You know that feeling when you're about to land and suddenly the pilot pulls back on the controls and the nose of the airplane rises into the sky?
Then you know you're not going to make it.
Actually, one time I was landing in Toronto on a snow day, our plane actually touched the tarmac, and then we lifted right back up. WTF was that?
It seems to me in the old days, the pilot would get on the intercom right away and hip you to what was going on. But we were mystified in T.O. until we were way back in the sky and the pilot said there was a plane further down the runway and with the snow we might not have been able to stop soon enough...
The second time was a charm.
But not today.
There's a direct flight from L.A. to Aspen now. Used to be you had to land in Denver and take a puddle jumper into Sardy Field. You know that bucking bronco from "Urban Cowboy"? It was oftentimes like that...
Well, do people even remember "Urban Cowboy" and the line-dancing craze? When Debra Winger dominated the screen? She disappeared for a while, never to be replaced. Now we tend to get 10s who can't act. And the great thing is Debra was a 9 or an 8, better looking than the average bear, but you'd grown up with someone like her, you could relate.
Eegads! Did I just use a numbering system to rate women? That was a faux pas before Trump... But we've pulled back from the politically correct woke, as we should have... Then again, pardoning Cuellar and getting rid of the CAFE rules... Every day I turn on my phone and read the news and am convinced I'm living in Bizarroland.
So we go up, up, up, and I'm convinced that we're being diverted, to probably Grand Junction on the Western Slope...that's a different weather pattern, it's much drier.
But no, we circle back around, the nose of the airplane dips, and now the hills are so close you think you can reach out and touch them. We're just about down...
And the pilot pulls back up on the stick...
And I'm asking myself... How much fuel does this plane have? They don't fly with much more than they need and....I've been diverted because a plane was low on gas.
So what the hell are we going to do now?
We're heading up into the stratosphere, like we never ever came close to land, and then finally, the pilot comes on the PA and tells us we're going to go to Grand Junction. And we're going to track the weather, and if it's clear enough, we'll take another shot.
Or they'll bus us.
Which they ended up doing. Summoning a coach. Add two hours and fifteen minutes of road time to this journey. But I wasn't pissed. In my old age I cope with f*ck-ups better. We'll miss our annual lunch at the White House Tavern, and I won't be able to go to every ski shop to see the new wares (although most of the stuff is online these days), but we'll get there in time for the annual BBQ.
Yes, that's how Jim Lewi's Aspen Live starts, on Wednesday night.
It used to be the Aspen Artist Development Conference, but then the labels cut back on artist development people and then cut back on spending all together, and doesn't live run the business today?
As for the conference... It's old home week. You start to see people in the airport. You walk into the lobby of the Limelight Hotel and it's like a summer camp reunion. Makes you feel connected and loved.
So we're riding along in the bus, and there's no snow on the ground, up at the top of the glorious mountains there's a little, but things are dry...
Until we're a bit out of Glenwood Springs and there are flurries.
My phone is going wild with people in Denver, planning how they're going to make it over the passes to Aspen, but...
The flurries turn into snow.
One thing you've got to know about Colorado is it's not like Utah. In Utah it DUMPS! Four or five inches an hour at Alta and Snowbird. We get that in Colorado a couple of times a year, but really it's a regular drone of snow, light stuff that accumulates.
And that's the snow we're getting as we're taking Highway 82 into town.
And then traffic is backed up in the other direction. This usually happens when there's a snowplow leading, but I didn't see one.
The pavement is now completely covered with snow. It's only dangerous if you don't know how to drive in these conditions. But today with four wheel drive and anti-lock brakes...it's much easier than it used to be.
And we're rolling along slowly and then...
How do I say this... It was like being in a movie, going from color to black and white, from today to yesterday...
I was suddenly rooted. I was no longer looking at the environment, but part of it! This is how it was living in Vermont. Where the snow never leaves the ground during the winter and the days are gray...the land of hot chocolate and board games.
My roots.
Now we live in a world where flights are cheap and people travel constantly. So to pick up and fly to Colorado to ski...it's not the exotic effort of yesteryear. And when I'm in the condo in Vail... The streets are heated and the gondola is right outside the door and I don't do that much driving.
But now we're on the highway into town, driving by Paepcke Park... I've been coming to Aspen since 1970, back before the logo stores appeared. I've got roots. And I'm not bragging, I'm just saying it felt beyond familiar, like this is where I belong, like this is home.
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