Colorado: Longmont: Big Coffee

What size would you like?

Big.

A big mug of coffee. Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Colorado: Longmont: Roger's Grove Nature Area

View from Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Hoo wee, a spectacular mountain view from Roger's Grove Nature Area.

Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Roger's Grove is readily accessible off of a main thoroughfare in Longmont. Speaking of accessible, most of it's also, like Golden Ponds, friendly to wheelchairs, strollers, canes and the like.

Wildflowers. Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

May wildflowers blossomed.

Wildflowers. Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Wildflowers. Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Wildflowers. Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Wildflowers. Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Wildflowers. Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

The grasses were lush.

Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

A graceful stone mosaic showed the beauty in stones, hawks, and human artistry.

"Kestrel's Way." Roger's Grove Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Colorado: Longmont: Golden Ponds Nature Area

Wildflowers. Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

I took advantage of another warmish and sunny day in Longmont to check out the Golden Ponds Nature Area.

Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

 
Almost immediately, I was presented with this sobering sign:

Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Reminds me of a similar sign at Oliver Lee Memorial State Park outside Alamogordo, New Mexico. Where I was camping. Eek. Which led to this internal melodrama.

OK, I wasn't actually perturbed by the sign at Golden Ponds because the park is so open, it was daylight, and there were plenty of critters around that were much more tempting than me, such as geese, small dogs, and young children. Plus it is practically in a suburban subdivision.

Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Gosh, it was a pretty day. The walkways are flat and wide.

Wildflowers. Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Wildflowers. Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Because it was May, pretty wildflowers bloomed. There were baby geese.

Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

There is a mixture of open field and creek-side woods.

Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

There are ponds for fishing.

Wildflowers. Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

The mountains frame the views.

As I write this, it brings quiet peace to revisit some of the park's flowers in this video:

Along a path, I met up with this handsome fellow:

Grasshopper. Golden Ponds Nature Area, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

He reminded me of his gentlemanly cousins outside Morgan City, Louisiana, at Brownell Memorial Park.

Colorado: Denver: A Lil Louisiana at Station 26

Zydeco and crawfish day at Station 26 Brewing, Denver, Colorado. May 2016.

You know the value of crawfish when there's a scale on the table.

Zydeco and crawfish day at Station 26 Brewing, Denver, Colorado. May 2016.

Murphy and I + two nephews and a niece went to the Station 26 Brewery in Denver one windy, chilly weekend day - the brewery was having a Louisiana music-and-food day!

Zydeco and crawfish day at Station 26 Brewing, Denver, Colorado. May 2016.

Oh, it did the soul some good to hear a little zydeco, even though it was via muzak. A live band played later.  Ever since I heard Sorry About Your Sister perform at the Bad Ass Music Festival, I've been very fond of the double bass.

Zydeco and crawfish day at Station 26 Brewing, Denver, Colorado. May 2016.

And I loved seeing this box percussion, which Las Cafeteras introduced to me. Or was it Jarana Beat playing Dolor de Aqui? Aieee. Either one will do it for you.

Zydeco and crawfish day at Station 26 Brewing, Denver, Colorado. May 2016.

Of course, there was the beer. We had to try several.

Zydeco and crawfish day at Station 26 Brewing, Denver, Colorado. May 2016.

Zydeco and crawfish day at Station 26 Brewing, Denver, Colorado. May 2016.

But my favorite thing at Station 26 may have been the pretzels. They're in giant plastic kegs, free for the taking. Salty. Dark wheaty. Crunchy.

Colorado: Longmont: The Longmont Museum

Longmont Museum, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

My sister, Murphy, and I visited the Longmont Museum.


It's in a grand, graceful building. Contemporary.


The museum is free!

Volunteers at the museum help offset the municipal costs of running this cultural amenity.

I was astounded to discover that the Ancient Ones had invented the purple plastic mechanical pencil.

