Aspen Day 4

Today was a full and busy day.  After breakfast Mary and I headed to the Maroon Bells.  By the time we arrived, the clouds had cleared and we had a beautiful, sunny day.  The drive to the Bells was beautiful with the snow hanging on the trees.  Many aspens were still green while others had golden leaves.  Evidently a few hundred other people also thought today would be a great day to drive out there since we had to park on the road leading to the parking lot.  I estimate that a foot of snow had fallen which made for great pictures.  As we have in the past, we walked to the far end of the lake then headed back toward our car.

Next we headed to Woody Creek Tavern for lunch.  It was a favorite of John Denver's, and they have great burgers there.  After lunch we took the long way back to Aspen, past the road to Starwood where John lived, and Annie's former house.  It was nice seeing that scenery again.

The late afternoon concert was given by Dave Stratford.  It was his first solo concert at Aspen, and he put on an excellent two hour show consisting of mostly John Denver music with a few of his own mixed in.  He even gave out a complementary sampler CD.  Dave lives in southeast Michigan so we hope to hear him sing again during the coming year.

The highlight of the day was seeing the movie Oh God on the big screen at the Wheeler Opera house. I had not seen it for quite a while, and both Mary and I found it very enjoyable.  After the movie we headed to Jim Salestrom's Memories of John presentation.  (Jim was a former band member of John's.)  He told some great stories about his time with John, and sang songs as well.  It was great to hear some new stories and hear his insight into how John Denver treated his band members and supporting crew.
Each day has been better than the one before and tomorrow should continue that trend.