I'm originally from Washington DC so, naturally, my screen name is Colorado . . .
Actually, I never left the city, or even the neighborhood, until we took a road trip to Colorado when I was 9. I'd never seen such clear blue skies and unimaginably beautiful rocky mountains or felt dry air on my skin and in my lungs. I couldn't get enough of it. At some level, I knew I had to get back here to live. So after a stint in the Army, then university and grad school, I made a bee line to Denver. I've never looked back.
For me, Colorado is the end of the rainbow.