Longmont Museum, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Colorado: Lyons: A Lil' Swing

Katie Glassman and Snapshot, Lyons, Colorado. May 2016

My sister, "Murphy," and I checked out the band at Oskar Blues Brewery in the nearby village of Lyons.

Katie Glassman and Snapshot played.

Kick.

Ass.

Here's a taste of the band playing an Americana standard, Orange Blossom Special: 

The sparseness of the audience was a sadness.

But thank goodness Murphy and I got to immerse ourselves in the talent of these musicians.

A number of Orange Blossom Special covers here.

Colorado: Longmont: Sandstone Ranch Park

Sandstone Ranch Park, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Longmont has a large park system.

Sandstone Ranch Park is one of many parks, green ways, and trails in Longmont.

I used to work for a nonprofit organization that served parks and recreation professionals. The three most important learnings I took from that experience are: 

1. The Declaration of Independence tells us that every one of us is born with "certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Parks, green ways, and trails are integral to our pursuit of happiness. 
2. There is a positive correlation between access to well-designed and maintained parks and the deterrence of crime, especially among our youth. 
3. One city in Missouri had a map of its parks. The parks and recreation director told a group of us that it was his city's goal to ensure that every citizen in that city had a park that was less than a mile from his home. This mission drove decisions about where and how to allocate money for parks.

Sandstone Ranch Park, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Even for those only concerned about the bottom line, parks are good business for a community. From the American Planning Association, community parks bring these benefits: 

1. Real property values go up.
2. Municipal revenues increase.
3. Affluent retirees relocate and stay.
4. Knowledge workers and talent want to live and work in the community.
5. People want to buy homes in the community.

Perhaps it's an American cultural tendency to go punitive or rules-driven when considering the solutions to problems instead of going wider and, counter-intuitively, to less rules-driven measures. I am thinking, for example, of crime prevention or reduction - and also safer, calmer streets for drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists.

Instead of assuming that the investment of finite resources into more stuff for our community's police, consider how the investment of that same money into well-designed and maintained parks can reduce and prevent crime. AND provide simple enjoyment and quality of life for everyone!

Check it out:

• Green Cities: Good Health --> Crime and Public Safety: Fast Facts
• American Planning Association: Safer Neighborhoods
• On how good design and other variables affect the correlation between parks and crime prevention and reduction

Colorado: Boulder: Prairie Dog Town

Prairie dog town, outside Celestial Seasonings. Boulder, Colorado. May 2016.

Outside the Celestial Seasonings plant near Boulder is a prairie dog town.

Prairie dog town, outside Celestial Seasonings. Boulder, Colorado. May 2016.

Prairie dogs are, of course, our domestic version of those telenovela characters of the animal kingdom, meerkats.

A little movie here:

There is past melodrama aplenty between these prairie dogs and Celestial Seasonings.

In 1999, someone discovered that the company was poisoning the prairie dog community under the cover of night: 

• Tea Company Agrees to Stop Poisoning Prairie Dogs
• Forced Prairie Reserve

Prairie dog town, outside Celestial Seasonings. Boulder, Colorado. May 2016.

The company handled the resulting outrage gracefully, ceding the land to the prairie dogs.

Boulder County has a prairie dog management program that strives to preserve the native black-tailed prairie dog population while acknowledging the demands of agricultural and business land use.

Colorado: Boulder: Leanin' Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden of Western Art

Aspen in May. Leanin Tree Museum of Western Art, Boulder, Colorado. May 2016.

For May 2016, I visited my sister, "Murphy," at her place in Longmont, Colorado.


Between Longmont and Boulder is the Leanin' Tree production plant and store. It is also home to the Leanin' Tree Museum and Sculpture Garden of Western Art.


Although the overcast days of Guatemala followed me to Colorado, it was a spirit-lifting sunny day when I visited Leanin Tree.

