You probably wouldn’t believe I saw a shirt yesterday here in Creede, CO that said, “Life’s too short to live in Dallas,” unless I posted the photo to go along with it, so here goes. Maybe it’s just a funny shirt, but the message has so much added meaning to me. The past 36 hours in Creede really have changed my perspectives on a lot of things in life. 

Our plan this morning was to head back toward Dallas. But God had another plan. Last night a fuse blew in my car. It took half the morning to find it, and by the time we found it, well, it just made sense to stay another day in Creede. After all, what’s the rush in getting back to 96 degree temps when I can hang out in 70 degree weather?

This weekend has really become a lesson in learning patience, learning to be disconnected, and learning to leave so much of the past in the past.

There have been attempts to draw me back into the goings on in Dallas this weekend, and there have been my own efforts to remain involved. But with each second away, those feelings, notions or what have you are fading. There’s too much here in the middle of what I first felt was little.

My New Friends in Creede

I’ve met some great new friends here in Creede. The foreign exchange students working here in The Old Firehouse Restaurant have been cool to get to know. Marsha is from Mongolia. That’s not really her name, but the way it’s pronounced, that’s the closest I can get to saying it.

Vera is 22 and from Russia. She and Marsha both speak great English as well as their native tongues. Vera smiles all the time. Today she’s decked out in a black The Old Firehouse Restaurant shirt and a scarf. Desiree is the half-sister of TOFR owner, Charles, and his wife, Brenda. Brenda makes soaps and candles. Desiree always wears a happy smile. She is a Christian at heart and is the only person I’ve seen the whole trip who has prayed before eating a meal.  (And she didn’t know anyone was watching.)

Saturday I also met Carly from Indiana who is working at the 4UR Ranch. Carly does housekeeping this year but was a youth counselor at the ranch last year. She’s tall, has the prettiest smile and the whitest teeth I’ve ever seen on someone who hasn’t been Photoshopped. Carly likes the lifestyle that Creede offers. She has a degree in Marketing, which she said she left for a while and to do a “real job,” but her calling was to come back and be here.

Then there’s Cat/Kat who works over at the Tommy Knocker. She and I met the other night when she’d biked up to the front of The Old Firehouse Restaurant to try to piggyback off their WiFi after the restaurant had closed. At the time, I was trying to do the same thing.

Today I passed by Liz, the winner of yesterday’s Taste of Creede Silver Chef Competition, and her friend Ben. (The photo to the right is Liz in action.)

Last night Mom, my uncle Johnny and his girlfriend, Jane, and I went to Steve and Marta Quiller’s on our way to dinner at the home of Cathy and Richie. They’re the former owners of The Creede Hotel and out aways, they’ve built an adobe style home and it’s just breathtaking.

At their house was a former friend of my grandpa’s, artist Larry Basky. I got to meet Lana Woodruff and her husband. Lana is an artist, he used to own car dealerships in this area of Colorado. I got to hear some great stories about life in these parts. The stories were funny, full of color and fascinating to hear.

And then today when the car wouldn’t start, I got to meet two deputies from the local sheriff’s office, David and Fred.   I learned bonus material about things that happened here in town last night. The big party in town last night was the band at Tommy Knocker. (David left me a business card after helping with my car earlier today.  It said if we run into trouble between here and Altamosa, CO, to call him.)

The Old Miner’s Inn, run by my new friends Ed and Trisha, had another very good band, and they have great pizza.  Today I had ribs at Tommy Knocker and they were fantastic. Now, what to do for dinner tonight? UPDATE: I had a calzone at OMI served by my friend Juliet, who has been here in Creede for three days now from AZ.  Juliet is another like Carly, who dares to defy the traditional work role and grabs adventure by the horns and wills it to go her own way.  (If you go to Old Miner’s Inn this summer, be sure to ask for Juliet, you’ll be glad you did.)

I’m sure I’m falling into the trap of having started naming names, I’m leaving some important ones off.  But when you get down to it, the people here in Creede wouldn’t mind.

You pass someone on the street here and they do something that people in most places of the world won’t; they look you in the eye and say “Hi.”  And then they follow it up with, “I’m….”

Try to find that in Dallas.  Vera says it really doesn’t happen in her home town in Russia.  And so it goes.

Am I in a rush to get back to Dallas? Life’s too short to be in such a hurry.  Oh, and remember the full moon last night? Yes, at 12:30 a.m. on a tripod on Main Street in the mountains with a 200 mm lens and a fast shutter speed and small aperture.   You can’t do this in Dallas on any night.