Castaways

is making a come-back, it seems.  Well, specifically the underbelly of Castaways is now open as The Lower Deck.  Up until recently (?) it was a pirate-themed restaurant in Manitou ~ as in the wait staff dressed in pirate garb and growling Aaaarrrrrrs at you.

Got the poop from Poop at Murphy's that last night was a kinda Opening of sorts. I had read a couple of things about it opening as a venue in the Independent, so had a look on the way home.

Dive Lounge-y ~ of course I loved it. Old wood bar, lots of Red, including the crazy patterned carpet, fat comfy couches kinda scattered around in corners - one set is green naugahyde. I want to take it home to the Social Aide and Pleasure Club. There's a pretty good-sized room and stage in the back of all that and a green room. Place is huge.  Only the bottom level ( I should call it the Bowels, huh?) is open. Tom and I  got sent back into the Bowels, not because we weren't supposed to be upstairs, but because we had alcohol upstairs. The bartender said the upper space was possibly going to be retail shop space.

Added Bonus and mostly why I went: Joe Johnson was playing with a couple of other folks. Greatness. That man has an amazing voice. While I was there I had the extreme pleasure of hearing him sing Hank Sr's I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry. So Good.

ExtraSpecialAddedBonus! Getting to see Grumpy Kirk in the parking Lot - leaving as I was arriving. Love Grumpy Kirk.

Chicken or...?

Yeeeeaaaah. Get a load of this Fella, who can't decide if he wants fried chicken for lunch or his own foot-long... http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/01/28/video-crashing-crown-fried-chicken-man-strips-pleasures/ 

March Fourth, A Black Sky and A Barker

Great partial weekend hanging out with the Kiwi ~ Thursday night saw March Fourth at the BlueBird ~ Always so much fun to see them! Before that though, I popped his Sancho's Cherry and because I'm insensitive to virgin's needs, popped it again at the PS Lounge. Good stuff... I'm pretty sure he isn't as appreciative of  Sanchos as the rest of us are, but no matter. I love it enough for 10 people.

Finally got out of the Kiwi shack mid-afternoon Friday and hit the Breakfast King, where I ate my body wight in ham and eggs and coffee, then off to Black Sky Brewing.

Had the Demon Seed IPA ~ tasty!  Good beer and I'd like to try some of the others but I think I can only hang for a pint or a quickie sampler, just because of the music. Pretty sure I'll get hated on for that, but heavier metal is just not my thing for more than short periods. Any longer than a pint and I'm pretty sure I would ripped off the Kiwi's head with my bare hands and tried to brew beer with the arterial flow. Headed 4 blocks away to the Breckenridge brewery - my first visit to the actual brewery and tap room. Cool place.  Back towards Black Sky, because across the street is THIS and You Know I MUST go in There:

Awesome! Divey little bar (my favorite kind) with somewhat of a Hollywood theme inside and a predominately alternative lifestyle crowd. My first clue is the MANnequin dressed up in hollywood cowboy duds with lots of bling, then the Drama Queen blvd sign hanging over the bar. The light over the pool table is a Giant block of ice with a Miller High Life bottle encased in it. Cool little place. Gin & tonic and a 16oz craft beer $8... met the owner, cool dude who chatted for a while, introduced us to the bartender, then went behind the bar and started doing dishes. AND doggie-friendly. Definitely warrants a return visit...

Stopped off at the Rocky Flats Lounge on the way back to Eldorado Springs for a $2.25 PBR and cheese curds and to listen to the locals shoot the shit, one of whom had his pet chain saw parked on the end of the Bar. Love it.

Intemman Part Dieux...

Not much activity the last two weeks - shitty head cold kept me doing much. Seems really hard to get enough sleep. Got out on Trail Sat afternoon - beautiful day - at least at 3pm it was. Still trying to find my way across the south side of Manitou on Intemann. This time I went to the high school and went east toward Red Rocks. Good stuff until I got to the cemetery that I've heard about and never seen. Being unsure of where the trail takes up again, I went across and around south east corner and hit a pretty big dirt road, chain-barricaded to my right so I went left around cemetery. Led me back to a paved road, but on the way I spied a bulldozer over the hill and found what looks to be the dumping ground for the city of Manitou and their big equipment. Tiles, bricks, pavers, concrete chunks, large metal pieces, pallets piled everywhere. At the bottom of this hill I could see big garage type buildings and lots of machinery. What interested me most was this...

