It’s time for a new blog post, and I’m feeling a pretty inspired at the moment. It’s pretty incredible to think how long I’ve been in Durango. So much has happened, and I’ve learned a lot about life, and about journalism, since I came here in June 2011. I’ve been here for three years and four months. That’s the longest I’ve stayed in one place since leaving my hometown, York, Nebraska, for college in October 2004.
Before coming to Durango, I had a lot of ideas of what I could do with my life, but mainly, I wanted to write more about music like I had been doing before I left for South Korea in early 2009. I’ve been doing that, and it’s been fun.
The world has changed a lot since then. People, for instance, now get 30 percent of their news from Facebook. People also now read the news on mobile devices like iPads and iPhones. I’m actually writing this post on my iPhone. I would say that’s a big change from when I began blogging after I arrived in Korea on a laptop that was pretty cutting edge at the time.
The changes in how we interact with technology are good and bad. For example, because everything is shifting to the Internet, newspapers now compete with a host of other entertainment sources, and people are getting the news for free, which isn’t sustainable. But on the other hand, a writer’s reach has also expanded immensely.
In my case, as a page designer, the amount of work goes down as people buy fewer hard-copy newspapers. That’s why design houses have become popular. Publishers can outsource page-design duties to one of these “factories” to cut costs.
So these are things that newspapers are battling across the world. My generation, the millennials, use smartphones and are adept at getting what they want on the Internet for free. That includes news, e-books, music, movies, computer software, applications, etc. If it exists in the digital form, millennials don’t see why they need to pay for it. It’s not sustainable, and they’ll live to see the consequences of this in the future (they already are) in the form of bad music, bad movies, bad software and by constantly being marketed to. But worst of all, they’re going to be silenced. Americans’ First Amendment rights are slowly crumbling.
Great journalists are leaving the newspaper profession simply because they can’t afford to feed their families. Or because they don’t have families and they like to be able to have one in the future. More than likely, fewer newspapers and fewer journalists will result in a more corrupt government.
The main goal of a newspaper is to keep our public officials in check, and when there’s less of that happening, everyone suffers. The main reason newspapers haven’t completely folded is because there’s still a loyal base of people, 50 and older, who still enjoy their morning coffee and a hard-copy newspaper. And that’s great. I’m glad. But when those people are no longer here, who’s going to fill that void? Not the millennials. Newspapers make most of their revenue from advertising. Digital ads cost one-fourth of a print ad. So that means a lot of digital ads need to sell to make up for the lost print ad revenue. But why put an ad or classified on a paper’s site if you can do that for free on Craigslist or by setting up a Facebook page for your business for free?
And there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m all for progress. But we need to do what’s right and support the people who are looking out for our best interests. And those are musicians, painters, writers, actors, poets, journalists. These people protect us by saying what others aren’t willing to say. So buy a song, a book from your local bookstore, your news (in digital or print form). You’ll feel good about owning something good and help not only the creator, but society as a whole.
Anyways, this blog post morphed into something completely different than what I had in mind, but that’s OK. I’ll save what I had in mind for the next post.
Here’s a photo I took while on I bike ride last week in Durango.
My friend Megan and I went to the world-renowned Ouray Ice Festival this past weekend. Professional ice climbers go there from all over to compete for one weekend each January.
The two top spots went to a Frenchman and an Italian, so I thought that was kind of neat.
Saturday was a gorgeous day to be in Ouray. That town looks like a fairy tale year-round, but more so in the winter. It’s simply spectacular. The photos don’t do it justice. You have to go there and see it for yourself.
I didn’t really know what to expect from the festival but was totally blown away. Along Box Canyon, man-made ice covers an entire wall, so there’s giant, blue icicles hanging. The climbers look like little dots on the ice.
There’s one spot in particular where spectators can watch climbers try to reach for a pinata at the top. As they get closer to it, the climbers have to use their acrobatic skills as well as their climbing and picking skills. It’s one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen.
Anyways, check out my photos. And if you ever have the chance, go to the festival.
Do that thing in 2014 you’ve always thought about doing. Interact with people. Call your friends and family more. Don’t watch as much T.V. Try snorkeling (It’ll change your life. I promise). Try a new hobby.
But most of all, be yourself and be good to others.
I’ve been lucky enough the last couple of months to have the company of a few loved ones. And even better, I’ll get to see them again soon. Soon after my family was here, my good friend, India, visited from Boston and a couple of weeks ago, I returned to Durango from spending about nine days in Cincinnati with my girlfriend and her family. Phew! Its been an exciting time for Mark Hayden. No complaints here.
Nebraska visitors
Oh, Nebraska. It’s where I’m from, it’s where I grew up, it’s what I know and what I know best, and Nebraska came to me in October in the form of two sisters, a brother-in-law and a niece. How lovely.
