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The Beginning of The Season
You can hear it on the early summer breeze, friends. It's grunts and groans as people haul boxes of goods from trucks and cars to store shelves. It's the slap of mops on bunkhouse floors and the squeak of paper towels on windows. It's the snap of laundry hung on the line, and the thump and whine of washers and dryers. It's the snarl of chain saws and the growl of well diggers, and mostly it's the sound and sight and smell of lots more vehicles, from dirt bikes to semis, as we get ready for the real beginning of the season, on the 4th of July.
I know many people are looking forward to it, because it's a big part of their livelihood. But for those of us who just hang around our mountains for fun, this summer looks as though it may be particularly annoying.
First it was the price of gas, which went down and sent the number crunchers to their computers. They've written all kinds of analytic articles in the big newspapers in which they predict there will be a 14.5% increase in visitors to our lovely area -- a total of two and a half million people -- and there is apparently some question as to whether anything will be left of us by Labor Day. I'm not sure whether these are supposed to be tourists or Visigoths.
Add to the cheap gas the terrorist problems and it looks as though we're headed for a record summer in terms of visitors and I, for one, am all in favor of it. It think it's great that they come in the summer in droves, because that means they pretty much leave us alone in the winter, and I like that, too. I'm not too sure I could handle it all year long.
The Denver Post is referring to our beautiful RMNP as a "top tourist target," and I get the feeling we're lucky not to be the bulls-eye.
So we get extended hours at the Solid Waste Transfer Station and all the stores and restaurants are open and I can get groceries at Meeker Park, and friends are returning for the summer and in general there's just a frenzy of activity that culminates on the 4th of July.
I think I can handle the rest of the summer, even though they're predicting a "tourist stampede," but the 4th of July weekend is going to be just too much for me, I'm afraid. I can't stand all that excitement. I need a little more peace and quiet than we're likely to have that weekend.
I'm going to New York City.
Columns
© 1985 – 2003, David E. Steiner
Allenspark Wind Columns:
Back to the Hilltop Guild Bazaar
The Estes Park Hardware Store [1988]
On the Death of Otto Walter, Postmaster
A Whine About Telephone Service [1991]
On the Death of Charles Eagle Plume
Rumors About a Visit by the Pope
The Visit of Pope John Paul II
Devolutionizing Big Government
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How Old is Charles Eagle Plume?