Dean Klinger
After high school I had a pretty good itch, like a lot of us I think, to get out of Lost Almost and see a little of the world outside. I went to UC Davis and thoroughly enjoyed myself, playing soccer for the first few years and then Lacrosse for the last couple. I made great friends and ran across a few LA folks here and there.
I spent summers back in LA, but also in Yosemite and Jackson Hole. I traveled to Japan during a winter break and spent 4 months in South America following graduation climbing, backpacking, sea kayaking and traveling.
Coming back from South America I had no money and no job. I headed to Santa Fe so Susie Godwin and I could take the “long-distance” out of our relationship. That turned out to be a very good thing and she’s been letting me tag along ever since. We lived in Albuquerque during her medical school years and then have been in Fort Collins CO since 1997.
I worked a few good engineering jobs, but at 24-25 years old still felt a little restless. So I saved my pennies, quit my job and boarded a bus in Albuquerque bound for Mexico. I spent an incredible six weeks in Zacatecas Mexico in Spanish school and then met up with Susie for a whirlwind tour of the rest of the country. Traveling on 3rd class buses up and down insane mountain roads put Susie into a constant bout with motion sickness and I had my turn with Tourista, too (spent 3 days within ten feet of the bathroom in Chiapas), but I wouldn’t trade the memories of the white sand beaches and $5/night hammocks for anything.
After that trip together, Susie and I we’re pretty sure marriage would be a walk in the park and we tied the knot in 1996. Kid number one (Zach, 8) followed in 1999 and number 2 (Molly, 6) in 2001. I don’t have the vocabulary to really express the fullness and satisfaction they bring to our lives, but I best I can do is from a tee-shirt: “Life is Good.” The kids have forced me to grow up, but kept me young at the same time. Funny how that works.
Our adventures have gradually grown tamer and closer to home, but just as fun. Susie and I have traveled to Northern Ireland (honeymoon) and Germany (bike touring) and we’ve taken the kids to remote Costa Rica and Mexico. We enjoy having so many wild and beautiful places close by in Colorado and do a lot of skiing in the winter and camping with our semi-updated 1986 VW Westfalia in the summer.
The only soccer I play now is coaching the 6-year-old girls – too many tweaked ankles and achy knees take the fun out. So I burn off the beer and ice cream on my mountain bike, backcountry skiing and running. I’ll sign up for a race here or there to keep me honest. In the last year I’ve been having fun taking a lot of pictures and making videos. Many are posted on my blog here if you’ve really got nothing better to do: http://eightfeetinthefort.blogspot.com/
I agree with all the other bio-writers stating what fun it is to read all the life stories from everybody. Finding it quite addicting, actually. Thanks to all the folks doing all the legwork and we’re looking forward to seeing everybody at the reunion.
