Westcliffe

Dear Friends and Family and Accidental Visitors to Tuzigoot.blogspot:

First stop on our journey (to Canada) is Westcliffe, CO. We’ve been here several times over the last 10 years, most often to attend the High Mountain Hay Fever Bluegrass Festival. This year has the added attraction that we’re hosting a weekend get-together of the Zia Chapter of the Allegro Club. We’re the “wagonmasters,” which means we picked the site and organized some meals and other activities. (FYI: the Allegro Club is an organization of owners of motor homes built by the Tiffin Company. Two of their models are the Allegro Bus and the Allegro Bay, hence the club name. But, they have other models including the Phaeton. Our group for the weekend was made up of four Buses and two Phaetons. We’re inclusive, though, and the Zia Chapter includes some SOBs – owners of Some Other Brands.)

Westcliffe is in the Wet Mountain Valley, elevation 7900 ft., 52 miles west of Pueblo, some 350 miles from Albuquerque. This valley is on the east side of the Sangre de Cristo range; the Wet Mountains are the east side of the valley. The RV park is two miles south of town.

I never get tired of taking pictures of the mountains and valley. We wanted to introduce our Zia friends to this gorgeous area (none had been here before), so that’s why we selected this time and place to wagonmaster a rally.

I first “discovered” this area probably 30 years ago when a group from work that I went backpacking with came here and climbed the Crestone Needle, one of the 14ers in this range. From backpacking to motor-homing: who’d a thunk it?

We drove up on Wednesday, July 7 to make some final arrangements. The Zias (five additional couples and rigs) arrived on Thursday, just in time for a late afternoon rain and hail storm to top off our tacos-by-Susie dinner.

Friday’s activity was a lady’s tea/shopping/lunch outing. On Thursday Susie found a tea shoppe, owned and operated by a lady who had moved here from Albq four years ago and started the business, so that’s where the ladies started their day on the town. Westcliffe has a nice collection of shops and galleries and has a nice down-homey small town feel – not the same as the better-known Colorado resort towns. We really like it.

My early Friday activity was driving around the valley, getting barns and mountains pictures.

For more on Westcliffe, check out last year’s Westcliffe visit: http://tuzigoot.blogspot.com/2009/07/goin-home.html.

The Festival is hosted by two local bands, who happen to be big-time bands nationally. A song by one of them, the Dry Branch Fire Squad, follows On the Road Again in our blogsite playlist.  Incidentally, you can stop the music if you wish by clicking the pause bars.  Or, you can skip on down and find a song you like.  The other host group is the Sons and Brothers.  You can find videos by both groups on the internet.

Here’s the Festival website: http://www.highmountainhayfever.com/home.asp. The proceeds benefit the local medical clinic, now grown to be a medical center. And here's the locale.  All the visiting bands rave about the backdrop.

The hit band of the weekend was the Ebony Hillbillies, an old-time (mostly) string band from New York City. Among the venues they play are NYC subway stations -- go here for a sample of their music.  The strings were fiddle, bass, and banjo. Percussion was provided by spoons and washboard. The washboard player wore expended shotgun shells on his fingers and had some incredible solo breaks. Gloria, the spoons player, also sang and vamped. Her song about I Want a Fat Man brought the house down on Friday and she repeated it by popular demand Saturday and Sunday. She commanded the crowd to get up and dance (shake the junk in your trunk?) and clap your hands and we did.

The most moving moment for me, though, was “Hard Times,” sung and picked by the banjo player – an older gentleman, face covered by a floppy-brimmed hat.

“"Tis the song, the sigh for the weary. Hard times, hard times come again no more.  Many days have you lingered around my cabin door.  Oh, hard times come again no more.”

Written by Stephen Foster in 1854.  Chokes me up just thinking about it. You can visualize the scene around the slave cabins on an old plantation and feel the emotion. It's on our website playlist.

Friday evening was a potluck dinner, then Saturday morning Susie cooked pancakes and trimmings for the group (I microwaved bacon). Saturday night we all ate at the Feed Store Restaurant – here’s most of the group.

Sunday morning was a breakfast potluck, then farewell to the Zias. Group picture – a shady bunch, you can see.

We stayed the day – the Sunday morning gospel music is a highlight for us – and headed on up to Denver on Monday for a couple of days.  Stay tuned for granddaughter pictures.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob