Tom Shane's World

We finally arrived. 5.5 hours in a car, months of planning, and secrecy, and now…we are here.  No more worrying about spoiling any secrets, no more worries about a misstatement, a blunder, like anyone asking what we were doing this weekend.  I can finally relax.  Oh yeah, I have one last secret to keep from Amanda.  Probably the most important secret I will ever have to keep in my entire life.  In my briefcase (I promised I would not work all weekend as we were driving up to this undisclosed location, but still brought my computer…just in case) aside from business papers and a laptop, there is a far much more important item.  One that been months in the planning.  One that will finally see the light of day, without my hiding it from the world.  But all that is tomorrow, already planned out, and I must play innocent for one more day…

So here at last, Smith Fork Ranch, several miles outside of the town of Crawford, CO which in itself is miles away from Paonia, CO.  Population: 366 and 1,497, respectively…But don’t let the size of the towns fool you.  This area, in the North Fork Valley, is considered the “Bread Basket of Colorado”.  Some of the best cherries, peaches, apples, and other fruits come from here.  Wine vineyards (a personal favorite of ours) are also very prevalent in the area.

Smith Fork Ranch

While over the course of the week we will eventually enjoy all of the above, we are here for the nature, serenity, and quiet of the ranch.  Smith Fork Ranch is surrounded on three sides by Gunnison National Park, which I believe is the newest National Park in the country.  It is absolutely gorgeous, but I digress…

Upon arrival we exit the car, which is now covered top to bottom in a fine layer of orange dust, and not yet  two steps from the car we are greeted by a woman who I know very well from our dozens of email communications, but Amanda has never even heard of.  I give her a big hug, as she’s helped me plan everything (including the impending engagement) and Amanda looks at me like I’ve totally gone crazy.  I introduce the two ladies, and begin to explain how “she’s the one who put all of this together for us”.

After introductions, we are informed that cocktail hour is in 30 minutes, and if we’d like, we can drop the bags off in the cabin, get a tour of the grounds, and still make it on time…sounds like a plan to us!  Luckily, a golf cart is waiting to take us and our bags to the room, about a ¼ mile down the dirt road.

As we walk around the cabin for the first time, Amanda says to me, “What’s in that big box in the corner?”  I really pretend not to hear, and we move on to unpacking.  After the summer/winter and everything in-between attire is unpacked (remember she had NO idea where we were going), I continually hear one thing, “I wished I would have packed a cowgirl hat.”  So finally, after I can no longer take it, I lug this enormous box over to her, and say proudly, “One last surprise.”  As I begin to open the box, I explain how I went shopping (not my favorite thing to do) for us, in preparation for this trip.  So one by one, I start to pull out cowboy boots, hats, and some outerwear for the evenings.  She’s looking at me, once again, like I’ve totally lost my mind.  I think it was a combination of pride (both that I went shopping and was able to keep this a surprise as well), and confusion.  Why all the trouble?  Why this weekend?

Unwrapping Cowboy Boots and Hats

Off to cocktail hour where the sunset every evening left an alpenglow like I’ve never before seen.  A fine dinner from all local foods (there is a garden on premises which supplies about 75% of the fruits and vegetables served at the ranch, and where we watched the chef meet with the gardener every morning to select the fresh food for that day, which I find really impressive), some wine, some hot tubbing, and early to bed to prepare for the day tomorrow.

The View

Up in the morning, and all around us is nature.  There’s nothing to me like a cup of black coffee, a hearty breakfast, and staring at the mountains.  We tour around the area, go for some hikes, find all the hidden hammocks around the property, check out the archery area, and wander down by the river.  The lunches here are a blast as well…a good old fashioned picnic, basket and all.  Each evening you choose what you want to eat the next day (sandwich, salad, etc.) and every afternoon you pick it up, and walk until you’ve decided where to eat.  Today’s lunch is by the river.

How she didn’t sense that I was acting nervous I will never know, and when reinterpreting the situation, her only clue (besides of course the once-in-a-lifetime surprise no-work weekend away scenario) was that I kept fiddling with my pocket, beginning here at the picnic.  Not really sure where to keep the ring, I decided that as I was only a few hours away from my proposal, I’d just put it in my pocket.  Aside from obsessively checking my pocket every 2 to 3 seconds to ensure it hadn’t fallen out of a hole in my pocket that didn’t exist (I checked), that idea actually worked out too.

