Troy-Albany Trance-Formations

Denver Vacation Travel Journal December 1, 2009

My partner and I were in Denver over the Turkey day holiday, visiting my family.  This was the first time I introduced Jody to my sister and her family and my brother.  On both ends of the journey, I had luggage problems.  My bag didn’t make it onto either connecting flight, the first time because the handlers put it on the later flight (we got on an earlier flight as standby) and the second, probably because we were late getting in to DIA.  So, the getting to and coming from were both difficult.  Also, the food issue on the return was fraught as well. Plopped down $50 for an abstinent meal.  Guh buh!

Still, Jody really loved Denver.  And I saw my hometown with his eyes.  He really didn’t know what to expect, and I rather proudly showed the city off to its best possibilities.  And the added plus?  Denver has at least 8 new-age/witchy type shops.  We started off with the one we thought was best (Herbs and Arts), and proceeded to see Quantum Alchemy, Spirit Ways and the grandmama of them all Isis.  (I remember Isis from when I lived in Denver, and it was HUMONGOUS back then.  It’s probably the most comprehensive of the lot, but J & I both liked Herbs & Arts’ atmosphere the best.)

On the first day, I showed Jody my high school digs and school.  That was fun.  I showed him St. Thomas More parish in what is now called Centennial, and he was amazed to see the Padre Restaurant right on the premises.  That struck him, as it does most people, as weird.  We tried to go to Spirit Wise on S. Broadway, but that didn’t work out.  Then we went to old-town Littleton, and discovered Penzey’s Spices there.  As well as a few other nice shops and the Town Hall Arts Center, which is rather impressive.  We drove around to look for a place to eat, and ended up at a Black Eyed Pea on S. Broadway, which J. assured me would have food I could eat.  I’ve found a new love!

An interesting synchronicity that led to something:  We were driving up South Broadway toward Denver in Englewood, and my alarm for calling one of my sponsors went off.  Just at that moment, Jody said “Oh, look there’s a Catholic store–let’s go in.”  So I pulled over and parked the car, originally to turn off the beeper, but then to go into the store Jody wanted to visit. 

This led us to exploring the nabe of downtown Englewood, which I had for many years taken for granted, but that Jody rightly recognized as an old-style gem.  Overlooked but still burnished in an old-style (c. 1960s) commercial strip.  The Catholic store was all right enough–except for the fact that the radio had on Fox(cunt) Radio (Kunt Limbaugh in this case), which ushered us out once we realized.  We went into Orris Trading Post down the street which was fabulous.  And we walked around a little bit more, and then drove off, ironically passing Isis without knowing it.  Englewood has some cool art works on the street, and there was a big ol’ structure that reminded one of grass leaves.  We were marveling at that, not registering that Isis was across the street.  Oddly enough, Isis is also around the corner from where my sister lives.

We visted Boulder the next day, and that was all right enough.  Boulder is just like Burlington, Vermont and Ithaca, New York–progressive college towns with tony shops.  The thing we were most impressed with was the drive out.  We took I-93 along the edge of the foothills–what a grand ride that was!  And we took it back part of the way, driving through a landscape mostly lit by the light of the partial moon.  I could feel the spirits of the Indians out there.  Wondrous.

We did take a wrong turn at one point, which worked out amazingly well.  We cruised down Old Wadsworth Blvd., right through the old-style commerce district of Arvada.  I’d never seen it before, but Jody was really excited to know about it.

Thanksgiving itself was really pleasant–not to mention 67 degrees.  We could have worn shorts if we wanted to, though it did get cool toward the evening.  We had a delightful time getting to know my sister’s family.  I taught some of the children how to play Hearts and that was lots of fun. My nephew Michael actually “Shot the Moon.”  We also watched the Bronco game, which was also fun for us because we engaged Michael along the way.  The whole family is into the Broncos, but not obnoxiously so like our father was.

J & I went to see Men Who Stare at Goats, which I liked better than he did, but realize it was actually a rather B+ sort of film.  Parts of it will stick with me though. 

And then Friday came, and it was time for us to go back to the Capital Region.  Before the trip, I had been told via one of the Guardians that my great-grandmother Morell wanted to speak to me.  She had told me that there is some property out there “in my name.”  I don’t know if that means her name or my birth name, but I told Jody about it, and we went on a sort of treasure hunt in downtown Denver on Wednesday.  It didn’t turn anything up, however.  We have more legwork to do on that, but during the course of this treasure hunt, we discovered that downtown Denver–as most downtown districts do–sapped a lot of energy out of us.  We got rather cranky rather fast.  Jody also thought the Denver Art Prison Museum was incoherent with its original “castle” structure and the new Liebeskind marvel that went with it. 

That night, when I was meditating, I asked Great-Grandma Jolene if she wanted an offering, and she said she like oranges, “and would like me to leave one on the first step of the house I grew up in,” which I was planning to visit on Friday before we left.  So we drove up Federal Boulevard from Evans, and at 38th Street, Jody spots “Yemaya Tax Service.”  Next to it was the Botanica Yemaya.  So we HAD to stop.

Sure enough, it was a delightful shop, rather large, and Maria the owner was very generous with her knowledge of lore and things to do with the Orisha.  We came out of there feeling mighty magickal indeed, and we proceeded to quickly whisk up to Northglenn where I set the oranges we bought for Jolene on the first step of the house I grew up in, and sped off to a restaurant near the airport.

I’m here back at woyklez, and I’m … well, I’m refreshed and invigorated at least.  Lots going on, but it was a really grand vacation, all in all.  Mighty glad we went.

Cross-posted at ordinarysacred (LiveJournal)