Vacation Journal

At 7:45 on Saturday we were entertained by about 300 people running past the back window of our RV.  They were participating in a ½ marathon from Ouray to Ridgway.  We had a great view.  We took in a little of the local culture by attending some of the events at the High Graders Holiday (a celebration of local miners).  We got to see hand mucking (filling a huge container with mine waste using a shovel and your hands), stake driving, and drilling holes in rocks.  They treat this like a rodeo.  They time events and have a winner in each event and an overall winner.  There were $10,000 in prizes, so they take it somewhat seriously.  The thing lasted for two days.

In the afternoon we drove to Montrose to do our Wal-Mart shopping and to go to a movie (the two things we planned to do Friday before we ended up attending a quilt show).  Actually, Charolette attended the quilt show.  I sat on a large comfortable couch they had near the entrance to the show and took a nap.  Both of us enjoyed ourselves.  We bought out Wal-Mart and then saw the movie.  I got two half-dollars in change at the movie, one from buying tickets and one from the concession stand.  I wonder if this theater owner uses halves on purpose or if it was just a coincidence that they had some today?

On Sunday we attended church services at the First Presbyterian of Ouray.  The service was mostly their high school youth talking about their experiences at the recent Calvin Crest Christian Camp they attended near Fresno, California.  They were a delightful group of young people.  The minister and several other church elders went with them.  One of the minister’s sons was on staff at the camp for the whole summer.  His other son and his daughter each attended for one week.  After camp the whole crew (26 people) went to Redondo Beach near LA for a couple days.  Apparently this church raises the money every year to help pay the expenses of any high school student in the area who wants to go, whether they attend this church or not.  It was a great experience for all.  The minister said he couldn’t count the times he was given compliments about how well-behaved and courteous the group was when they stopped at restaurants and Starbucks while on the road.  I enjoyed hearing them talk about it.

After church, we changed clothes and took off for Silverton to attend a brass band Concert.  This was the Great Western Rocky Mountain Brass Band Festival featuring the Great Western Rocky Mountain Brass Band.  There are over 50 people in the band.  They come from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, California, Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, Washington, Tennessee, Kansas, Vermont, Kentucky, New York, Texas, Arizona, and Nevada.  This was the 24^th annual festival.  Each musician pays his own way and donates his own time for a week to the festival.  They spend four days rehearsing and three days playing.  They were awesome.  Many of the musicians are music professors or music teachers.  Others are members of other bands or symphonies.  They were good.  The director has been the director for all 24 years.  He is from Minnesota.  He recently retired as the Divisional Music Director for the Salvation Army.  Before that he was the director of the St. Paul Salvation Army Band.  He did most of the arranging.  He also writes some music.  He has a great sense of humor and did the narration for the concert.  If we are here next year, we plan to attend again.  They also had concerts on Friday and Saturday.  Next year, we would like to attend more of the concerts.

After the concert we had a late lunch at the Brown Bear Café in Silverton.  We returned to Ouray to relax for the rest of the day. 

Our hummingbirds remain very active, mostly Broad-tailed with an occasional Rufous.  Twice today I saw a Black-headed Grosbeak on our suet feeder.  I love watching them.  I put some peanuts on top of the wooden fence separating the back of our RV from the road.  Two Steller’s Jays made short work of picking them up and hiding them in the trees across the street.  I get a good view because the bottom of our rear window is above the top of the six-foot fence.