fantastic weekend

Last Saturday was one of the better days of my life, for no memorable reason. In a year, I’ll have hardly a recollection of the day. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t great. Kaijsa and I drove over to Cheyenne for the Wyoming Book Festival. The Wyoming Libraries Association had rolled out its new ad campaign earlier in the week, and I was able to get more stickers from what I think is a fantastic marketing strategy. Here’s a pic of their take on the classic mudflap girl:

At the festival we listened to Dave Romvedt read some poetry and play a couple of songs on the accordion, and we listened to Julianne Couch read from her tour-of-Wyoming-bars book, and we heard Alyson Hagy read from her new novel. Listening to Dave Romvedt, beneath the ‘Poetry Tent,’ with a maroon-leaved tree standing in front of a brick wall across the street from the Capitol, and the sun beating down, and perfectly early-autumn weather, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer start to the morning. Later in the day we caught up with my Nebraska friend George and I bought a new green raincoat and some new green Carhartts and some new socks. I call it my Ranger Rick outfit: it’s a lot of that color green. And then we drove back on the Happy Jack road, and I felt sorry for all those bastards who were beating it down I-80 at 80 miles an hour, who didn’t have time to enjoy the old road, who were rushing to get somewhere better than where they were right at that moment.
Back in Laramie, we grilled up some brats that George had brought from Sonny’s Market in Sidney, and we had some beers and fried cabbage, and played a bit of Scattergories and watched some movies and had a great time.
Sunday morning George and I headed westward, to the Marie Lake parking lot, where we threw on our backpacks and headed up the big hill. It was my third hike on Medicine Bow Peak this summer, and George’s first trip up in five or more years. Aside from a cold rain and some blisters on George’s feet, the peak was as fantastic as ever. I didn’t take pictures where I usually do, but snapped a couple of creative shots elsewhere on the trail:


And on Monday afternoon, I went with Cass and Brett and Kaisja and about six other people down to Denver for a concert at Red Rocks. I was skeptical about an outdoor concert—my first time at Red Rocks—since the morning in Laramie opened with grey and rain. But the storm moved out by the time we reached the amphitheatre, and the temperature couldn’t have been better. Nearly t-shirt weather on a Monday September night, sharing the music of LCD Soundsystem and the Arcade Fire with about 7,000 other people. I can think of worse ways to spend a Monday.