I move through museums pretty quickly. If a work doesn't grab my attention, I zoom right by. Which reminds me of when Murphy and I went on a tumultuous road trip to Colorado, years ago, back when we both still lived in Missouri. Murphy and I stopped in Cripple Creek (before there was a casino). We entered the history museum together. About 20 minutes later, I exited the museum and sat outside on the steps to wait for Murphy to finish her walkabout. I smoked back then, so I had a cigarette while I waited, probably several. I waited and waited and waited for Murphy to come out. After what seemed an eternity, I re-entered the museum to see where the hell she was.

She was still in the first room! Reading each tiny card in front of each tiny exhibit. Holy fuckity-fuck.


Anyway. Back to the present.

There were a number of works at the Leanin' Tree museum that drew me.

Ed Mell's Sonoran Sunbreak. Unfortuately, I'm not able to find a good image of this painting, but here's a piece in a similar style, called Towering Clouds, Lake Powell:

Towering Clouds, Lake Powell, by Ed Mell. Credit: Ed Mell Gallery

Jackson Hensley's The Prayer. Again, didn't find a good image for this, but here is another of Mr. Hensley's with a similar style:

Painting by Jackson Hensley. Credit: Jackson Hensley Gallery.

Also, I liked works by:

• Gary Ernest Smith, Two Barns and Oregon Pioneers
• Oleg Stavrowsky, The Raid
• John Schoenherr, specifically, Fox Hunt II and Big Hunter
• Michael Coleman, After the Rain
• Fritz Scholder, Cow Kachina #2
• Gordon Snidow, Ramrod

Ramrod, by Gordon Snidow. Credit: Gordon Snidow.

Outdoors were some fine pieces, which included bears, deer, a snake, and other critters large and small. I felt very taken with The Beauty of the Harvest, by Martha Pettigrew. It is a sculpture of a Pueblo woman with a basket of corn. Couldn't seem to take a picture of her that in any way captured her presence. Here is another visitor's depiction, which I link you to, although I'm not in love with how much the photographer saturated the colors. The photo I have at the top of this post is the tree that is behind this sculpture.

There was also this horse, welded together from recycled metal and objects. The Leanin Tree patriarch commissioned the artist, Dixie Jewett, to create this piece. Therefore, she was able to ask her benefactor for pieces to include in the horse, pieces that might have special meaning to him.

Ironfire by Dixie Jewett, Leanin Tree Museum of Western Art, Boulder. Colorado. May 2016.

Ironfire by Dixie Jewett, Leanin Tree Museum of Western Art, Boulder. Colorado. May 2016.

Other Western (as in American West) art museums I've been to include:

• Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma

The Leanin Tree Western Art Museum is free. It's a good day when you can surround yourself, at no charge, in beauty on a balmy, sunny afternoon in May.

Colorado: My Home for a Month

Spring flower in Roger's Grove, Longmont, Colorado. May 2016.

Longmont, Colorado, was my home for May. I stayed at my sister's place and continued to work remotely.

A preview.

Theme

Often, themes present themselves on a journey.

On one road trip from Missouri to Destin, Florida, with the same sister who's now in Colorado, it was all about cracklin's.

On the road trip to Alaska with my daughter, it was about buttes and The Biggest XYZ in the World.

On the road trip in Western Europe with my brother, it was about getting our passports stamped.


In Colorado, I'd say the theme was: Sculpture. Man-made sculpture and natural sculpture, as you will see in coming posts.


Quality of life

Almost immediately upon my arrival in Longmont, I was gobsmacked with the quality-of-life amenities that Longmont and other Colorado communities offer residents. Ah, I thought, this is where tax dollars go when citizens value the importance of well-being for all.

I'm talking parks, green spaces, pedestrian pathways, public transportation, wonderful senior centers, libraries, museums, cultural events. Those things that gladden hearts, both figuratively and literally.

Frankly, I just get mad that so many other communities in the United States choose not to invest their tax dollars in such things when they could. Instead, they spend finite tax dollars to militarize their police forces or perhaps build convention centers that benefit only a very few for a very short time.