I was kind of surprised, but Angie told me this summer that she might be possibly driving to Durango in the fall with Kevin and Katie. They figured out a date and it worked out pretty well. Ali ended up coming, too, during her fall break from school.
I was able to get a day off the week they were here in mid-October, so we had three full days to hang out and see the Four Corners. Between traveling around the San Juan Mountains, riding a gondola and seeing Mesa Verde the day the government reopened, I would say we achieved quite a bit.
Our first day, we rode the Million Dollar Highway, which is one of the most dangerous highways in the country, and one of the most beautiful, I’m sure. It’s between Silverton and Ouray, and it’s also used as a scenic route to Telluride.
While traversing the exciting stretch of road, we stopped here and there to take in the beauty. I’m glad they came because I knew they would like it, and I’m happy to share it with them, and I was right. They enjoyed themselves.
One of the highlights of their trip, for me at least, was when we went to Vallecito Reservoir on their last day. Vallecito is a really small community, maybe 200 people or so, and it’s about 30 minutes north of Durango. I’ve actually rode my bicycle up there a few times, and it’s pretty awesome. The town lies on a man-made lake. It’s a very relaxing place, and we had a couple drinks there and chatted.
I also enjoyed hanging out in Telluride with them. It’s a really pretty town, and I’m glad they got to see it. I would love to go skiing up there sometime, actually. It’s supposed to be one of the best places for that in the country.
So, check out my photo gallery of their trip.
Nice, eh?
See them down there to the left?
Unfortunately, I didn’t take very many photos of my family while they were here, but l just noticed that Angie slipped into this photo somehow. This was taken between Durango and Silverton. For mid-October, it seemed like there was a lot of snow up there.
The source …
We rode the free gondola to mountain village in Telluride. It’s really pretty up there.
From the gondola …
This was taken near Mancos.
Check it out. This is Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park. We took a tour of these ruins that date back to 1200 A.D. It’s absolutely mind-blowing to think that people lived there. I think humans used to be pretty interesting. What happened to us?
Ali participated to show how the Ancestral Pueboans ended up eating sand with their corn, which probably contributed to their short life spans.
What’s Kevin looking at?
Our tour guide was pretty enthusiastic about this job, which is nice to see these days. We toured Mesa Verde the day the government reopened, so I felt pretty lucky because I really wanted to show them this amazing place while they were here. This guide gave a speech at the end of the tour and he got a little misty-eyed. He started the speech with saying that we were the first all-American tour group he had all summer. Very touching
Dark Durango.
An old friend visits Durango
I really do enjoy seeing my friends and family. That’s all I really care about, honestly. As if having my family here wasn’t nice enough, I got another visitor. India is a good friend whom I met on Molokai. I met her through my friend, Rodney, and they were both teachers at Molokai High School. They are some the nicest, most genuine people I’ve met. India left the island shortly after I did and traveled Europe for about eight months. After that, she moved to Natick, Mass., s we had a lot to catch up on.
When I was on Molokai, India, Rodney and I would go to the beach, go to the bar and play pool together and, sometimes, we’d go camping at the beach. We lived like kings and queens, and it’s really nice to see someone with whom I experienced that life.
I remember one time when we were camping. There was Rodney, India, Clayton, myself and a Canadian woman who was on the island for a week. We met her at Paddlers, the local bar on Molokai. We were walking on the beach, and it was kind of a misty night, and I looked up at the sky and saw the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. I didn’t get a photo of it because it was too dark.
This thing was so incredibly amazing that it can’t even have its photo taken. Well. It probably can if you have the right camera. It was a night rainbow. The conditions have to be just right, usually a slight mist and a full moon, but if they are, it’ll happen. Night rainbows are pretty rare, some people told me on Molokai. So I consider myself to be pretty lucky to see one. It’s basically just a completely white arc, but it was pretty spectacular, and India and I saw it. I actually had to remind her of that when she was here.
I got a text message from India about two weeks exactly after the Paasches and the Hayden left. She said, “Hey, do you still live in Durango?” And, of course, I said “yes.” Apparently, she had taken two weeks off from work and came to the Southwest to see her friend in Taos, N.M., which isn’t far from Durango, about four hours.
So, a few days later, on Saturday night after I got off work, India came to Durango and we met up at an Irish bar. (Starting next week, I’ll have Fridays and Saturdays off at work, which I’m pretty excited about, for reasons such as this. It’ll be nice to hang out with my friends on the weekend a bit). Anyways, had a few beers and caught up, and some of my Durango friends met up with us. It was a fun time.
