Quick Travel Turnaround

Mary and I are in Longmont, Co tonight.  Yes, it's rue that we just got home last Friday, and today we flew to Denver to attend a Mack Bailey and Chirs Nole  performing John Denver Rocky mountain celebration concert tomorrow evening.  No pictures today (I would have posted on of the Rockies, but the haze was too thick to take a picture), just a travel day consisting of a flight and drive to our hotel.

We plan to visit Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow before heading to Denver for the concert. Lots of pictures tomorrow!!

Day 2 in Minneapolis

B-r-r-r! It is cold here!!  Single digit temperatures as we left to go to the Mall of America shortly after 10am.   The Mall was pretty, and well decorated for Christmas.  We enjoyed walking around, visiting several stores, and enjoying a Shake Shack lunch before seeing their Festival of Trees, with many area corporations and sports teams sponsoring trees.  The M&M store had a huge candy wall where you could buy the M&Ms of your choice by the pound.  The Lego store had some cool models on display.  

 It was supposed to warm up to 11F by the time we left at 2pm, but it sure dd not feel like it!   

The big event of the day was the John Denver Rocky Mountain Christmas concert, a slight variation of the official John Denver family approved concert. John voice was used for the lead signing on most songs via the large video screen, with Mack Bailey singing a few others.  His version of O Holy Night (photo on the left) was incredible.  Chris opened the second half of the concert accompanying John's voice on "For You".

Overall the concert was fabulous.  Hearing John singing with the videos, and being in row 2 with Chris right in front of us was super cool. 

After the concert we spoke to Mack, Chris, and Mack's wife, Rachel. It was great seeing them again and catching up on news.  

Tomorrow is our flight home, with nothing else planned.  It's been a nice (if cold!) trip and this concert made it all worthwhile. 

Heading to Minneapolis

 What do you do when you hear about Mack Bailey and Chris Nole putting on a John Denver concert?  You go! Well, at least we do!

Our day started with some nasty weather that made us question why we were flying to Minneapolis where the high for the day was 6F.  We were booked on Southwest with a connection at Midway.  The weather was so troubling I actually checked out if any direct flights were available on Delta (there were none available).  The good news is that the weather cleared and we had an excellent travel day.  No delays, no hiccups on the flights as everything worked out as planned.  Just a bit hazy as we flew into Chicago.

So tomorrow we plan to walk around the Mall of America for a while before heading to the John Denver Holiday concert.  More to come with some great concert photos courtesy of Mary.

Rocky Mountain National Park

We had a pleasant drive to and though Rocky Mountain National Park today.  In the past we had driven through the park east to west, but this time we went west to east so we could end up in the city of Estes Park, and that way we'd be just 2 hours from the Denver airport.   The picture on the right is a scene as we approached the park on US-40.  As you can see we had beautiful weather.

We enjoyed a Subway lunch at a picnic table just inside the park.  We hoped to have nice scenery while we ate, but a forest fire came through this area in 2020 as you can see in this picture so that is what we got to look at.  

The big thrill of the day was spotting a herd of Elk as we headed out just after lunch.   Check out the rack on this one!  The elks were hard to count, but I estimate it was well over a dozen.  On the right is a picture of 3 crossing the road.  We've got more pictures of the herd in the woods, but they are very hard to spot among the trees.

Our next stop was the Alpine Visitor Center. As you can see we are at a pretty high altitude.  Mary went in to shop and I decided to give the path in the picture on the right a try. (I recalled walking it in the past.)  I got close to the first step when I realized I was already short of breath so I decided it was not a wise choice, and headed back to the gift shop.  

Mary took the photo on the left showing that we were above the clouds.  Little did we know that our drive to Estes Park would take us down through that cloud.  

We made a few more stops at pull-outs on our drive, but most views were obscured by the clouds.  I took only this one picture.  I tried to take a larger panorama, but had some issues with my new new camera.  Guess I need some practice! 

I expect this to be my last blog from this short trip.  Adios until we begin our trip to Aspen in October on October 1st.  

JD Celebration Concert

 WHAT A CONCERT!!

We had a super night and the concert was fabulous.  Mack Bailey, Chris Nole and Alan Deremo were supplemented by a lead guitar and drummer in front of the Colorado Symphony.  They played the entire Rocky Mountain High album before the intermission with a few of the songs being recordings of John, with the rest sung by Mack.    But after the intermission, the concert really took off.  The songs were mostly recordings of John Denver "classics", including Chris Nole playing For You with John Denver singing.  When they got to This Old Guitar I thought they would be done, but they continued with another two songs, sung by Mack.   The band left the stage, but quickly came back and played two encores, Country Roads and Calypso, after which they left the stage again.  But the audience applause was resounding and they came back again!  Mack said they had not prepared anything, then began singing Eagles and the Hawk!!  The audience went wild! 

After the concert, we talked to a few other JD fans, then headed to the meet and greet area.  While waiting in line, Mary felt an arm on her shoulder.  She turned around and it was Mack, giving her a big hug!  He had to go greet other fans so it was a brief encounter.  Later we had a longer conversation with him and got a good photo.

I briefly talked to Chris Nole after the concert, but he was busy signing CDs so it was a short chat.  

Georgetown Visit

 Today we headed to Georgetown, where the John Denver film "The Christmas Gift" was filmed.  

On the way to Georgetown we had extra time, so we stopped by Red Rocks where John frequently performed, and where the John Denver Spirit statue is on display.  The heat was rather oppressive with temps in the 90s and heat index over 100, but we were not outside too long. We walked around the Colorado Hall of Fame Music Museum while we were there, especially the room that is devoted to John Denver.  They had a recording there that said how the song Rocky Mountain High was first played by John during his initial appearance at Red Rocks, and several months before the song was released.  This is especially relevant since we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of its release at the concert tonight.   

These two pictures are from the John Denver exhibit.  The one on the left is one of John's guitars, while the one on the right celebrates the song Rocky Mountain High. 

(You can click on each picture to see larger version of it)

We spent a couple of hours at Georgetown.  We planned to eat at The Happy Cooker, but found out it closes on Thursdays, disappointing.  We visited a few of the regular stores that we shop at each time, before heading home.  

On the way home I choose to take a back roads route to Golden rather than stay on I-70.  We enjoyed even more canyon scenery on this path.  

More to cone about the concert later!

Quick Trip to Denver

Today we flew to Denver to attend the John Denver Rocky Mountain High Celebration Concert with the Colorado Symphony tomorrow evening. I was watching flight status on the plane and was amazed that the temperature in Denver was 102! I was prepared for warm weather but not that HOT!! Fortunately we were not out of doors a lot once we arrived, since the shuttle bus to the rental agency pulled up just as we got to the pickup point.

In general, our trip was uneventful (a direct fight on SouthWest) with the rental car and hotel working out well.   It was hazy when we flew in, as we could barely see the Denver Skyline.  After getting settled, we had dinner at a favorite restaurant in Golden (pulled pork for me and a burger for Mary).  Of course I head to have a Coors since it is brewed here.

We're planning to visit Georgetown tomorrow before we get ready for the concert.  More on that in the next edition!