The Happy Couple

Moment of truth.  The horseback ride that would forever change my life.  We arrive at the stables right on time, 2pm.  As the wrangler comes out to meet us, we are told that after some brief instructions, we’d be off on the trail.  She also says that as we’re the ranches’ target demographic, she may shoot some pictures of us along the way, if that was alright…this, of course, I planned too.  I ask how many others were joining us today, knowing the answer was 0, and upon her confirmation, I look at Amanda as if we just hit the jackpot, acting as surprised as she was.

Walking up these beautiful mountains on horseback, I have now permanently placed my right hand on top of my jeans pocket, with the reins in my left hand, to ensure that nothing can possibly fall out.  As we start to approach a meadow, about 45 minutes into the ride, we are told that we are going to let the horses rest for a few minutes, while we take a look around at the surrounding beauty…a welcome rest for all.

Suddenly the wrangler says, “It looks like someone left a blanket over there.”  I looked at Amanda with surprise, and she bought it hook, line, and sinker.  We wander over to the blanket, eventually coming to see rose petals surrounding a bucket, which is filled with a bottle of champagne.

"Found" Treasures

Amanda innocently says to me, “Well, should we crack it open?”  My reply is something like, “Yes, but not yet.”  I remove my sunglasses, ask her to do the same, reach into my pocket, and drop to a knee.  Before the first words come out of my mouth, tears are streaming down her face, and as I’m talking, she’s violently shaking her head up and down, signaling yes.

The rest, as they say, is history, or in this case, the future ahead.

6:15am, Thursday morning, normal routine.  Amanda gets up, showers, and does whatever else takes 45 minutes before coming to wake me up.  “Honey, it’s 7.”  It’s a standard wake-up-call  from her, and an anything but standard response from me.  “Come here for one second”, I say.  “You know how you’re always telling me that I can never surprise you?  Well, today that’s all about to change.”  I get a long, drawn out, “…Okay…” in response, with extra emphasis on the “a” sound.  I continue, “We’re on vacation, actually have been as of last night, and you have exactly 2 hours to pack and get ready until we need to leave the apartment.”  The response?  A simple, but totally genuine, “Huh?”.  A few moments to sink in, and then she  immediately says, “Well what do I need to pack?”  “Everything”, I tell her.  She asks “Plane or Car?”  I respond with a quick, “Can’t Say”. “Warm or Cold?”  “Can’t Say.  Okay?”  “Okay.”  I tell her “I’ll go get the suitcases down, and you start packing, and now you’re under two hours!”

So that’s how the day started.  I really didn’t sleep the night before at all, watching the digitized analog clock on my charging cell phone tick away from about 3am on.

Moments later I hear a loud, “What about the pets?” “Already handled, dog to your parents, cat stays here with a trough full of food.”  “So they know what’s going on?”  “No more questions until we arrive, okay?” “Okay!”

Amanda absolutely loves surprises, but also loves asking enough questions about things to ensure that nothing is ever a surprise.  I think it’s one of those conundrums that makes absolutely no  sense to anyone in the world but her, where it is of course completely logical.  This time, however, I will not be accused of being bad at surprises.  The old saying “Loose lips sink ships” is one that I kept in the back of my mind for the past 4 months, and aside from the man who I bought the diamond from, the woman who I bought the ring from, and her father, whom I asked for her hand, this was a secret that was all mine.

Packed, confused, curious, and very quiet, we loaded the car with suitcases (I’ll pluralize “suitcases” and just leave it at that) filled with everything from swimsuits to winter coats.  We drove to her parents’ house to drop the dog off, stopped for breakfast, and sat in virtual silence while everything was working through her brain.  Amanda still couldn’t process how her 11 am meeting had been canceled, and everything else that she had planned on doing that week/weekend had been rearranged without her knowing about it.  I was starting to realize that surprises could in fact be fun, especially for me!

On the Road Again

Stomachs’ full, driving on the interstate, we get to the junction of I-70.  If we take I-70 west it  means Colorado mountains, and if we go east it means we’re heading towards the airport.  After I could no longer (safely) wait to make my turn, I quickly steer the car west.  Now her brain is really narrowing down.  “Where are we going?” might just as well have been written on her forehead.