India was really interested in going to Mesa Verde, so we did that the next day. About 7 a.m. on Sunday, I’m not sure how we did it, we woke up from our booze-filled night and headed toward Cortez, Colo., for Mesa Verde. Two trips there in two weeks. That’s a record for me, but it really it is pleasure to see it, so I don’t mind.
She had me drive her rental car, which was a Volkswagen Passat. I don’t get to drive too often, so it’s always fun when I do. At Mesa Verde, they weren’t giving tours of Cliff Palace, the main dwelling, but they were giving free tours of the Spruce Tree House, which was pretty sweet.
I hadn’t seen it yet, so it was a good opportunity. Later that day, I had to work at 3 p.m., so India and I made it back in time for that.
The next day, I also had to work at 3 p.m., so we decided that we were going to go to Trimble Hot Springs. I get free tickets from work, so we thought we could grab those at my office and head up there, but it didn’t quite work out. We ended up going thrift-storing instead and got some green tea at an interesting cafe downtown that I’ve never been.
The next day, India left Durango for Utah, and I thought, well, we thought, that was going to be our last goodbye. But she only left for a day and spent some more time in Colorado and Utah before coming back to Durango. So we hung out again. It was funny. She noticed that Durango is a vortex. It just sucks you in.
We hung out again that night and checked out some live music at a local downtown bar and went to pub trivia. I forget how we fared, but we may have won. Not sure.
Anyways, lots of laughs during India’s visit. It was just like old times, and it was really great to see her.
Seeing the “Queen City”
And after all that fun, I still had some energy leftover for my trip to Cincinnati to see Megan and her family in mid-November. I spent about nine days in the “Queen City.”
Megan was a good host and showed me around the city. It was pretty weird to be in a big place with lots of people. Durango has about 15,000 people or so. There’s about 2 million in the metro area of Cincinnati, so that’s a few more.
I liked it. It’s a neat city. Lots of history there. Lots of cool old buildings and stuff. It kind of reminds me of Omaha, actually, but maybe a bit more hip (no offense to the Omahans). It also has more hills and is more diverse, which I liked. It also has two professional sports teams, which is pretty cool. We walked around the Great American Ballpark a bit. It was really nice there. Megan said they revamped that area recently.
That night, we went out with her sisters and their husbands, and her parents, Cheryl and Gerry, watched the kids, so that was nice of them. We went to a couple of breweries, one of which is in a former ghetto, so there were a lot of jokes about that floating around that evening. The brewery is called Rhinegeist Brewing Co., and it’s inside an old factory, so that gave it an interesting atmosphere. It had a good vibe, and the beer was awesome. Nice to finally meet Megan’s people and see where she came from.
The day before that, we saw a concert in Covington, Ky., which is across the Ohio River from the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge:
If you look closely, you’ll see that the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge forms an optical illusion with the blue skyscraper called The Ascent at Roebling’s Bridge. The architect, Daniel Libeskind, designed it to look as if the bridge and the building are “one.” It’s a neat way to connect Cincinnati and Covington.
The concert in Covington was at a small place called the Madison Theater. We saw a couple bands called “Capital Cities” and “Fitz & The Tantrums.” Both of them are on fire right now and have had a lot of success with their latest albums.
I wasn’t familiar with the opening band, Capital Cities. I really enjoyed them. They are dance, rock, alternative bands. Pretty hard to describe, but they put on really good shows. There were a lot of people there. It may have been sold out.
Another one of the days I was there, I shot guns with her brother-in-laws, Kevin, Ben, and his friend, Mark, at an indoor shooting range. It was pretty fun. We shot AR-14s and a couple Glocks. I hadn’t had experience with either, so I had to be taught a little bit, but it was pretty easy. I think I still need some practice! I only hit the bulls-eye once. Nonetheless, I had a good time.
That night, Megan and I went downtown with her good friends from high school. It was really cool to meet them because I had heard so much about them. We went to her friends’ apartment and hung out a bit before going to a couple of bars downtown, which was fun. It was actually pretty warm that night, which made it even better. I got a chance to talk to her friends and get to know them a bit, and vice versa.
The next day was her niece’s birthday party, so we went to Ben and Melissa’s, and I met a lot of people, even Megan’s grandmother, Peggy, who was really cool. It was a fun family gathering and even included taking shelter from a possible tornado in their basement. Luckily, a tornado never hit. We ended the night with a fun card game. I’m actually not one for that kind of stuff, but we played Apples to Apples, which I actually like.
So yeah, great to meet Megans family. Great people. I enjoy their company.