I wonder how Isaac Davis' family feels about the fact that his headstone is laying surrounded by piles of broken tiles and bricks 100 yards from the cemetery? I didn't look at the one underneath.

Couldn't find the trail from this point, so I went down and around then UP Crystal Park rd until I found the Intemman trailhead there. From there I went West back toward the high school.

 This is first portion of it. Awesome trail - steep and rocky- and it kicked my ass. By the time I got near the top I could feel my lungs wheezing. And the Sun is gone by now.

Garden of the Gods far far in the distance here. (Not really far far, just felt that way. Shut up)

And Then ~ Shit went Awry... From here the trail gets very sketchy. I missed the up fork and went halfway down the hill, probably on a deer trail. Looked up and saw what I was sure was a trail around the side of the hill so I went back up. And up some more, only to be stopped by a barbed wire fence. Cheated around this through a hole someone cut and followed this  through another hole onto a pretty substantial jeep trail that followed the hill around, kinda west. All I know about my location is town is down and behind me. I get around a few curves and now I can see that House that made national news for the mt lion footage last year waaaay up the hill. Not only is it waaaay UP the hill, it's the ONLY dwelling I can see at all.
I spent 10ish minutes weighing my options; getting dark, no light, nobody has an idea that I'm up here or even in town, I see trail across the valley, but it looks to be a long hike around and up and down from here is not an option. I also saw a Mt Lion activity sign on the way up Crystal Park road. Not sure if it's new or they leave it year 'round and that's making me a little edgey. Forward or Back? I keep going around and eventually come to a fork - one goes to the trail I could see that goes up and along ridge line (I'll come back for that one when I have lots of daylight) and one goes down a creek bed. Some evidence of foot traffic, so off I go. Dark now. It's a ways down and the floods from the past summer really eroded the trail if it was a real trail, so there's a lot of back and forth from one side of the ditch to the other. This eventually bumps me out on a hard-packed dirt road, past 2 semi trailers and an old pickup. This dirt leads me back to ~You Guessed It~ the cemetery and the chain boundary. Off I go around the cemetery~again~and back to civilization and asphalt.
That jogging down dirt roads in the dark is for the birds. AND one of the graves in the cemetery has solar lights on it~ pretty damn creepy when you're going by, Just Sayin...I slog my way back up Manitou avenue and up the Hill. Hello hot bath and shot of bourbon. Good time on my feet, but no closer to my original goal. Maybe Next Saturday...

Windchimes

Headed to the Fine Arts Center Sat evening to see Haunted Windchimes, my first time to see them as a group. Great show and I guess I've had my head up my arse for a while, because I really didn't know Mike Clark was playing with them now. I love watching him. He looks like a really big Dennis the Menace ~ shirt's all wrinkled, wearing a cap that looks 20 years old and when you can see his hair, it looks like he just rolled out of bed and he's barefoot. Of course, by the 2nd set, half the rest of them were also. Gotta love that! Amazing voice. And talent. Is there anything he can't play? Enjoy!

Run like a... Shrek

Ran my first 5k in about 2 years on Saturday - First Winter Series in Cheyenne Mt State Park. That's a really pretty park~ I can't justify paying to run in it though, when I can walk out my back door and hit 4 different trails. Good day ~ weather was fantastic. Totally screwed myself by eating a whole plate of fried crap at Hatch Cover afterwards with the boyz. Followed them to Johnny's, but Johnny's AND Golden Tee just ain't my thang, so I left 'em there. Been a while since I ran anything, but as my favorite daughter Katie says: Salida ain't gonna run itself.

Grassy Ass to the Beer Stop peeps ~ Mimosa, PBR and carried a Red Leg brew across the finish line. Some things never change...

Red Monday, part 2

Managed to get out my door last night and on the trail by 630pm. Startled 2 pretty big bucks huffing and puffing up the ridge line behind my house. I'm sure the sound of me sucking air was horrifying. Shut up. It's a significant hill. Made it almost to the top before I met wanker, Katie and the dog coming down. Being on the Red Mountain Trail alone in the dark is both terrifying and fricking awesome. Heavily wooded on both sides, crunchy snowpacked trail, 35ish degrees, clear sky and the stars were amazing. Jogged most of the way down, with a big stoopid happy dog grin on my face. I'm sure I would have progressed upwards a bit faster if I wasn't checking behind me every 20 yards for the mountain lion...