Detour Ahead

I continued to cover Duck football and basketball throughout my time in Eugene. Upon graduation in 1975, my grand plan was to return to San Diego and get a job with either the San Diego Union (the morning newspaper) or the San Diego Evening Tribune (ah . . . that would be the evening newspaper). Yes, in those pre-Internet, pre-cell phone, pre-Blackberry days, people actually bought newspapers in the morning and evening. Why? To get the latest news.

My interview with Copley Press (which owned both newspapers) went well, but the mid-1970s was a time of recession, and the papers weren't hiring. My hopes dashed, I wondered what I should do. I wasn't interested in starting with a small weekly in San Diego County, making not much more than ten cents a column inch.

Since I had graduated from college in three years, I thought I was due to have a little fun. My parents, Pete and Anne Yorkey, had moved to Mammoth Lakes, California, a ski resort in the Eastern Sierra, the same month I graduated from the University of Oregon. I moved back in with my folks and worked for Mammoth Mountain selling lift tickets and doing office work—plus free skiing on my days off. In the summer, I opened a little tennis shop in one of the ski stores and taught lessons.

I've often wondered why a La Jolla kid, someone who loved the year-round Mediterranean climate of warm (but not hot) summers and mild winters—a perfect climate conducive to tennis and golf year around—would move to a place where they measured snowfall in feet rather than inches?

Looking back over the passage of years, I know why: God placed this desire in my heart so I could meet two people who have greatly impacted who I am today and what I do today.

The first person is my wife, Nicole. I met her in Mammoth in the spring of 1978. She was a ski instructor from Switzerland who came over to the States to learn English for a season and then return home, most likely never to return.

Those plans were shelved when we fell in love, married, and made our home in Mammoth. She taught skiing while I sold some real estate for my parents (my father was a general contractor building spec homes and condos in Mammoth) while giving a few tennis lessons on the side. I wasn't doing any writing at this time, except for a couple of freelance articles on skiing.

About a year into our marriage, Nicole and I began talking about moving to Switzerland for a winter. We thought it would be good for me to experience the Swiss culture and learn some French and Swiss-German so that when the kids arrived, I would be more in tune with Nicole's heritage.

European Vacation >>