The next day, we went to Lexington, Ky., about an hour and a half south of Cincinnati, to hang out with her good friends from college. Megan attended the University of Kentucky, where she got her bachelor’s in architecture. Megan, her friend, came from Louisville, and Caitlin came from Knoxville, Tenn., which is kind of a far drive, so that was nice of her. We met them at a cool pizza place and had dinner. They were pretty much what I expected. I’ve heard a lot about them, so again, it was finally great to meet them in person.
Lexington is a neat town. Megan showed me all the places she lived. We didn’t walk on the campus, but it looked pretty nice from the car. She also took me through an old neighborhood with a bunch of old southern houses, which was cool. I guess there’s a lot of old money in Lexington from horse racing. There’s a lot of that going on there.
I really want to see a race sometime after hearing Megan’s stories. They seems like a blast. It sounds like races there get treated like Nebraska football games.
So yeah, that’s what we did. Kentucky is a pretty state. I’d like to see more of it sometime. Louisville sounds like a cool place, too. So many things to do, so little time.
The rest of the trip consisted of a bike ride with her friend on a cool bike trail that runs from Cincinnati to Dayton, Ohio. I also tried White Castle, which wasn’t too bad, but good thing we rode bikes afterward.
That night, we ate a cool Korean restaurant with her friends Bill and Allison. They are really into trying new food, and they had actually been to the restaurant before. I was really glad for that because I would not have known to go there otherwise. It was called “Riverside Korean Restaurant,” and it was in Covington. Probably the best Korean restaurant I’ve been to in the States.
Of course, I loved it because it reminded me of the old days. It was very authentic. We even sat on the floor and drank OB. It’s a good beer, and I drank my fair share when I lived over there. We all ordered bibimbap and sure enough, it was the real deal. Great stuff. I want to go there again.
And, I’m glad I saw the IRS building on our ride home that night. Wouldn’t have been a trip to Cincinnati if I didn’t.
It was a great time. I hope to do it again soon.
Capital Cities
Fitz & The Tantrums
That’s where the Bengals play.
That’s where the Reds play.
These are cool swings next to the Ohio River and the ballpark.
The captain of the boat waved at us.
Skyline Chili is a Cincinnati staple.
Megan, Allison and BIll.
This is where they show off the horses at Keeneland before taking them to the track.
The path to victory starts here.
It was really cold, and Megan was ready to leave.
This is a big place where horses live.
This is a bike bath in Cincinnati. It will eventually connect to Columbus, Ohio, which is about two hours away by car.
We made it to our destination, Loveland, a suburb of Cincinnati. We rode about 24 miles that day.
I wish I would have taken my camera with me last Thursday, so that you could see the beautiful lake in New Mexico I visited. Navajo Lake Marina is only a 45-minute drive south of Durango, and it’s absolutely awesome.
There’s just so much fun stuff to do in the Four Corners, it’s unbelievable. I consider myself pretty lucky to end up here a little over two years ago, but here I still am, just working at The Durango Herald and having a good time. I think the fun levels are rising each month I’m here, and that might have something to do with the connections I’ve been making.
In last the year or so, it seems like I’ve met a lot more people. Not sure why. It may be that I have figured this small town out better and found a niche. Last week, I went out with my friends Sarah and Oscar, who are both really nice people. Oscar is from the L.A. area, and Sarah is from the Denver area. Anyways, Oscar asked if I’d want to join him with some of his friends on a boat the next day.
I actually thought about it for some reason, and then I said “Sure, why not?” Anyways, we met his friend Justin who has the boat the next morning, which was already at the lake, and then picked up some more of their friends and headed south.
Justin’s boat was really nice. It felt like sitting on a floating living room. The seats were really nice, we had a plenty of beer, and the stereo sounded awesome. One of the main goals that day was wakeboarding. I had never done it before, and regrettably, I returned to Durango still not having tried it. More people met up with us at the lake, so there were eight or nine of us on the boat. Several people wanted to try, and I didn’t really put myself out there enough to do it. Oh well. I’ll give it a shot next time, which I dislike saying, but hey, it was still a blast.
I met some new people and had a great time in the sun on my day off, which I can’t really complain about.
Last night, I saw a huge black bear on my bicycle ride home from work. He was about a block or two directly ahead of me, so I stopped in my tracks and started turning around. About that time, he turned his head around and began staring at me. I then started pedaling pretty quickly and took a different route home.
Fall must be on the horizon. Food sources are running low in the mountains, and the bears are coming into town to eat before they hibernate. What a life.
Sometimes, they knock over trash cans and eat that stuff, but most people have bear-proof trash cans nowadays. That, I heard, has been pretty effective in keeping them away.
