feet high in the Rockies, over eight years ago. They gave up jobs and bought the Texaco gas station with a mechanics bay. Steve and I have been spending six to eight weeks in Lake City in the summer, and have watched Hutch and Roxa grow their business.
Four years ago, they added a barbeque place on the side of the Texaco with great food—the next year they added a breakfast menu. Last summer when we arrived we were shocked that behind the Texaco and unseen from the highway, they had built a beautiful stage of giant pine logs and an adjacent dining pavilion. We asked him how people were going to find it and who was going to sing.
It was obvious that they had built it trusting that “the audience will come.” At the end of our summer stay—Michael Martin Murphy famous for his song “Wildfire” and a member Country and Western Hall of Fame showed up to play for two sold-out concerts.
As we sat in the audience and the glow of the setting sun bounced off the mountain and lighted the stage while the sound reverberated off that same wall and into the bowl where over 200 sat in rapt pleasure. Murph said that he had recently signed a contract with a major Railroad company. That they had sent a private railway car to pick him up and take him from Denver to Chicago where he met with the President and the Board of Directors in a beautiful board room at the top of a skyscraper.
But tonight he said, "I am playing behind a Texaco Station in Lake City, Colorado." Because he believed in the power of Hutch’s dream, he agreed to stay in a cabin nearby and take a percentage of the gate. It was a magical night with a great musician who is a fascinating story teller. Hutch stood with his arms folded—in his boots, jeans and hat and glowed with pleasure.
These are bleak economic times and fear can shelve lots of dreams. It is great to remember that we are people who believe in taking action on our dreams. It is great to experience that a couple with a Texaco station in a small mountain town have created their dream.
Check out their website. |