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Meet Larry
My
interest in travel and the way it brings pleasure and depth
to our lives led me to becoming a tour director in 1999. I
have always enjoyed meeting people and getting to know them.
I have learned that helping travelers become part of a
friendly supportive group adds a great deal to the travel
experience. The places we visit are terrific but it’s our
guests and their responses which keep me excited about this
work.
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Larry with comedy star Yakov. "What
A Country!"
Photo by Maurine Hesser |
I am
fortunate to have had a wide variety of experience as a tour
director working with several excellent tour companies.
These companies are led by some of the industry’s most
outstanding professionals. I have learned from their
insight, and enriched that learning by serving as tour
director for more than 2000 guests. Certification through
the International Tour Management Institute and the Rocky
Mountain Guides Association added to my education.
Most importantly, I am Donna’s husband, Sonja’s and
Aron’s dad, and Zack Elder’s father-in-law. Donna and
I are native to rural Ohio. She is from the eastern
part of the state and I’m from northwest Ohio. The
number of relatives we visit in Ohio, including both
of our mothers, indicates that our roots are still
there but our home is in Colorado. We met while
working for the Ohio Cooperative Extension
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Service.
Donna was a home economist and I worked with the 4-H
program. My work with agricultural organizations took us to
Indiana for eight years and then brought us to Colorado in
1987.
Donna
now has her own management company providing services to
several trade associations representing Colorado’s
horticulture industry. She is an active church volunteer and
has participated in mission trips to Kenya and Russia. The
kids are grown and are out on their own. Aron is an
experienced outdoorsman, author, professional speaker,
wilderness advocate and good friend to many. He lives in
Aspen. Sonja and Zack live in North Carolina where she is in
law school. Zack is a university research librarian and is
working on his master’s degree. They enjoy their many
friends and are dedicated to serving others through their
volunteer activities.
Like
most families, we value our time together even though
distance and busy schedules seem to limit those
opportunities. We still enjoy family travel. We vacationed
together a few years ago in Costa Rica and more recently in
the Florida Everglades and Keys.
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The Ralston family in Costa Rica.
From
left clockwise: Larry,
wife Donna, son-in-law Zack, daughter
Sonja, and son Aron |
My early
years revolved around life and work on the family farm. It
was a ten mile bus ride to school in a town with 200
residents. I can assure you I know the difference between a
bus and a motor coach. I also have a deep appreciation for
rural communities and the honest, hard working people who
live there. Part-time and summer jobs during those formative
years included baling hay, retail clerking in main street
clothing and grocery stores, radio broadcasting, and working
on county road crews and factory assembly lines. Exhibiting
sheep, cattle and hogs at county and state fairs was always
part of the mix.
My
background led to a degree in agriculture from Ohio State,
but my love of history and geography is a life-long affair.
These subjects are not random facts and dates to be
memorized. They are a wonderful mosaic, a beautiful quilt
and a fascinating jigsaw puzzle just waiting for us to
assemble the pieces and develop an appreciation for how it
all fits together. There is no better way to experience this
than through travel. We see the geography that attracted the
people who brought about the events which continue to affect
our lives and give direction to the future. And a good story
teller on-board the coach can help bring it all together. I
believe that people don’t care how much you know until they
know how much you care. I care deeply about our guests on
tour, about the local people in the areas we visit, and
about the fascinating places we see. I know that one result
of this caring can be a tour experience you will long
remember. Let’s travel, learn, and laugh together. Happy
Trails!
Happy
Trails
The
wonderful lyrics written by Dale Evans Rogers express my
feelings as we conclude each tour.
Happy
trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy
trails to you, keep smilin’ until then.
Who
cares about the clouds when we’re together?
Just
sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy
trails to you, ‘till we meet again.
Some
trails are happy ones,
Others
are blue.
It’s the
way you ride the trail that counts,
Here’s a
happy one for you.
Happy
trails to you, until we meet again.
Happy
trails to you, keep smilin’ until then.
Who
cares about the clouds when we’re together?
Just
sing a song and bring the sunny weather.
Happy
trails to you, ‘till we meet again.
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