I got a little bored on Thursday, so I rode my bike to Bakers Bridge, which is about 30 miles round-trip. I was having some problems with my bicycle on the ride. I felt something knocking on my bike when I pedaled, so I took it to a shop the next day down the street from the Herald. Joel at Velorution Cycles was able to take it in and replace the bottom bracket in a couple hours, so that was pretty awesome. I was afraid I’d have to leave it for a couple of days. I think it’s the best bike shop in town, so I’m going there for all my future needs.
In spring 2010, I remember when someone the U.S. told me about a movie called “Up in the Air.” I hadn’t heard of it at the time. I finally got around to watching it last night, and I thought it was a great movie. When that movie came out, what was happening in South Korea was more important to me than what was happening in the United States, or anywhere else.
I really was gone. Not even Web marketing in 2009 and 2010 was as effective as it is now in 2013. It was a Top 10 movie in 2009 and grossed more than $130 million in the U.S., yet it hadn’t penetrated through Facebook and to me on the other side of the world. I’m almost certain the story would be different today.
As time passes and the years go by, I can reflect on that time and pluck some kind of moral or lesson from it, such as how to be more efficient. Koreans are very good at this. I learned a lot from them.
On Sept. 2, it will be exactly three years since I returned from Korea. Sometimes, I think there are several things I missed out on, eek, no, let me rephrase, there were basically a ton of things changed in the U.S. that I wasn’t experiencing, and that’s exactly how I wanted it to be. But at the time, I didn’t think much about not being in my home country for the biggest financial crisis in my lifetime.
That’s a big one to skip out on, but for better or worse, I didn’t experience it. I know what happened. I understand, but thankfully, I didn’t have to experience all the other bullshit. The aftermath. The conversations about it, reading about it in the news, seeing it on TV, etc. It must have been depressing. I returned in fall 2010 when the worst of it was mostly over.
In Korea, they were hurting, too, of course, but it didn’t seem as bad as it was here. Maybe that’s because they have Samsung and LG, and some other great companies. Or maybe it’s because they are a mostly export economy. Either way, I was being bombarded from every direction by cultural differences and hearing everything in a completely different language. So I was a bit insulated from the economic crisis. It’s as if I left the planet for a little while.
I’m talking about this not just because of a movie I saw, but mainly because I think about this stuff all the time since returning from Korea. It’s hard not to. Your life is filled with so much meaningless nonsense each day, and sometimes you forget that it doesn’t have to be. There’s only a few things people really care about, for example, friends, family, their hobbies.
You can have a rewarding life and have more control of the things you digest. These days, you’ll hear about Syria and the America’s growing influence there, or maybe what young pop star is doing on a music awards show. Who cares? I mean, really, you don’t have any control over that. Media tries to make you feel like you do, but really, you are just the fuel to make these things happen because you are obediently paying attention.
This is why I moved abroad. I wanted to get away from all the stuff, and here I am again. But, nonsense aside, there are also a lot of great things happening, and I think I am able to see those things because I can look the other way now.
I have been taking advantage of a privilege recently. The Herald offers us free passes to the local hot springs, which is about 10 miles north of my neighborhood, (about a 30-40 minute bike ride). It’s awesome because first of all, it normally costs $18 per adult at Trimble, and second of all, soaking it up in a hot spring is extremely relaxing, and healthy!
I didn’t grow up going to hot springs, and my first experience was last year at this place. I kind of regret not taking advantage of this amazing opportunity more often. I’ve gone three times so far this summer, including twice in the last two weeks, and I’ll try to keep the streak going.
The first time I went, it definitely wasn’t what I expected. I thought we’d be sitting in a hole in the ground, but it’s basically a giant hot tub, except it’s natural hot water with all kinds of minerals.
Yikes! I just noticed arsenic is on there. Maybe a bit of it is good for you…
It’s not just the water that makes the hot springs a satisfying experience. The water combined with the beautiful mountain surroundings makes it even better. Also, the bike ride there and back is rewarding, too. If I ever move away from Durango, I will definitely miss these kinds of things.
It’s what makes living in Colorado great.
John Popper of Blues Traveler plays with his side band at the neighborhood bar.
Can it really get any better? I usually go to El Rancho, aka The Ranch, on Saturday nights anyways, but throw John Popper, one of the best harmonica players in the world, into the mix at no extra cost, then Mark Hayden is a happy guy.
That’s right. No cover charge to see Blues Traveler’s lead singer play with his side band Brothers Keeper. Amazing! This is why I like the Ranch. I remember listening to Blues Traveler growing up, and there I was seeing John Popper playing the harmonica in my favorite bar not more than 10 feet from me.
John Popper and his side band Brothers Keeper.
I would describe their sound as kind of edgy, bluesy and Southern rockish. It was good. They sounded awesome. I was pretty impressed. Popper definitely threw in some harmonica solos, which is what the crowd really wanted, I’m sure. And I’m sure some people were anticipating that they’d play some Blues Traveler stuff, but they didn’t play any of that. They stuck to their own material.
