Before we knew it, the time had come to pack that VW and head back to Westcliffe for the Summer.
I took lots of goodies from our house to bring with us to the ranch – the blue and white lamps, several sets of blue and white cloth napkins, a whole set of dishes from Pottery Barn, an extra set of wine glasses, sheets, white towels, pots, pans, knives, a coffee maker, etc.
Believe me, having spent ten days at the man cave really prepared me for what was necessary to spend a summer. The kitchen at the ranch had one knife, a few pieces of silverware, 4 different sized wine glasses and a pot or two, a Melita coffee filter for one cup, and was void of a wooden spoon. So what seemed to be a few items ended up to enough to fill the entire back of the car with a few things on my lap and at my feet!
We took the southern route of Interstate 10 and travelled through parts of the country I had never seen: Mobile, Gulfport, Baton Rouge, Houston to Dallas, then on to Oklahoma City, west to Amarillo and finally north to Trinidad, our first entrance into Colorado and from there a few hours to Westcliffe. We saw the landscape change from lush and green to prairie to high mountains. I would recommend anyone to take this trip, especially with children. Everybody should see America this way – the cities are one thing, but it is the small towns, and the distances in between, that are what really make this country.
While I wouldn’t call Westcliffe a major vacation destination, many visit the town for concerts on the high desert, rodeo (yes rodeo), the Sangre de Cristo Cutting Horse Event, and the Jones Theatre Workshop to name a few. There are people from Oklahoma and Texas that have cabins here and make the trip out every summer. In the 80’s there was talk, and then a plan to build a ski lodge, the remnants of which can still be seen when one gazes at the big range. A sorry failure due to of lack of major transportation but even more than that in strategy and planning.
Westcliffe has an attached town (by main street) of Silver Cliff. Silver mining was the main business in the area and Silver Cliff, long ago, was the hub. In the 1880s it was considered for the state capital – it lost out to Denver. It is not hard to imagine what Silver Cliff and Westcliffe were like in those silver mining boom days. The interesting thing is these towns survived. Driving through the West, you will pass many towns that are virtually empty with a gas station and restaurant left standing.
There are no brand name stores in town except for Ace Hardware which is on the outskirts. Its coming was based on grants from the state to subsidize salaries and create job opportunity, and the in-town hardware store owned by the Thornton Family was paid not to compete. Good it is that Ace can offer so much of what a rancher needs; bad is that Westcliffe lost a real, old-time hardware store, family owned, that could not compete with the big guys. And good too, is that the Thornton’s store is now the most wonderful art space in town – Brookwood Gallery. It’s owner Gerald Merfeld is a very well-known impressionist and created the perfect environment for his paintings while keeping with the historical value of the building. He also hosts two prestigious workshops each summer. We love Gerald and always find spending a little time with him reminds us of cosmopolitan life and travel in Europe.
We unpacked and I went about my making the place a little more warm. Doug loved the result! We made the front room of the oldest part of the structure the dining room. Taking a trestle table that had been used as a desk and surrounding it with an assorted group of old chairs we “borrowed” from the Knuth ranch across the street. It turned into a wonderful place for a dinner party. The kitchen now had counters lined with large ball jars holding sugar, flour, and beans, totally different lighting with the blue and white lamps, a little hutch I borrowed from Doug’s office that held my cookbooks, and having close by my ever-important french pottery tray which held a multitude of essential kitchen tools. The bedroom turned into a studio-like area: half for our sleeping quarters and the other half for a partner’s desk and bookcase.
Now we were going to live like ranchers which meant a lot of planning because outside of making the ten mile trip into town, everything is far away. We had figured out a pretty good routine, and every Thursday we would do our main food shopping, including shopping for whatever else we needed. And so we were regulars to Canon City. Canon is a true, big Old West Town. It has few brand stores except for CVS, Safeway, The City Market (a division of The Kroger Company), Ace Hardware and of course Walmart. We would make a running list of needs all week, and on Thursday we were off, early in the morning for the drive to Canon.
Canon City must have been a very interesting town in it’s day. Beautiful old buildings and storefronts, totally in the style of the West with many local businesses inlcuding a vacuum store, a music store, The Owl (a restaurant), a few taverns and a few storefronts vacated. Lots of older, gingerbread trimmed houses line the far end of Main Street and much of the business focus was in two or three strip malls on the main higway. The town also hosts a special scenic railroad, a monastary that has its own vineyard and produces wine – and a prison!
