We took a rest day in Pueblo. I had hoped to present at a college in the city and get publicity from the local news sources, but neither happened. Instead, the tone for what would happen during our journey across the plains was set when we stayed at a church and I performed a couple of my community themed songs, with my backpacker’s guitar, during their Wednesday evening dinner program. A conversation with Pastor Rick Calhoun of the First United Methodist Church led to him making contacts for us with Lions Clubs and a Methodist church along our route.
I was interviewed by Voices on the Net, an internet radio platform. The interview was supposed to last 30 minutes, but our journey captivated them and they extended the interview to 45 minutes. The way they started gushing over us embarrassed me a little bit. Kindness and community building are not the province of idols.
Also in Pueblo I interviewed the Director of the Cooperative Care Center whose mission is “sacking hunger.” In addition to single mothers and their families being food challenged, Marci Reynolds-Bain informed us of three new demographics: single fathers, senior citizens and baby boomers (the interview occurred before baby boomers became senior citizens). Each demographic has its own unique set of unfortunate circumstances, requiring too much depth to go into here, all consequences of an economy where wealth disparity has been growing for five decades. Marci shared that sometimes she needs to be alone and debrief from all the sad situations she witnesses.
You should check out my informative interview of Marci. Though I currently go by the trail name of Humanity Hiker, at the time of the ADT journey I chose Hiking Humanitarian, which was too much of a mouthful. While the symphony I composed about our journey is on the Humanity Hiker YouTube channel, all my interviews during the journey are on the Hiking Humanitarian channel. Someday I intend to merge the two channels, but for now I strongly encourage you to listen to Marci if hunger issues interest you.
Before our journey started, I arranged to give a talk at the Olney Springs Lion Club, which would become our second rest day in a week. Several interesting events happened on our way there.
At a convenience store a young Goth woman attempted to give us money, thinking we must be homeless. I declined the money and took her picture.
A lonely woman who lived in a trailer park invited us as the only guests for her birthday.
We camped on the lawn of a church, learning the next morning that they had an automatic sprinkler system.
We met a hardware store owner in Boone, who occasionally provided a place to stay and work for homeless people. The next day a motorist pulled over who had been involved in the Wall Street protests across the country that year and was enthused about our advocacy to build community. The juxtaposition of the proprietor in Boone with Wall Street investors in regards to community is an angle seldom explored. While corporations may have foundations and other means to benefit society, local proprietors are more likely to be involved with building their community.
As we passed and took notice of a bustling Quonset hut in Avondale, two people came over to tell us they were preparing for the grand opening of their cowboy church in a couple days, and invited us to attend.
The morning of our rest day coincided with the grand opening of the cowboy church, so guess where Ky brought us. After all, she said she wanted a cowboy boyfriend, so this was her chance! The service was held inside the Quonset hut. A cowboy band provided music, set up on some bales of hay just outside the Quonset hut entrance. After the service ended they quickly rearranged the hut for a grand potluck lunch, complemented by a cowboy barbecue set up outside. Then they capped the grand opening of their cowboy church with a rodeo!
We stayed with hosts Ed and Lorell Anderson during our rest day in Olney Springs. The day was capped with a potluck hosted by the Olney Springs Lions Club that evening, where I advocated for community involvement as usual, now with examples such as Leadville’s community meals program. I made a connection between community involvement and local autonomy. One of the members, who worked for an energy company, responded with a complaint about the “People’s Republic of Boulder” seeking to make their town energy independent.
I suggested that Olney Springs and other towns of the Colorado plains want the local autonomy to do things their way. Why should Boulder be denied their own local autonomy because they have different beliefs? That message seemed to hit home to everyone but perhaps the energy employee, as the club voted to donate $100 to us, unsolicited as always.
The Andersons were tremendous hosts to us during our stay. They were particularly fond of Ky. She would be going back east in a few days for a family reunion and they offered to help her with transportation to the airport and stow her car. Ed shared a touching story from when he used to be a Santa Claus in Illinois. I share that story here.
The day we left the Anderson’s for our hike to La Junta was the only overcast day during our stretch along the Colorado plains. The gloominess fostered bittersweet thoughts of our wonderful hosts. In the past ten days the Andersons, the Cravens and Dick Bratton took us in as one of their own, and leaving them was leaving family behind, only with less chance of ever seeing them again.
Just as memorable, in some ways more so, were the trail angels like the Goth woman, John Nicholas and others who we encountered completely by happenstance and sometimes only briefly. These also were the type of trail angels I encountered during my long distance hikes of the seventies, people who you alone encountered and not hundreds or thousands of other hikers. This is a special, intimate type of trail magic that is fading along the more established trails, where trail guides broadcast where the thru-hiking masses can find trail angels all along their route.
The Amderson’s daughter Charli, who visited her folks while we were there, had pulled some strings to arrange quite the treat for us in La Junta. Once we arrived in town we were “held hostage,” a La Junta tradition of local police pulling over passing motorists, bringing them to a complimentary hotel where they are then brought to a complimentary meal at a local restaurant, and then brought to the monthly “Wake Up La Junta” celebration the next morning. Police no longer can stop people for the tradition, but we were not too hard to spot coming into town.
The MCs for the “Wake Up La Junta” event were dressed in long, red, flannel pajamas, reflective of the 6:45 am start. A banner behind the stage read: “La Junta, the Smile Hi City.” Jokes were told, awards were given out, the high school jazz band played and, most importantly for a couple of thru-hikers, breakfast was served. As sort of the guests of honor we sat at the table nearest the stage. They also gave us a bag of various gifts from local vendors. The point of the hostage tradition was to give out-of-town folks a neighborly introduction to the charms and businesses of the town. Well, they won us over!
Catching “Wake Up La Junta” seemed like another example of being blessed by serendipitous timing on our journey, starting with arriving at Middlegate Station in Nevada when they were having their Saturday all-you-can-eat steak barbecue. Having been blessed by trail magic so often leads me to wonder if serendipity is the right word. Maybe happy coincidences are not really rare for those who put themselves out there for them to happen. Maybe if our journey brought us through La Junta a week later we would have missed something wonderful there, but experienced something wonderful later in Lamar (oh, wait, we did). Maybe serendipity provides good cause for us not to feel fortunate for ourselves, but to feel hopeful about humanity.
We took an unplanned rest day in La Junta, the third of the week, in order to give talks at Lions Clubs in both Las Animas and Cheraw. Upon leaving the second meeting in the evening, one of the Cheraw members rear-ended Ky’s parked van. She took the mishap extremely well, especially considering that she was about to fly back home for a family reunion. Fortunately, the Andersons from Olney Springs came to Ky’s rescue, bringing her to the airport with the peace of mind that they would arrange for the body repairs while she was gone.
We left La Junta with full packs that would bring us into Kansas. Besides enjoying the intimacy of just the two of us, we anticipated that food fortune would be waiting for us as always.
