Going Out FOR Business

We drove to Glenwood Springs the other day to see

"Rise of The Planet of The Apes" because it wasn't showing

at our favorite theatre in Grand Junction. While walking

toward the cinema, I saw this business and their sign. It

bothers me. Why, you ask? Because the human mind

doesn't typically read every word of a sentence. Remember

those studies that list a paragraph of words and every few

words is missing? You can still figure out what the paragraph

is saying anyway. This is kind of like that. I'd bet you a fair

amount of money that most people will not see the "4" on

their sign, go into the store, and think they are getting a

good deal. In reality, the shopper is being tricked into thinking

that the store is going out "of" business. All that is read is

GOING OUT BUSINESS. There was a store in Estes Park

that did the same thing when we lived there. You could stand

outside the store and listen to all the tourists tell each other

that the store was going out "of" business.

Illegal...No. Unethical...Yes!

Our 31 Hours in Denver

A few weeks ago, Lynn's sister Lenlee told us that she would be at
Red Rocks for the Ray LaMontagne concert and invited us to join her.
Her friend Paul is the Guitar Technician for the band and there would
be complementary tickets available. Of course we jumped at the
chance. It would be good to see Lenlee AND a concert at Red Rocks!
Earlier in the evening, we stopped by Lenlee's hotel in Golden and
stepped across the street for a bite to eat. While we were dining,
who would walk past but our friend from the Ice, Brody! It was
a pleasant surprise to see him and even though we hadn't seen him
in a couple of years, we chatted for almost an hour and had a really
good time.


I had my first visit to Red Rocks last summer, but Lynn has been here
countless times. Neither of us had ever been on the stage and this was
a lot of fun! It was odd to be BEHIND the security guys. We pretty much
had our run of the stage and I snapped lots of photos. Although I don't
mind being in front of people making presentations, I don't know if I
could perform in front of a crowd of this size.


Lenlee and Paul are a lot of fun to be around. Before the concert, Paul
showed us around the backstage area, one of the tour busses and the
areas that were generally off limits to the average ticket holder.


We had great seats. 12 rows up from the stage and right next to the
sound mixing booth. Red Rocks has great acoustics to begin with and
these seats had to have some of the best sounds in the house.


Secret Sisters led off the show with a small set of country-themed tunes.


Brandi Carlile was next up and she brought with her lots of fans who
were hooting and hollering. She's really talented and it was fun listening
to her. About 2/3 through her set, a surprise guest joined her on the stage.
It was Shawn Colvin! I've been listening to Shawn since the mid nineties and
it was fun to see her on stage. Later, both came into the audience to sit and
watch Ray perform and they sat in the row right in front of us!


I really hadn't heard much of Ray LaMontagne's music until this evening,
but he's very talented and the crowd really enjoyed his show.




We had special passes that let us go all over the place.


An interesting display backstage is a listing of all of the events that have
been held at Red Rocks, since it opened in 1941. Lynn, Lenlee and I
had fun looking at the concerts the three of us had attended over the
years.


Just a few minutes after the concert ended, the place was empty! It was
amazing how quickly the crowd leaves after a show.

This morning, we met up with our friend Martin, from the Ice.
We hadn't seen Martin since our first season in Antarctica in 2001-02.
Like our meeting with Brody, it was like we had just seen each other
yesterday and we chatted for a good hour. Great to see old friends again!

On the way home, we stopped at the Strawberry Festival in Glenwood
Springs. There were lots of folks selling crafts. I didn't see a lot of
Strawberries (except for a pie eating contest), but it looked like most
folks were having a good time.

Glenwood Hot Springs

Glenwood Springs is about 90 minutes east of our house and it's one
of our favorite places in the area to visit. We don't get to visit as often
as we'd like, but we've been looking forward to soaking in the hot springs
for several months now. Leslie and Gina went with us and we spent most
of the afternoon just taking in the hot water and steamy goodness! The
water in the large pool averages around 90 degrees and is comfortable,
but the therapy pool which is smaller, but still much bigger than a backyard
pool, averages about 105 degrees and feels awesome! Glenwood is more
in the mountains than Grand Junction and the altitude is a bit higher.
Therefore, winter hangs on a bit longer here. Mother Nature reminded us
of that as it started to snow really heavily and the wind was blowing very
hard. It made the water feel that much better!