Another beautiful Colorado winter

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!!!

Snowdown 2013

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.