Transition
I had always described the LMA getaways as being “under-one-roof” but it took 3 years of dirt kicking and ultimately an excel sheet to spark the thought ‘Well what if I owned the roof?’
A month later I’m learning the housing market in the Adirondacks and touring a few homes with no intentions of getting serious about a purchase for another 6 months. My agent takes me to a house that on paper, had zero appeal to me. But hey, I’m just here to learn so let’s go take a look.
Within a few minutes, I realize I’ve rarely ever had a better feeling inside any other home I’ve entered. I spend the next few weeks convincing myself that I’d be stupid to spend another half year searching for a home I’ll ultimately like less than this one. How could I pass on this under-budget beauty that exemplified humility, thoughtfulness and just felt oh-so-right?!
Let’s go to Laos to buy a house in the Adirondacks!
So I jet off to Laos & Vietnam and begin a cross-global negotiation on the house. A distinctly vivid memory occurred in Luang Prabang where I sat in backdrop of the Mekong River and beautiful jungle mountains while communicating with owners who were in Alaska and a real estate agent in the Caribbean.
I return stateside, condense my remaining belongings from the 3 separate storage units and with $0 in my bank account (thank goodness for aggressive loan practices), close on a house in Wevertown, NY, population 176.
I know just about no-one here and I spend most of my time ripping out dated carpets, peeling hideous wallpaper, painting and learning how to use power tools. Oh and skiing. I’m now skiing again instead of dropping people off at the mountain. I also quickly adopt a beautiful and loving companion, Penny, to play with me in the woods. Life is pretty good!
All throughout this process I’m still trying to grow LMA and be in two places at once which always works great! I aggressively try to assemble a team of guides back in the NYC region. This leads to meeting some amazing people but the strategy never takes hold.
We ran some fun day trips and the occasional retreat to the new ‘adventure base’ but ultimately things continued to be stop-and-go, and it was mostly stop. My projects at the house sputter, I am making no progress in obtaining my rafting guide license and the LMA trips definitely aren’t covering the mortgage payments.
I also start renting my rooms online inbetween LMA trips to cover the bills and that quickly leads to taking in travelers from the likes of Belgium, Colorado, Canada, Italy, New Orleans, France, Israel, South Korea, Argentina, Germany. Ahh the good ol’ pre-covid days! The more travelers that arrive, the more I realize that atmosphere at the house is quickly approaching the best moments of LMA trips.
During this stretch I take a vote from my newly established team for a house name. A random choice I threw in was “Llama House” thanks to all the LMA llamas adorning the house. 10 out of 10 vote for the Llama House. [Sometimes] I know when to listen to good feedback and instantly the Llama House was born.
By 2018, LMA retreats were now being hosted at the Llama House, I focus my energy on completing my raft guide license and the more I discovered the Adirondacks, the less I was motivated to return to Hoboken & NYC.
My very first day of guiding
Fun Fact #1 - I was in the river moments before this photo was taken
Fun Fact #2 - The kid in front is missing a paddle because I snatched his after losing mine during my swim
Fun Fact #3 - Raft guiding is hard
This coincided with what ultimately was the last LMA trip. A private outing for a group of badass ladies who are themselves trip leaders for the WHOA tour company. We took them wine tasting, hiking, rafting and trekked 8.5 miles of cold, rainy, muddy, slippery conditions with nothing but good spirits. Taking a note from my fraternity pledging days, we all did jumping jacks while yelling “I’M A STAR,” it was fantastic.
It was one of the best trips I had ever organized and an ideal way to close out the LMA chapter. Although that certainly wasn’t the goal at the time, it just so happened that no more Live More trips were successfully organized after this.
While chatting with one of the women, I offhandedly mentioned that we’ve started calling the house the Llama House. Her response was “that’s a great idea, how many people stay at a place that they remember the name of?”