I'm thinking of my mother in the Missouri town where she lives - there's Bingo and bridge at her local senior center. Services available to seniors in Longmont - wow.

On a superficial level, Colorado is the picture of exuberant, red-cheeked health, regardless of its citizens' ages.

But Colorado has one of the highest suicide rates in the country. (Missouri and Tennessee are tied for the 20th highest suicide rate; Kansas is the 19th highest.)


Breweries

One on every corner, I think.

In fact, Colorado has 7.3 craft breweries per person, the 3rd highest in the country. Oregon is 2nd highest. Vermont is 1st.  


Legal marijuana

Right. I checked it out, too. More later, dude.


Technology upgrades

While in Colorado, I made big changes to my technology. Bought a new laptop and bought a new camera. My finances took a hit in May.


Coffee travails

My sister doesn't drink coffee. The only implement she owns to make coffee is a small-small French press. It was just too small to support my habit efficiently. More adventures on this later.


Carcass collection

Colorado offered up additions to the carcass collection.


Cost of living

It is expensive to live along the Denver-Boulder corridor. To be more precise, perhaps, I should say housing is expensive along the Denver-Boulder corridor. If I compare Denver with Lafayette, Louisiana, the housing cost is 49% higher in Denver.

Is it possible that other variables, such as reasonable costs of gas, groceries, health insurance, etc. + the multiple quality-of-life benefits = overall comparability? I don't know.


(Note: Pueblo, Colorado, has a comparable cost of living with Lafayette. I've been hearing positive things about Pueblo in the past year.)

On the Way to Colorado: Snapshots

Route

Between Missouri and Colorado, I took Highway 36 most of the way.

I chose this route because it:

• Has a good mix of four-lane interstate efficiency and two-lane relaxing; 
• Passes through Hiawatha and Marysville, Kansas; and 
• Avoids the oft-traveled Interstate 70, which I've seen plenty before. 

There is some sentimental appeal to Highway 36, also. I used Highway 36 on my very first solo road trip when I traveled up to Mount Rushmore. I remember it for being so empty; a highway that I had to myself. Except for when a police officer pulled me over and gave me a ticket because I was driving in the left lane of the highway! Or speeding. He suggested both. On my birthday! Asshole.

I'm also pretty sure my daughter and I took Highway 36 on our road trip to Alaska many years ago. We left on July 4th. I made sure to drive in the right lane.

Hiawatha was of interest because years and years ago I'd read about a cemetery there. It featured a spot filled with white-stone sculptures honoring a man's deceased wife.

I hadn't heard of Marysville before, but a friend exclaimed her charm with it when I mentioned my route options.

Starlite Motel, Seneca, Kansas. May 2016.

Motel stop

It is always a happy gift to find a retro roadside motel on a trip. At exactly the right time in the evening, upon entering Seneca, Kansas, and when I was ready to pull off the road for the night, I spied the Starlite Motel on my left.

The congenial motel owner greeted me, got me registered, and showed me a basket filled with snacks, from which I could select one. Call me a cheap date, but wow, give me a Route 66ish motel, at a retro room rate, and a SNACK, and I'm in love.

The room was super clean and it was comfortable. Free wifi and a decent TV. 


Dead fox

Gosh, it was sad to see this dead fox on the side of the road the next day.

Normally, I don't feel particularly sad when I see road kills. It is a grim cost of efficient vehicular travel between Points A and B.

But I'm no more immune to the unfair-but-real attraction to the cute-and-furry than the next person. There's even a phrase for this: taxonomic bias.

This fox was cute and furry and looked like a juvenile. Most of all, though, it looked like it had been struck down only minutes earlier.

Dead fox, Highway 36, Kansas. May 2016.

I felt some pangs about adding the fox to the carcass collection, but as you can see, I added it nonetheless.

Snow!

It was May, right?