Earlier in the night, John Popper actually played a show with Blues Traveler in Aztec, N.M., which is about 50 miles southwest of Durango. After the show, Popper got a quick ride over to Durango perform again. What a hardworking dude! That’s how you gotta be though. Not even this guy is stopping. He’s played all over the world since the early 90s and he’s still going. Actually, earlier in the night before the show began, a guy told me that Popper likes to play dive bars.
Between songs, Popper was signing autographs, so I took out a dollar bill and gave it to him. He took it and put it in his shirt pocket, then he took it out and had a “just kidding” look on his face, signed it and gave it back to me. Very cool. Then I took out a clean dollar bill and put it in shirt pocket. He laughed.
After the show, I tried to talk to him a bit. I had time for one question. “John, what brings you to Durango?” And he said, “Well, my friends wanted to come here, so I said, ‘Sure, why not?” Then he folded his harmonica briefcase and headed for the bus.
Between going to Denver for Megan’s graduation, mom’s visit, seeing Portugal. The Man in Telluride and moving to the north side of town, it’s been quite a summer.
At the end of May, I went to the capital city for about five days and on one of those days was Megan’s commencement. The rest of the time, her parents and I explored the area a bit. We saw the Rockies play the Giants at Coors Field, walked the 16th Street Mall, among other things.
Our seats weren’t were, but we explored the stadium a bit before the game began.
We saw a home-run ball hit that right-field foul pole.
We even checked out Red Rocks Amphitheatre during the day. It’s a beautiful venue. You can go there during the day and exercise if you want before concerts begin. There were quite a few people there just doing their thing. Pretty neat.
You can see the Denver skyline in the background. I saw Incubus perform here in 2007, and it was absolutely incredible. I think they were setting up for a DJ festival on this day. They were blasting tunes.
We hiked near Golden, Colo., right outside of Denver. That’s where the Coors brewery is.
That’s Megan and her parents Gerry and Cheryl.
And we hung out with Megan’s friends the night of her graduation.
It was a great time. It was cool to meet Megan’s parents. They are great people, as I expected. It was also really cool to meet her architect friends. They were a fun bunch.
Unfortunately, the exciting of week in Denver had to come to an end, but not before a beautiful ride back to Durango with Megan and her friend/roomie Laura.
This was taken about two hours east of Durango.
Megan’s an ambitious lady, so after graduation, she went to Ridgway to help build the stage that her and her classmates, including Laura, designed throughout their last semester of school. I went up there for one day to see Megan and even got to help them out a bit. I just drilled a few screws into the back wall. I think that’s probably for the best, too. It was fun.
The stage turned out beautifully and, next week, Megan, Laura, Eric (Laura’s boyfriend) and I will be see Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics perform on it. We are looking forward to it. We’ll go to Ridgway on Thursday and camp at Ridgway Stage Park about 10 minutes north of the town. I took the rest of the week off, so Megan and I will spend the weekend in Durango.
Next week, Ruby Velle & The Stereophonics will perform on this stage that Megan and her architecture crew from the University of Colorado-Denver designed and built. Can’t wait!
So yeah, good times.
Mom visits Durango
Mom came at the beginning of June, and we had a pretty good time. I had the week off, so we had plenty of time to explore and what not. We rented a car, so we were able to leave town a little. On Tuesday, we went to Mesa Verde National Park, which is pretty spectacular. You can see how people lived in this area more than 800 years ago, as well as see some pretty amazing scenery.
There’s mom at Mesa Verde.
While were at it, we also saw the Four Corners Monument. It’s only about an hour from Mesa Verde, but I missed the turn, and we ended up going to to Shiprock, N.M. We had to stop and ask for directions, and ended up finding the monument pretty easily.
Mom and Megan were able to meet each other because she came down from Denver to hang out for a couple of days. Mom and I had never been to Utah, so I thought that’d be something cool that we could do. Megan is a Utah veteran. She helped design and build a house in Bluff, on the Navajo Reservation, last year. She was part of this program, which was featured in The New York Times recently. This article is about the house that was built the year before Megan’s project:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/20/greathomesanddestinations/her-hallowed-ground-in-the-navajo-nation.html
We went to Arches National Park outside Moab, Utah. It’s quite a place. It’s really desolate out there, and you really feel like you are in the West when surrounded by the red desert there. More specifically, the park contains several natural red rock arches that were carved out by wind and water over millions of years.
This one is called “Delicate” arch. Eventually, it will erode and fall to the ground, as many other arches have in the park. It may take another thousand or million years, but this is a good example of how, with time, things change.
