How Far Would You Go For The One You Love?

That is the question that I am still testing myself to find out, not even close yet...
When someone first made the statement to me "you should apply to be a 60 Mile Man", I thought "ok sounds easy enough". Wrong...after being chosen as one of the 12 men to represent the men of the 60 mile 3-Day, I soon found out this was work. Finding a photographer, coming up with an interesting concept for my photo shoot and executing idea...oh and timing the photo shoot in the middle of winter to look like it is June. Luckily I was blessed with a great photographer that eased my nerves and rescheduled due to weather on more than one occasion.

I took some days off work to tour downtown Cleveland to find the best location to represent my 3-Day city, luckily once again I was blessed to contact Forest City Enterprises who practically gave me the keys to the city to shoot on top of any of the buildings they owned or managed in Cleveland…that’s about 80% of downtown Cleveland. Of course I would not be satisfied with any building, I chose the coolest building in downtown Cleveland…the Terminal Tower. As we toured the observation deck on the 42th floor my body got goose bumps from the rich history, this building was built in 1928 and was one of the tallest buildings in the USA until 1964. I expressed to the general manager of Forest City that this is it…except the large exterior pillars take away from the city view for my photo, luckily once again I was blessed with someone who just wanted to help me. He said “no problem, follow me” he proceeded to take me through what was obviously a restricted area …we were going to the roof top on the 44^th floor. Now I do not know how many of you have been up 650 feet with no more than a three foot railing between you and the free air but let me tell you “it’s pretty damn cool”. It would have even been cooler if we did not have the ice storm that morning, easily a ½” of ice covering the Terminal Tower…that did not stop me. I took what was most likely the coolest 360 degree walk around Cleveland’s icon building, in an ice storm…

The morning of the photo shoot finally came, the temp was only 14 degrees on ground level. The snow had melted and the winds were kicking up…but I guess the winds would always be kicking up when you are on the rooftop in Cleveland in March! The only good thing about being up so high is there is not a lot of gawkers around, unlike the first location that we shot on a hillside right off of the freeway in my underwear. A lot of gawkers there, the Terminal Tower rooftop had this weird peaceful feeling. Aside from the cold icy rubber roof on my bare feet and the fact that my 20”x24” photo poster almost flew right out of my hands off of the 44th floor, the shoot was a complete success.

Now it is time to sell, the 60 Mile Men Orginization would like us to sell 100 calendars…they do not know me very well. My goal is to sell 300 calendars before my walk at the end of July…follow this link to my website to purchase your 60 Mile Men Calendar and pay with Paypal http://www.tarasjourney.org/Mr.html

If you are local to the Elyria area stop by Fundak's Art Corner at 436 Cleveland St. Elyria 44035 to purchase your copy.