July 10, 2009 Steamboat Springs Co

July 10, 2009


We’re enjoying a relaxing morning at our campsite. The weather is perfect again. David is at the community bathhouse, so I thought I’d take a moment to continue this blog that will probably not be of interest to anyone but us.

We explored the town of Steamboat Springs yesterday afternoon. It’s a pretty nice little place, although it doesn’t really come close to Aspen, in our opinion. What really would, though? The main street—Lincoln St.—is nice with lots of shops and restaurants on each side. I’ve heard that there’s a library but haven’t found it yet. (By the way, at this moment I’m standing under our awning with the computer on top of the ice chest. I’ve had to kick away a couple of aggressive chipmunks charging my feet.) The merchandise in the shops would be appealing to tourists only, in my opinion. At least the shops look nice, and they don’t look particularly touristy. There’s a nice street that runs parallel to Lincoln called Yampa St. It’s really cute. It has lots of restaurants that seat customers outside on the edge of the Yampa River. It’s also possible to go tubing at a few different locations along that street. We’re going to try one of those restaurants for lunch or dinner while we’re here.

We found a little market on Yampa St. that sells all sorts of organic produce and other delicacies. We picked up some apricots and cherries. David found a nice red wine he’s going to try tonight.

When we first arrived in Steamboat, I picked up a local newspaper, opened it up and was surprised to see the picture of a man who used to be a lawyer at the Public Defender’s Office in Sarasota. I’d heard that he had moved but didn’t know where. His picture was there to advertise his legal services. I saw him frequently during my time as a probation officer and got along with him very well. I thought I should see or call him, at least. It turned out that his office was close to town, and we found it easily, so we just went on up and said hi. He was surprised to see me and we had a nice talk. He described his life in Steamboat. He likes it but said there are many tradeoffs. He said that shopping is difficult. The Wal-Mart in town is about the worst there is—and we noticed that, too. He said there is nowhere in town to buy any essentials, outside of the grocery stores. They have to go to Denver to go to a Target. On the other hand, he prefers the scenery in Colorado. He adapted easily to the weather there and said that as long as you prepare for it, you’re fine. Driving, though, can be very difficult and sometimes you have to just say no to driving in certain situations. The area in which he works involves driving to courthouses many miles away, and that can be problematic. The crime rate in this area is much lower than it is in Sarasota. They have only the occasional homicide. The economic situation has forced many individuals charged with crimes to simply enter a plea, rather than to hire a lawyer.

We had dinner at home last night and David built a fire. Nighttime seems to come very quickly—(an orange hummingbird just buzzed by, inches away from my head!). You barely have time to eat before it’s time to go inside. We watched a movie in the TD last night—The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie and Robert DeNiro—compliments of Leah McElroy’s DVD collection. I’d seen it before but it was good.

Temperatures at night have been in the mid-40’s; daytime temps have been mid to high 80’s. I’ve been wearing long fleece pants and two shirts to bed. We’ve been using two blankets. We don’t have heat but have been very comfy.

We’re now at Starbuck’s enjoying some coffee after having a nice lunch at Steamboat Yacht Club by the river. We then took care of an oil change on our Subaru—we’ve driven about 2800 miles!

Tomorrow morning we’re going to check out the Hot Air Balloon Festival at about 7 a.m., followed by Arts in the Park. On Sunday we’ll do a hike.