You may recognize this park. It’s been featured in several movies throughout the years. People come from all over the world to see these incredible spectacles. Man can do a lot of things well, and can create a lot of things well, but nothing can top the beauty of good ole’ nature.
This is called “Gossip Rock.” Doesn’t it look like they’re talking? Pretty cool.
Pine Tree Arch.
So yeah, that’s what we did. We stayed at the park for a few hours and saw a few arches. It was really neat. It was really hot, but I would like to go back again, possibly in the fall when it is a bit cooler.
On the way back to Durango, we stopped to take a photo of the Colorado River, which I have never seen before. I hear about it all the time, so it was cool to put a name to the face, so to speak.
The Colorado River flows through Moab, Utah.
I think we all had a good time when mom came out. Mom really enjoys this area, I think.
On our way to Arches, we came upon a cattle drive in Mancos, Colo., a small town outside of Durango. It was pretty neat. There were cows and cowboys/girls all around us.
Good to see you, mom and Megan.
Portugal. The Man
A hotel conference center in Telluride hosted Portugal. The Man with openers Guards on July 3. It was probably the most unique place to see a concert, for me. I’ve never taken a gondola to a show or seen a band in a hotel, let alone a big name like Portugal. So, it was something new. It was also good to get out of Durango a bit.
My friend Brandon and I took the trip up there and planned on camping in Telluride Town Park. The campsites were full, but we were somehow still able to camp there. A nice guy let us use his spot because his RV wasn’t taking up the whole spot. That was very cool of him.
We were able to walk to the gondola from there and then walk to downtown from the gondola station after the show.
I was a little disappointed with the short set by Portugal. They have eight albums, I think, so I thought they would play for two hours at least, but they only played for one. But they did say something on stage about being sick, so that probably had something to do with it.
Nonetheless, they played a bunch of good new and old songs, and they even covered “Hey Jude” for their encore. There was a good crowd, too, and it wasn’t too large. There were maybe only 200-300 people. This is a band that usually plays in front of 2,000+ people. Portugal was even on Conan O’Brien a couple weeks ago, shortly after the Telluride visit.
Portugal. The Man
The plan was to go to Silverton the next day, the Fourth of July, but I got scheduled to work at the last minute, so we hightailed it back to Durango the next morning. That’s OK, though. I got paid double time. That’s always nice.
Anyways, yeah, summer’s been a blast so far. Very eventful. I live on the north side of town now. I moved into a house with my friend from work and his friend. It’s not a bad a setup and much cheaper than where I was living before.
I basically went the whole winter season without a post. I haven’t written anything here since I returned from Nebraska last November. That’s OK with me. I’ve been keeping pretty busy between work and what not. I’ve gone to Denver twice to see my lovely lady Megan, had a couple visits from her, wrote a few articles, (one of which got pretty interesting), and my good buddy, Jed Ellis, from Omaha visited for Snowdown. So winter wasn’t too bad. I had a good time.
In January, Megan came down for a few days. We rode that train that basically sits in my backyard every night and spews coal dust into my apartment. We rode it halfway to Silverton and we got some pretty spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains.
Nice, eh?
Usually, this train takes you all the way to Silverton in the summer, but in the winter, it only goes halfway. I’ve never rode it all the way, but I’m sure the views are pretty spectacular. But I can imagine it’s also pretty tiring. By the end of this trip, which last from about 9 a.m. to 3 p.m, we were pretty exhausted.
Anyways, that was fun, and I think Megan has been inspired to become a train enthusiast. (Just kidding. That’s a Durango inside joke). There’s a lot of train enthusiasts who come here from around the world for this train. I never really knew what it meant until we rode it. There were people on the back videotaping the whole entire ride. They just loved it.
Weeee!!!
Snowdown2013
Jed arrived Thursday night in the rental car he rented at the airport. The next day, we rode the San Juan Skyway up to Silverton and then down to Telluride and back to Durango. It was really beautiful.
Jed in Silverton.
This year’s winter festival was really fun, probably because Jed was here, and I had the days off. Jed is a big costume guy, so with his enthusiasm and my willingness to wear one, we pulled off a pretty good couple of nights in Durango. It was quite a blast.
The first night, Jed dressed as a telemarketer by wearing a headset and a polo shirt. It was pretty funny and people understood it right away. I was Burt Reynolds tourist in Hawaii, which worked pretty well because I already had a pretty good beard going, so I just shaved it down to a mustache and let my chest hair flow out of the Hawaiian shirt I bought that day.
Then, the next day, Jed and I wore a duo costume. We were the book club. We went to the thrift store and bought a bunch of books and then bounded them with leather belts. We walked around with those all night and got a few laughs from people. Good times. Glad Jed came down for that. It was good to see him, too. He’s been a friend of mine for a long time.