We did all of our food shopping in The City Market but I can tell you it was not like the typical shopping I had available on the East Coast. In particular, the bread is not crusty at all, the cheese is without selection (we had to travel all the way to Colorado Springs to Whole Foods for cheese.) and the meat cuts where those I had never seen before – huge chunks of red, with ample fat, wrapped in plastic – a steak in Colorado seemed to be a whole roast beef for me! Further, Hunt’s was the only brand of canned tomatoes. No Muir or Cento – staples in my kitchen. The produce was good especially corn and tomatoes from local farmers in a very short growing season. I figured out the meat thing, and believe it or not, found the health food store in Westcliffe sold Muir tomatoes!
I really wanted to go out to dinner, and even though there were a several cafes in town, I was particularly interested in visiting the Alpine Lodge. This place – up the road from us – was a regular hangout during Doug’s bachelor days and was run by Dave Leugers, a good friend. Dave had sold the place a few years before my arrival, but I had heard so many stories of the Alpine, that even though it might not be the same as before, I just wanted to be in the place. The setting is the San Isabel National Forest, at the base of Sangre De Cristos and is surrounded by cabins that are for rent by the owner of the lodge. The Lodge sits up off the ground and has a deck that provides an extraordinary – and only – view down the mountain. That is it. The food, simple in nature, consists of the typical 50’s menu: fruit cup, pork chops, chicken fried steak, salad and dessert – and several large and larger cuts of porterhouse. In an earlier life, the Alpine had music and an active bar and was very much the most popular night spot in Custer County. Today, it is much more a sedate place, but still popular.
Another interesting spot was the Letter Drop Inn, just down the road and up into the Hills of Rosita. Secluded, and set in the now closed Rosita Post Office, it has a small bar at entry and the night we went, there was a man, setting up an electric piano, dressed in white shorts and a white shirt. I thought – oh my, what are we getting into? We passed him on our way into the lovely dinning room with a high view of the forest. Table set with white cloth, the dinner was superb. The owner/chef has stayed on for a long time and serves exquisite escargot, along with a gourmet touch to venison, trout and other entrees caught wild. Toward the end of our dinner, the music began and much to our surprise it was fantastic. We decided to stop at the bar before leaving and listen a bit more. We talked at length with the pianist and really had a wonderful evening. As we descended Rosita Road and up again to Schoolfield Road and the ranch, we both agreed it was the quite a nice evening. With the quiet outline of Horn Peak and mountainscape in front of us, and the chill in the air, I don’t know how anything could be more peaceful.
The third place was a very interesting one. Doug had owned two units in a business condominium on the corner of the most busy intersection in Westcliffe. Outside of his real estate business, he also ran Lila’s Ice Cream and Soda, and a second place which would be Soup’s On in the winter and Eat At Jack’s in the summer) He sold both several years ago, but as a real estate broker, had another listed for sale. These units were unlike anything you would see in the east. Built in 1939 as a roadhouse, hey looked like little apartments lined up next to each other. Two ladies from Colorado Springs bought this unit and have created a very successful place called the Wine Mine. Minute in size, it has a large outdoor deck and serves a very good selection of wine in addition to tapas and other nibbles. It was their first summer of business and they have had a resounding success since.
So, without TV, what do you do on a quiet evening? Well, you make a trip to the Library once or twice a week and borrow DVD movies – the Westcliffe Library has a great selection. One day when we were making a regular visit, I noticed a group of women playing cards in an anteroom. I asked the Librarian (another local who had known Doug for a long time and was in awe of a new wife) what they were doing and she answered: “They are the Bridge Broads – they play bridge every Tuesday.” She asked if I would like to play with them and I answered a happy “yes!” leaving my telephone number. The very next day I received a call from one of the ladies saying she would pick me up at 11:30 the next week. I loved being with this group of all ages – we had a ball, something that most bridge groups wouldn’t enjoy – skilled players they were, but nobody here cared about points, The Nut Man, carrying his full basket of snacks would visit us mid-way through the afternoon so that we could refresh with a break and a treat.
We planted beautiful purple petunias in long boxes that edged our entire east patio, and they grew hardily. Every night we would have our cocktails there just as the sun started to go down. We took our little “boom box” with us and usually played jazz or classical music and we almost always had an audience: the 3 bulls (Batman, Robin, and Blackie) along with Coco, the steer, grazing on the Knuth ranch across the road, always came right up to their split rail to listen, no matter where they were in their pasture.
Next time: Parties: Branding and others.
E
Paradise Found 