When Linda and Mitch Bollag bought a remote house high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in 2013, it was the culmination of their longtime love affair with the state.
As teenagers, they both lived in New York. “But we met in Boulder,” said Mr. Bollag, 69, who vacationed in Colorado with his family before meeting Ms. Bollag when he moved there to attend the University of Colorado Boulder.
Ms. Bollag, 71, had road-tripped across the United States after college and Boulder had stolen her heart. “When I escaped New York, I went straight to Boulder,” she said.
They eventually made their primary home in Concord, N.C., where Mr. Bollag, a self-described “retired rag dealer,” ran a textile recycling business, but routinely returned to the mountains.
“We rented houses there because it was great for backcountry skiing,” Mr. Bollag said. “And we went up there and hiked in the summer.”
