We all have one: that friend who tells the same stories over and over with vigor and expectant excitement. Just one month into your friendship you were able to regale everyone with Aunt Pearline’s 90th birthday blooper, Grandpa Jack’s last words, and little Jimmi-kin’s cute antics in the church nursery. Bless that cheek-pinchin’ly adorable little Jimmi-kin! Lucky for you, I’m not that friend, so I will just glaze of the redundancies of Monday-Friday of Colorado week 7. Here it goes.
Throughout week 7, we spent two evenings rock climbing at Shelf Road, which we’ve already told you about, two evenings cooking and listening to an audio book (Clash of Kings, the second book in the Song of Fire and Ice series), and one evening making pepperoni rolls for my coworkers. The pepperoni rolls were a big hit, but people kept on calling them pizza rolls. Don’t worry, West Virginians! I corrected them and explained what makes a pepperoni roll a pepperoni roll. I think they understood by the end of the day.
Exciting as all of that sounds, the real fun of week 7 was looming in the illusive distance I like to call “the weekend”. You see, it was the weekend of festivals here in southern Colorado! In two days we attended three festivals and one special sports bar. Here’s what happened…
On Saturday morning, we drove to Denver, where I dropped Bilbo off at Wynkoop Brewing Company to meet Mr. Cooper. The guys were going to attend the Great Contenders beer festival, featuring Colorado’s top microbreweries. The Great Contenders is an spin off from Denver’s Oktoberfest due to the volume of people attending the larger festival. It was created to give those interested in the wares of the state’s microbreweries a smaller and less intense venue for exploration. Not being a beer enthusiast and in need of a new dress, I went shopping and got an iced caramel macchiato. When I picked up Bilbo and Mr. Cooper, with a new dress and tights in the trunk, the guys said that it was a great time with lots of good beers. Unfortunately, they only managed to take one dark picture in which Mr. Cooper only has half of a head.
From downtown Denver, we drove to the suburbs where Delores (GPS) led us in circles until we reached Hopper’s Sports Bar. What’s so special about this Hopper’s? Every game day a group of WVU alums meet here to watch the Mountaineers play football! Finally! There were people around us who show an appropriate amount of college football obsession! Look at all of those Mountaineers in Colorado! Our much beloved Mounties were sadly defeated by LSU, but we had a wonderful time playing corn hole and cheering along with our WV brethren!
We didn’t arrive back in Pueblo until midnight, so we got a very slow start on Sunday morning. By noon, we were on to the next festival of the weekend, The Pueblo Chili and Frijoles Festival. The small, otherwise ambiguous Pueblo has its claim to fame during the Fall harvest of chili peppers, especially green chilies! Like all American towns, Pueblo celebrates its heritage in full force one glorious Fall weekend every year. Not only do they have their chilies to be proud of, but their festival itself has been voted #2 in American small town festivals! We had been looking forward to this weekend since arriving in Colorado and were not disappointed! There were free samples of local chili products (jams, dips, and the like), musicians played in three pavilions across town, a farmer’s market of nothing but chilies stretched across two city blocks, booths boasted beautiful dried chilies, and quirky activities and people abounded—like a gladiator child and ten foot tall Chili Man.
Most impressive were the groups of men roasting chilies in giant fire roasters. The sweet and spicy smell filled the air as a nervous looking fellow stood tentatively by with a water hose. If it hadn’t been so hot by the fires, Bilbo and I would have stayed to watch the chilies turn for hours.
Although the festival’s name is partly occupied by frijoles, or pinto beans, this small pile was their only representation spotted by us. Poor redheaded step children, they are still part of Colorado green chili soup and have a place in Pueblo’s history.
After the Chili and Frijoles Festival, we returned to the Winery at Holy Cross Abbey for the Harvest Festival Jubilee. Similar to Morgantown’s Wine and Jazz Festival, the Harvest Festival required a fee for a commemorative glass and wine tasting tickets; however, it did have its differences. Wine and Jazz features wines from all around WV, but the Harvest Festival only had wines from Holy Cross. We were initially bummed by this, but our sorrow lifted when we found out that the wine maker had two varieties made specially for the occasion. One of these specialty wines was a Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, of which we purchased a bottle for later.
The Harvest Festival was also singular in the fact that vendors and artisans were a part of the festivities. There were bakers, caterers, painters, jewelers, and…
ALPACA FARMERS!
The Elder Bauers would have been so excited!
The diversity of the Harvest Festival Jubilee was a refreshing surprise and a nice cap on our weekend of festivals. The cats also had an exciting and diverse weekend!
They sat in the window…
Turned around…
And sat the other way.
They were pleasantly exhausted afterwards and so were we! Now we are looking forward to next weekend and our murder mystery train ride through the Royal Gorge! I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
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