After passing the Summit County mountain resorts of Keystone, Breckenridge, and Vail, we pull off in Beaver Creek, one of our favorite spots for R&R.  Gas, Red Bull, and more driving…no Beaver Creek this time.  More silence.  More confusion.  We are now further west than Amanda has ever been (within Colorado boarders) and her brain is cranking on all 12 cylinders.  Turning away from Aspen, the resort towns are now essentially out of the picture, and now I’m feeling more of a “huh?” coming from the passenger’s seat than anything else. She’s thinking every exit could be ours, and it really was a cool experience.  If you’ve never taken a surprise road trip, I highly recommend it.

Colorful Colorado

90 minutes later, or 4.5 hours into the drive, we exit the tiny county road that we are on, and come to some really pretty Colorado wine country near the quaint little town of Paonia, CO.  Google Paonia, and the map that comes up is actually quite cute; very simple.  Finally, she says, “How cool, wine tours, I thought we may be doing this”.  If she really thought that or not I will let you decide for yourself.  But no, we have another 30 minutes to go outside of Paonia.

Leaves Changing in September

From here, the directions that I was sent from our final destination, read like this…and I quote: “You are now driving along a road flanked with cherry and peach orchards…  Go 1.2 miles across some railroad tracks, and .5 miles further turn left…  Continue on this road as it meanders through the lush farmland into an arid sagebrush ecosystem and back into farm and ranch land.  As the road begins to curve right (by the bright blue house)… turn left.  This road winds through some sagebrush dobbies (a new word for me, referring to the pattern of sagebrush that I’m apparently supposed to look for)…and after a ‘dangerous intersection’ sign, the road becomes dirt again for the rest of the way.”

Baffled by Directions

Well the directions go on like this for a bit, and about 15 minutes later, after Amanda is convinced I am going to hide her body somewhere that she’ll never be found, we arrive at our destination.  Just like that, voilà.  The journey is just beginning…

Harry

On a very sad note, my dear friend Harry Boeki passed away.  He was my diamond agent in Antwerp for 30 years, and began the working relationship with my late uncle, Claude Shane, in the 1960’s.  He taught me about diamonds, and about integrity.  His picture is in our stores, working with Claude’s son, my cousin Robbie.  Harry was my mentor, and much of our company’s success is due to the lessons he taught me. When I was 22 years old he taught me my first lesson about considering a parcel of diamonds.  Understand that diamonds are presented in a ‘parcel paper” which is a large folded paper.  The stones are inside, so one must carefully unfold the paper, to see the contents.  I expected something technical, like a gemologist would do.  Instead, he taught me that when I first open a parcel of diamonds, if they are ‘for me’ they will smile at me.  If not, I should simply close (fold up) the parcel paper, return it to the owner, and simply tell him that they are not for us.  Even today, when I look at colored stones in Bangkok, I make a quick assessment of each parcel’s contents.  Only if it smiles at me will I invest the time to examine each stone, to hand pick the ones that meet our standards, within the parcel. Harry will be missed

Harry, with his son Laurent

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Our philosophy at Shane Co. is simple.  The best retailers, in any field, know their customers.  They know what the customer will want (style, quality, price, etc.) and they recognize that it is their job to have the right product in the store.  When our customers come into one of our stores, we know they have driven (sometimes a couple of hundred miles from a small town), frequently across town, to come to us.  We must anticipate their desires, and have it in stock for them.  Otherwise, they will be disappointed, and even question if their drive was worth the effort. All of our home office people never lose sight of that fact, and the results speak for themselves.  Our customers typically leave our store smiling.

I don’t tell you this to make an advertisement.  But this philosophy plays into each action and decision that I take.  In Hong Kong, we focus on quality as well as style and price, with our jewelry vendors.  We also demand that they produce things that are unique for us.  Picking our diamonds by hand, as well as the rubies and sapphires (which I personally do, in Bangkok) guarantees that the quality is there.  I wish it were practical to just order by mail, or buy over the internet…but each stone has to be examined and selected (or rejected, as the case is) by hand.  We care where the imperfections are located in each stone, not just the grade.

I drove from Denver to Beaver Creek Sunday afternoon, and returned to Denver Monday.  Seeing the golden leaves of the aspen trees reminded me of why I love Colorado so much.  Sitting in the mountains is a great place for me to escape to, whether I am thinking of ways to improve the Company or just to write this blog.  Thanks for the favorable comments, to those of you who have submitted them.  The more I hear from our friends, the more relevant I shall endeavor to make these blogs.