5 June 2026
Jim and I generally get out of the house at least once a year, on our anniversary. Or therabouts, depending on school calendars. Sometimes twice a year, birthdays and anniversary.
Usually we just do an overnight within an hour's drive. But this year, we went to Buena Vista. We've never been to Buena Vista before, but a new hotel opened who does business with Jim's company.
So it was an excuse. Or a reason.
Colorado mountain towns all look pretty much the same. Even the infected tourist traps like Breck and Steamboat have a similar footprint. It was just blown apart by commerce.
So it was no surprise when we arrived at the outskirts of Buena Vista to find a few small, old ranches, a dilapidated hotel and a Dollar Store. It could have been outside of Ouray, or Delta, or Durango or Trinidad.
Main Street contained six coffee shops and two or three bakeries (that I counted). Super cute mountain town. Every town has the abandoned movie theatre still standing with their dusty marquee. This one is The Pearl. It may be under renovations currently, it may have stalled out while being renovated, but it is not open.
There is still a brew pub up there, Eddyline, who have their brewery and pub on the west outskirts of town---it's great, they have a giant grain processor---and also pizza and burgers. Then they have a restaurant on the south end of Main Street that does not have pizza, but they do have burgers and their brew. I mention this because it seems brew pubs have been closing rapidly in Colorado over the last few years. It's also possible that there are still plenty of them, breweries and pubs, and we just don't go to them any more. When Great Frontier sold to Old 121 we stopped patroniziing all pubs. I would love to say why, but it is less likely that we stopped because I screamed about mergers and more likely that the timing just matched up with us being over brew pubs.
The proprieter at Eddyline sufficiently skunk faced me when I asked if they had Coors Light. I'd just gotten off of the electric bike and wasn't truly firing on all cylinders. I knew where I was, I knew they didn't have Coors Light. I am unsure if some dark nugget in my brain sent a message that said "Be funny, ask for Coors" and I didn't process but instead just spoke, or I just honestly wondered. Either way, he responded appropriately and I didn't indicate that I was kidding. It was fine. He asked a few minutes later if he'd responded appropriately, giving me a chance to pretend I had set him up and let him off the hook. I just said "Yep, that was solid".
Jim rented two electric bikes for a few hours. We bought one for Genoa at Christmas--a smaller version --it is very light,folds, and works getting them to work and back. These were nothing like that. They weighed 75 pounds each. All of the controls on the handlbars are black. I struggled. They're also tall and my knees do not fully bend, and my hip freezes and my thumbs don't work and my eyes have always been a struggle. Not just because I'm 60---it's the mileage, not the years.
I thought about Writing A Whole Thing about the electric bikes but bullet points are best.
*Why do they make controls black on black? Even at 23 I couldn't see how to control anything like that.
*I am 60. It's been a minute since I mentioned that. Due to my unfamiliairity with the bike and the physical exhertion that caused a pounding headache as I actually pedaled uphill, I did not enjoy the first part of the ride. In fact, I stopped fully thinking I was having a heart attack.
* I switched bikes with Jim, who understood how it worked but did not show me. But as soon as I pulled over, the throttle turned itself off, and there I was again pedaling.
* A mile or so later, after abandoning the canyon road trail, we tooled through town and Jim was able to show me where my throttle was. That's when it clicked that it was turning off every time I stopped. Electric bikes are a lot more fun when the electric part is engaged. Otherwise you're just pumping pedals on 75 pounds of metal.
* When we returned, the proprieter checked the bike and said I had pedaled 93 percent of the time.
We walked from the bike rental to the pub, sat at the bar and I asked if they had Coors Light.
Scene.
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