I’m sitting on my bed in my room at the YMCA of the Rockies. It’s beautiful here. Oh my goodness, there are people everywhere! It’s a busy place. I’d say the kids out numbered the adults 5 to 1, at least, or maybe the parents are enjoying adult time. By ‘kids,’ I’m meaning anywhere from 7 to 18. There’s a large recreational area where they play. I’ll describe it more on another blog. Then there are the large number of ‘young’ staff. I couldn’t guess the number that work here. I noticed in the staff dining hall that the ratio was about two-thirds ‘younger’ to the one-third ‘older’ adults.
I had a beautiful trip here. Annette and I explored Garden of the Gods and Denver’s Botanical Garden. Denver is laid out nicely. The neighborhood that we stayed in was convenient to places to eat and shop. I like how they are constructing the neighborhoods and eating and shopping places in walking distance of each other. There’s not all that nasty traffic to fight going shopping. It was easy driving their streets, only on every block there was a traffic ligh, and they didn’t stay green long. The only place that was super congested was the Interstates. On the way back from Denver Airport, where I left Annette, I stumbled upon a toll road. Wow! Wish I had found it sooner because it was a breeze getting to Boulder.
I stopped downtown Boulder and walked around at their Pearl Street Mall. There were a few street performers playing music at different blocks; steel drums, saxophone, and a guitar. At one corner, there was a double jointed, very skinny man putting himself in a clear 2 foot cube…unique. Overheard while walking, “I like the smell of weed.” by a college age girl to her friends. I stayed less than an hour and decided to move on.
Lyons was my last stop before checking in at the Y. I stayed in another Airbnb with a Kristen and Jerry. They were a friendly couple with a nine year old boy named Hunter and friends from Minnesota, camping in a pop up in their driveway. That couple had two daughters about five and seven. When I arrived, they were picnicking in the front yard…sweet.
I had the whole bottom floor of their house with a private entrance and patio. The view was gorgeous. I could see the whole town and they weren’t even very high up the mountain. The house wasn’t sound proof, so I could hear talking and walking, but with that view, I didn’t mind.
Colorado people seem very laid back and I didn’t see very many ‘oversized.” On the roads, I have seen so many cyclist.
Between Boulder and Lyons, I bet I saw at least fifty. Sometimes, they were lone riders or pairs. At one point, I saw a group of at least thirty. I was trying to estimate as I passed them. Impressive that they have the stamina to do the mountain roads.
In Lyons, I met a woman on the sidewalk going into their small library with her two boys. I stopped and ask her for a recommendation where to eat. Lyons is small. About three streets with businesses and the rest residential. She suggested Oskar Blues. They had the best onion rings I’ve ever eaten. They were wide and thickly battered. The restaurant seemed to cater to all types of people. There were motorcycle riders on the upper patio and families of all ages inside. I noticed on the menu that they had ‘Picker’ night from 8 to 11 P.M. I decided that I might come back and listen to the music.
I rested a bit and headed back to the Blues bar. I like writing that. Makes me feel like I could be “bad to the bone!” I arrived at 8:30 and had to search to find a place to watch. The funny thing is that there were more ‘pickers’ than patrons in the bar. They had made a large circle and the music was awesome. There were about twelve when I arrived, but by the time I left, there were about sixteen.
didn’t recognize a single tune, but I sat and listened for two hours; keeping time with my feet. This group obviously ‘picked’ often together. They sometimes chatted during songs while taking small individual breaks. Most of them had a beer sitting on the floor beside their chair.
I was sitting behind the circle because that’s the only seat I could find, so I listened in on a few of the conversations. Two banjo players chatted about taking lessons from someone and just diving in learning to play with others. She had played two years, he about ten. When I gushed to her how amazing I thought they sounded, she told me that somewhere every night was a ‘pick’ session.
I wish I could name all the musical instruments, but I can’t. The ones I recognized was the banjos, guitars, base cello, and violins. I think maybe there was a mandolin. They would take turns naming a song to play and in what key. Sometimes, one of them would sing. When they played, it seemed that they would go around the circle giving a person a ‘solo’ play while they blended in with that player. It changed often during the songs. They have it every Tuesday night. I’ll be driving back to watch again.
The next morning, I set out for the Y. This blog is getting so long that I’ll wait and write about my impressions on another one.
Take care my friends. I’d appreciate your prayers as I start this endeavor. My verse today was Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast.
By the way, I did stop for this and got a huge hunk of a Cinnamon roll…yum!
Life Continues 