How enthusiastically I pulled over in Colorado when I saw snow along the side of the road! It wasn't even near the mountains!

Snow in May! Highway 36, Colorado. May 2016.

The embedded insect was a lagniappe.


The Eternity Effect

Sometimes you hit points in a road trip where the road seems interminable. You don't want to look at the time because it's likely only five minutes has gone by since you last looked. You don't want to look at the odometer because, shit, you've only gone two miles since the last time you looked!

There's no radio station coming in, and if there were, it'd be something you don't want to hear. You have overdosed on your own playlists, and need a break from these old friends. You've listened to podcasts or that audio book. It's not time to eat. You don't have to pee. And you're miles and miles from your day's destination.

Interstate 36 for most of Colorado was like this.

But that's just part of the deal sometimes. Pieces of a road trip may include monotony, boredom, impatience to reach the next stop.


At least I did this

Thank the baby deity that I stopped for gas in Anton, Colorado. It was a borderline decision - I had enough gas to "just stop at the next town" or even the one after that, under normal circumstances.

I didn't know at the time there were no other gas stations on Interstate 36 between Anton and Byers.

If I hadn't stopped in Anton, that would have just been another problem on top of this one.


Loose ends

For various reasons, neither Hiawatha nor Marysville were in the cards for a stop on the way out to Colorado. Maybe on the way back.


The most important thing

I arrived at my destination safely.

Budget Road Trip: Don't Do This

Highway 36, Colorado. May 2016.

I don't think I'm being immodest when I say I'm an expert at budget road trips in the US.

I am very clear here about the worth of back-up paper maps on road trips.

In May, I embarked on a two-day, single-destination road trip from Missouri to Longmont, Colorado.

In past road trips to a single destination (versus open-ended, meandering trips), it was my habit to:

• Plot out my route online, print the instructions, pop them into a crisp colored folder, and lay it on the passenger seat next to me; 
• Carry an atlas in my car; and
• Stop at the state welcome centers and pick up their respective road maps. 

Now that I'm in possession of a smart phone with a mapping app, all of the above are Plan Bs or ancillary tools to enhance the mapping app.

But for this trip, I suffered from everything I caution other road-trippers about, delivered in a cascade of fails:

• Complacency
• Assumptions that didn't pan out
• System failure

Highway 36, Colorado. May 2016.

Complacency


The extent of my pre-trip route plotting consisted of a quick look at a map a day or two in advance. I noted that I could take I-36 almost all the way to my Longmont destination, and that I'd jog up a secondary road at some point before the metro-Denver traffic snarls. I saw a road that looked pretty good for that purpose, and tucked into my mind that I'd nail that down when I picked up a Colorado map at the state line or via my phone. [Note the foreshadowing via the bold orange text.]

I counted on "just-in-time" intel. Didn't even think about taking five minutes to nail it down right then and print off directions to my final destination address.

This would have been OK if I'd had an atlas in my car. But I didn't. 

Complacency!


Assumptions that didn't pan out


Ho!

Unpleasant surprise #1: There are no welcome centers on Interstate 36 in Kansas or Colorado.

NWNM Visitor Center. Grants, New Mexico. December 2012.

Unpleasant surprise #2: System failure


Inexplicably and without warning, my phone shut down my data access. Meaning: No mapping application, no texts, no google searches.

This occurred in Colorado just about at the point where I was wanting to know where I'd cut loose from Interstate 36 and jog north. Of course it did.

Fortunately, the phone feature actually worked, so I used two "lifelines" who talked me into my final destination. But damn, I was flying blind, and I didn't like that.

(After I arrived at my destination, I remembered I have an old-timey GPS device in my glove compartment. It's been gathering dust there for a couple of years, at least. Doh.)

Lessons learned AGAIN

1. Follow the basics
2. Remember that systems fail
3. Fail smartly

Grand Canyon warning poster. Credit: National Park Service