Heading Home from Aspen

Yes I missed a day, but not much internet time yesterday...

SAturday was two John Denver events - the Cookhouse at lunchtime and a second Wheeler concert in the evening.

The Cookhouse event was at a ranch and featured the Friends With You band, the same group we heard Thursday night. Judy Therion saved us two seats at a close table which was a good thing since the hall was rather long and the speakers were not carrying well to the back. We had a rather international table. Next to me was a lady from Germany and next to her, one from Japan! After the very enjoyable concert we had a nice buffet lunch, then they introduced a new John Denver DVD. The guy who own this ranch was a producer for ABC Sports in the 70's and 80's and since John was featured at the 1984 Sarievo winter olympics, he had all the footage (on 3/4" tape!) of John doing human interest stories about the people. Some of this had been aired and some not. He showed a few scenes from the DVD.

That evening was the second Wheeler concert. It was mostly a repeat of the Friday event. I enjoyed the music, but the jokes by the comic were not nearly as funny when you already know the punch line. Mack Bailey sang at this concert which was very cool. He's Mary's favorite current singer.

Sunday we had 4 things planned. The day started off rough since we missed the first event. The lack of road signs caused us to miss the road we were supposed to take and things went downhill from there. But since it as a clear and beautiful day we did head back to the Maroon Bells and got some great pictures of this range with a bright blue sky background.

Next was a Windstar event. Windstar is an organization John founded dedicated to the proper stewardship of the planet. As with any cause, differenced exist and some JD fans have started a new organization, Blue Planet, which was the beneficiary of a few of our events. We saw the Peace Cloth there along with a great sculpture of a eagle landing on John's arm, then hiked up over 100 feet to a Medication platform. At this altitude that took a few breaks...

After that we headed back to town for a quick lunch and a great concert by Mack Bailey, Pete Huttlinger, and Chris Nole. WOW! What great musicians! They played a lot of their own material with a few JD songs mixed in. They had a great mix of jazz, blues, and folk songs surrounded by fabulous musical talent.

Next we had to hustle to the campfire. Since the forecast was for rather cold weather we put on a few layers and headed out. We got there in plenty of time for the moment of silence at 6:27, then enjoyed the bonfire. The entire Friends with You band showed up and the 3 guitar players played JD songs and lead the sing along. I helped roast marshmallows (in part as an excuse to get close to the fire) and tried to make some Jiffy Pop (utter failure). We stayed until about 9:00 then helped load the bales of hay back on a wagon and headed back to Aspen.

Today we're planning to stop at Red Rocks amphitheater on our way back to Denver and our flight back to Detroit.

It's been a great trip and I'd be glad to be Mary's driver at any future events. LOL