And then there are the days when you roll up on what you thought would be a little hotel in the tiny town of Lake City, CO (population 300, site of the dread cannibal Alferd) but instead you find yourself outside of the tiny town, at a log cabin retreat, set on a lake nestled in the mountains.
And you have a day off there.
And suddenly, you're not on tour. You're on vacation.
The Inn on the Lake is a Christian retreat where people come to disconnect and take a breath. I think it was the only place near Lake City that a group of Asleep at the Wheel size could stay. And had I been kid free, I may have been disheartened by how far from town it was. But I was with kids, so it was awesome.
There's a little creek that runs by the side of Inn. It looks deceptively sandy, when in actuallity it's go the gooiest mud/clay combination I've ever come across. The mud is comes from the mountain via the Slumgullion wash. I cannot think of a better name for the sticky icky stuff. Slumgullion. Perfect.
Lisel went from throwing rocks in the creek, to walking in the creek to digging in the Slumgullion mud in mere minutes. She was in kid heaven.
We explored the lake, threw rocks and sticks and moss in there. We walked out in the mud flat as far as we could. We kept an eye out for hummingbirds (thanksThelma!) and chipmunks and brave grey squirrels. We spotted rabbits and deer. We threw sticks into the fire at night. And we visited with the folks at the Inn. David and Rosie take care of the Inn during the summer, helped by volunteers like Woody and Thelma and Wally. The inn discourages Internet use, which I kind of loved
(even though I used it a teensy bit). No Internet encourages talking and game playing and rock throwing in lakes and reflective mountain starting at time. It made me think that intermittent Internet free days may be the wave of the future.
It was lovely and even though I'm a secular Christian and Dave is a secular Jew we didn't mind the Christian vibe. It's not our daily jam, but the folks were super nice and the place super comfy.
I can't think of a better place to recharge before this coming leg of the tour. 6 gigs in 6 days with lots of early mornings and mountain drives in between. I'm under no illusions. My ass will be kicked by the Colorado run. But I'll always have the Slumgullion experience.
BTW is Slumgullion Millionaire not a great joke movie name?
No comments:
Post a Comment