the real place

the day started out worthy enough; becky, seth, paul, and i left at dawn and headed to the mountains. our plan was to summit Mt. Sherman. back in february, becky and seth had attempted it on the day of their engagement but were forced back by severe weather. their goal was to hike it once more before their wedding in august. paul and i were just along for the breathalyzing adventure. we made it to the top with little ado; taking a minor short-cut thus passing an ex-brit intent on humiliating his kids (and us apparently) by touting his skill and his second summit of "this mountain" (mt. sherman is the easiest of the fourteeners) while loudly informing his kids that those four took an unreasonable risk in that shortcut. (we were fine.) we secured a picnic spot at the top, emptied the contents of our packs, added to the contents of our stomachs and took a siesta. after we all got sufficiently sun-toasted at 14,036' we descended. mission complete, we loaded up in the truck and headed toward showers and food in Denver. we made it to the highway just outside of South Park and traffic slowed to a crawl. there had been a serious accident and state patrol had shut down the road telling all other motorists that it would be 3-4 hours before letting us through. we would be forced to be dirty, sun-burned, tired tourists of the fabled hometown to four irreverent grade-schoolers. we visited the small shops of main street, all seven of them, (including Bizarre Bazaar run by a talkative Grateful Dead roadie who followed the group for 15 years and sold clothes out of a pop-up to pay for gas, and a candle shop complete with a non-singing parrot named katie whose owner swore she sang) before coming to a halt on the steps of Calamity's. we sat, pondering our next plan of action, while the owners came out to fill bird-feeders disguised as pigs (yes, i wondered the same thing) and said if we were bored we could wash windows. not ones to shirk duty we headed back down the street to the truck to check alternate routes. finding one to Manitou Springs we gassed it toward the twelve tribes mat`e and jerusalem felafel's and then home.