Disconnecting in Carbondale in a light rain following the thunderstorm. We
have a routine. I drive us there. Judy goes inside and gets us registered,
while I disconnect the tow car. I got the disconnection done, and went
inside out of the rain to check on Judy's progress. She was still inside
chatting at the front desk. I hadn't been inside more than a minute, when
the woman behind the counter directed us to our site. She was very
specific. She looked right at me and explained "That's space "N", like in
knucklehead." What was that? I was only in here a minute. I had hardly
even made any smart aleck remarks at all. She must be a man-hater.
So we're settled in at the Crystal River Resort outside Carbondale for a
week. It's right on the Crystal River. It's a little rough here.
Carbondale is a little rough. A messy mountain town. But when you look
around at where we are, Wow! What a place to be.
We're parked with the water right outside our window. Good background noise
for sleeping. We're right next to/under a blue spruce tree. The mountain
chickadees are outside, only three feet away. There is a white-breasted
nuthatch creeping up and down the tree trunk.
The water looks a little high and rough for fishing here at the campground.
The water in the Crystal River is silver gray, just like always. Tomorrow,
we'll scout around for a friendlier spot to fish. A little less drop.
Smoother slower water. I've never liked the Crystal for fishing. That's
because I have never done well here. We have some information about where
to fish upstream, though, which could change my opinion. This might not be
a stupid river after all.
Today, we drove back to Aspen to pick up the bicycles. We drop them off at
the Physics center when we first get there and leave them all week. It's
handy to have them right there for lunchtime transportation. We got so
excited yesterday about finishing up and getting out of town before the
down-valley rush hour started, we forgot to load them back onto the car.
Let me explain rush hour in Aspen. A beautiful town like this, isolated in
the high country, you wouldn't expect something so cosmopolitan as a rush
hour. But Aspen is different. It is so beautiful here, more people want to
live here than can fit. As a result, property values got bid up. They used
to complain that all the local residents got pushed out by the millionaires.
Now they're complaining that the millionaires are getting pushed out by the
billionaires. It comes down to this: If you have to work to be in Aspen,
you can't afford to live in Aspen. Aspen is for people who have already
made their money.
It takes a lot of people to provide the services and support for the Aspen
residents. People who can't afford to live there. They commute. They
can't commute out the east end of town, because the only thing off that
direction is Independence Pass. They go west. West to Basalt, El Jebel,
Carbondale. There is no relief in Glenwood Springs, so they turn left and
go off toward Rifle and Parachute. It's forty miles from Glenwood to Aspen.
Thirty miles from Carbondale. It's not cheap to live in the towns
down-valley, but it's possible. We checked the classifieds for Aspen. You
can get a one bedroom apartment in Aspen for $2,000 a month. They commute.
We haven't actually seen the commute. It is legendary, so we avoid it at
all costs. Even without rush hour, it's a difficult road to drive. It
alternates between two lanes and four lanes. The speed limit is sixty-five
miles per hour, but the drive is punctuated by stop lights. Stopping for
red lights at highway speed. Maybe ten lights between here and Aspen. I
don't know the road well enough yet to anticipate all of them.
