eet Bud Brasier and Miriam Zoole. Bud and Miriam met in 2006 when Bud started taking his son Michael to a new martial arts school where Miriam's daughters also attended. The two started dating several months later, shortly after Miriam and Bud both joined the Combat Hapkido (a self-defense martial art) program at the school. They are now fifth-degree black belts.
Bud and [Vliriam are married, but they do not really have a wedding date. This might sound strange to most, but as Bud explains "ln Colorado individuals are free to marry each other without a license or third party (justice, minister, etc.). All you have to do there is declare your intention to be a married couple, be legally able to marry each other, and live together for 24hours'l Well, Miriam moved into Bud's home on July 1, 2007, so that is the date they use as their anniversary (they did have a ceremony in April 2012).
Bud shares that he has so many fond memories together with Miriam. One of his earliest fun memories with her was when they first started dating.They had gone out maybe twice, and Bud needed to have a driver to take him in for an invasive medical procedure. Bud asked if Miriam would not mind taking him and she agreed. When they got to the hospital, everyone assumed Miriam was Bud's wife, and they did not correct them. The staff asked about their home and children and what they enjoy doing together.They both played along with it and no one was the wiser, They felt like they were already married.
Another great memory, far more recent, happened just a few weeks ago while Bud and Miriam were out sailing on thelr catamaran, and they saw a whale breaching about a mile out the St. Mary's channel. They made their way out of the channel and the whale put on quite a show for them and their customers. Fortunately for them, the whale was very
curious and came up to about 100 feet from the boat. As a result, they got some fantastic photos that were picked up by newspapers and TV outlets. They had hoped it was a Right Whale, but it turned out to be a Humpback. While running their dive shop in Hawaii, they would often have Humpbacks around the boat, but they had never experienced one doing acrobatics so close to them. "lt was an experience of a lifetime and we both get excited looking at the photosi'says Bud.
Bud graduated hiqh school six months early and joined the Air Force in 1973 during the last couple of years of the Vietnam War. While in the Air Force, Bud started his first business painting apartments and homes. When he got out of the USAF in 1977, he did some work with the California Department of Transportation, building bridges and roads in the state parks. Bud then got a job with Lockheed Missiles & Space Company where he worked for 15 years during which time he spent 2years on the island of Kwajalein (part of the Marshall lslands) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean working on the Star Wars project. During his time with Lockheed, Bud used his Gl bill and got his bachelor's degree in Management from Park University. He then did an accelerated course of study for his graduate degree (MBA) and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 'l 8 months with a Master's in Marketing and Finance.
After 15 years with Lockheed, Bud decided to start his own professional software company, Emerging Technology Solutions. Within five years Bud had taken his business from a start-up company to a multi-million dollar corporation which he then sold to a South African firm. Three years later that firm declared bankruptcy without fulfilling the entire sales contract so Bud took his company back. That was in 2002 and since then Bud has started and sold several other companies, published books, owned the third largest weekly newspaper in Colorado, owned marketing businesses, martial arts schools, photography, photobooth, beach wedding services, surfi ng, scuba diving, and even a real estate landlord. Bud describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, who just loves the challenge of starting and growing businesses.
Bud and Miriam are loving owning and operating their sailing business, FollowThat Dream Sailing. Bud and I\4iriam are both US Coast Guard captains, who work extremely well together. Their business has grown significantly in a short period of time, and they lookforward to continuing to provide memorable experiences for their guests. ln addition to doing their daily local sailing charters around Amelia and Cumberland lslands, they have international sailing adventures planned this year to the US Virgin lslands (June), British Virgin Islands (September), Sicily (October), and Greece (April 2024). l\4ore
information is available on their website at www.Fol lowThatDrea mSa i ling.com.
Bud and Miriam enjoy doing almost everything together. First and foremost, they love to share experiences with each other and with others. They love'treating memories"for people, whether it be scuba diving, sailing, travel, or even photos of a friendly humpback whale.
Some of their hobbies become business outlets for them such as photography, scuba diving, sailing, and Miriam's passion for writing which led her to become ordained. Miriam also enjoys writing personal weddlng ceremonies which led them to a beach wedding business when they lived in North Carolina. They also enjoy snow skiing, drinking wine, and hosting parties.
Bud is still a certified PADI scuba diving master instructor and he provides diving instruction and lessons. He loves to see the look on people's faces the first time they realize they are breathing underwater.
Together they have five grown children. Miriam's daughters are Sam and Leah. Bud's children are Michael, Samantha, and Stephanie, and they have one granddaughter, Ella. Bud and Miriam are proud of all their children and support alltheir goals and aspirations.
Their three middle children, Michael, Leah, and Samantha are very close although they grew up in three different homes. All three are scuba divers, with Michael and Samantha having moved to Hawaii with Bud and Miriam to help run their scuba diving business. Michael is a PADI Dive lnstructor, Samantha is a Dive Master, and Leah is a Rescue Diver. They love taking vacations with their children whenever they can.
Bud and Miriam live in Flora Parke. When they first moved to Florida in February 2017,having sold their dive and surf businesses in Hawaii, they had nowhere to go. They were
literally homeless. A longtime friend of Miriamt offered them their vacation home that was sitting empty in Port St. Lucie, so they moved there while they looked for their next adventure. Bud's sister has lived on Amelia lsland for over 35 years and good friends of theirs had recently moved to the lsland so they decided this would be a good place to live. While looking for homes, Miriam's government job got transferred to Fort Stewart so with a 2-hour drive ahead of her she wanted to live off island to save that time. They looked at many homes and found what they were looking for in Flora Parke. They have been here for five and a half years and love the community and all of their friends in the area.
"Flora Parke is by far the largest HOA we have lived in, but it is well maintained and with so many neighbors, you can always find people you get along with and have something in common with. We now own 6 homes in Flora Parke, we rent out 5. Our friends in the community are what really makes this location speciali' says Bud.
Bud and Miriam have become known as "the party people" because within a year of moving in they started having open house parties. Anyone living in Flora Parke and the area are welcome to come. This is something that has never been done before and it has turned into something the neighborhood now expects. A summer party around Bud's birthday, a winter party (usually around Christmas), and usually another party in the spring.
Their future adventure plans include sailing their catamaran, Follow That Dream, to the Caribbean for a few months and then across the Atlantic Ocean and then spending a few years sailing throughout the Mediterranean Sea.
If this couple had a motto Bud says it would be one of his favorite quotes from Helen Keller, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at alll'