Day 088 – 8/20/11 Colorado Border to Fruita

Distance = 19 Miles; People Met = 9

After slackpacking through the arid eastern portion of Utah it felt good to be full packing again.  That may sound strange, that we enjoy carrying more weight, but its more the autonomy that full packing represents.  Besides, full backpacks draw people’s attention more than day packs.  Like the attention of the Lacey family, for example.

As is our custom we said “hi” to their teenage son Zephyr first as he bicycled past.  His Mom, Marie, crossed the road to find out what we were up to, so we told her of course.  Soon her husband, Dave, came up to us and we discovered they were on a pleasant Saturday morning jaunt up to the Utah border and back to their home in Redlands.  We had an enjoyable, lighthearted conversation then went our separate ways.

Dave, Marie and Zephyr Lacey

They had to pass us again to get back home and that was when they gave us their phone number and insisted we call them when we passed through Redlands.  We were near the center of Mack by then, they had learned we like to get Cokes in towns, and we were surprised when shortly after our second departing Marie rode back to us with a Coke in hand.  We would eventually learn that Marie was a triathlete and had bicycled across the country; her extra ride back to us probably was nothing to her, but it sure impressed us.

The only store in Mack was a liquor store that sold soda and provided free popcorn; we availed ourselves of both while on our lunch break.  Mack was supposed to be our destination for the day, but we had only come 11 miles and we had the whole afternoon ahead.  We set our sights for Fruita which, incidentally, would set us up well for backpacking to Redlands the next day — not that we had any ulterior motive behind that.

Our first day in Colorado brought two new sights:  corn and, one day after the canyons and deserts of Utah, cattails!

Corn Country Already?

At Fruita two things happened which may reshape the direction of our whole journey.  I managed to do an interview with Ed Tolen, current president of the Fruita Lions Club.  We did the interview at the Colorado Welcome Center, where an elderly couple were in charge of accommodating the tourists who dropped by.  The man was charmingly funny, the woman charmingly social.  I failed to get their names, but I did get a picture.

A Most Charming Couple

Ed is a great guy, a real humanitarian at heart.  Unfortunately, in this case I forgot to get a picture.  Ed was soon moving away from Fruita and this was going to be his last week as president.  My last question to him was in regards to the future of the Fruita Lions Club and he did not have a very positive outlook.

That was juxtaposed with our experience that evening at a tent site in the nearby state park campground.  Our neighbors, Dan and Chris, were in a nearby golf tournament that weekend, Dan as a professional, Chris an amateur.  They were both 31 and took to our message of community involvement for Housing, Health and Hunger like ducks to water.  They encouraged us to reach out to colleges, something we already were considering by that time, but the timing of their encouragement on the heals of the discouraging news about the Fruita Lions Club sort of hit home with a sledgehammer.

Dan and Chris

Lions Clubs are the perfect venue for the movement we advocate, but many Lions Clubs are getting older without new blood to rejuvenate them.  The future of America has to be reached.  Throughout the country, as wealth disparity continues to increase, young idealists are volunteering in droves, looking for ways to do things for others.  They need to hear it is also important to value community and do things with others as well if we are to effectively address issues of Housing, Health and Hunger.