Jason Mewes (of Jay and Silent Bob) interview
This was one of my favorite interviews I have done. It’s right up there with the one I had with Sheryl Crow. Jason Mewes was a super nice, very candid guy. He didn’t hold anything back (or didn’t seem to). He just let it flow. He used to have a huge drug addiction and he talked extensively about that with me. Here’s the article: http://durangoherald.com/article/20130128/ARTS01/130129611/0/SEARCH/Watch-Jay-&-Silent-Bob-‘Get-Old’
It made for a good preview article, and I’m glad I got the opportunity to talk with him. Mewes and Kevin Smith are pretty popular in some niches. They gained a lot of popularity in the 1990s and early 2000s with stonerish movies. Their first movie was “Clerks,” which is really funny actually.
Smith also directed all of the movies they were in together. And he co-produced “Good Will Hunting.” He’s pretty big in Hollywood. I actually got to meet Mewes downtown Durango. Check, check, check it out
Jay and I in front of the Strater Hotel in downtown Durango, Colorado.
Yeah! That was so fun. My friend Jim and I went to the Jay and Silent Bob stand-up show at Fort Lewis College Community Concert Hall. It was pretty funny. They had a packed audience, too. Jed didn’t arrive in time for the show. He arrived pretty late that night. Just in time for the fun.
Trips to Denver
I got really lucky and got some super-cheap flights to Denver in February and March. I went Feb. 5 and March 5. Both trips were fantastic. I even got to meet up with an old friend from Molokai while I was there the first time.
In February, when I was in Denver, Megan drove us to Boulder. I had never been there before that. I always hear about that town, whether in an article I’m reading at the Herald or listening to one of my Colorado friends talk about it, so I was really interested to see what it was like.
As people say, I could tell it was pretty wealthy. There were also lots of young people around. The downtown area was really cool and there were tons of restaurants. There’s Pearl Street Mall, which is basically one road dedicated to various stores and places to eat. It was pretty neat. I noticed the bicycle lanes in Boulder were wider than the ones in Durango. That must be nice for the cyclists. They probably feel very safe when they ride their bikes in the city. That’s one of the most important things, I think, when it comes to offering people different types of transportation instead of just the automobile.
Megan and I at Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado. I still had the mustache from Snowdown.
So that’s what we did that day. That night, we met up with my good friend Clayton. I met him while I was living on Molokai. He lived in the guesthouse of a mansion on the west end of Molokai. He’s a real nice dude. Sometimes, he would have us newspaper people over to the mansion for barbecues. It was pretty sweet.
Clayton and I chillin’ mainland style.
It was strange seeing Clayton in a cold climate. I’m used to seeing him in warm environment. It was the same feeling when I met South Korean friends from Honolulu in Seoul in the middle of winter.
Second trip to Denver
My first night in Denver in March with Megan was also eventful. The first night, we went to dinner with a couple of Megan’s good friends. The restaurant had a really cool view of the Denver skyline. That was pretty fun, and turns out, Megan’s friend Alyssa told me about her uncle who is a bass player for the band Big Head Todd and the Monsters. They are a pretty famous bluegrass band from Colorado. I had a really good time listening to her stories about him. She thought it was normal to have an uncle who plays in a band on David Letterman once in awhile. Funny.
My first full day there, Megan had class for part of the day, so I wandered around the city a bit by myself. I do well when I’m solo, so I didn’t mind. I went to the Tattered Cover Book Store for a little bit, which is a gigantic bookstore along the 16th Street Mall. It’a a bigger version of Pearl Street Mall, except it has a free trolley. Cars aren’t allowed on it, though.
16th Street Mall, Denver.
While Megan was in class, I went to the Denver art museum, which is pretty cool and has a really interesting design. There were some really cool paintings there from a lot of different artists including Andy Warhol. There was a special exhibition on Georgia O’Keefe, who was a pretty amazing landscape artist from New Mexico.
A view of the Denver skyline from the Denver Art Museum. You can see the state Capitol on the right.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo with Megan while on this trip. Next time. I’ll be there again in May for her graduation. Should be a blast.
Megan’s birthday
Megan came down to Durango during her birthday weekend. We had a good time. A little partying, ate some good food, ate some birthday cake. Yay. We also went for a little hike. Most of the hiking trails were still closed for winter, so we couldn’t really go too far. We also did a little exploring around Lemon Reservoir and Vallecito Lake, which isn’t far from here.
Lemon Reservoir.
Well. That’s about all I have for you today. It’s warming up outside, so I’m pretty excited about that. Winter is not my favorite season, but I still managed to have a good time.
From Corn to Korea 