I moved to Glenwood Springs in 1986. At that time, there were two stop lights and if it took five minutes to get across town, it was a high traffic day. I-70 was being constructed through Glenwood Canyon…the last section of a highway that bisects North America from east to west. It is the most expensive stretch of interstate in the country with tunnels and flying bridges that have westbound traffic on top of the eastbound lanes. There are frequent rockfalls in the canyon, some of which close it down completely for days. John Denver protested the building of the interstate through the canyon, not only for aesthetic purposes, but also for the environmental impact. He postulated that the canyon was too narrow to accommodate a four lane highway and said he could prove it by throwing a silver dollar from one bank to the other. Legend has it, it took him several tries but he finally achieved the feat. To no avail, however. Nothing impedes the progress of an interstate.

I moved here with Hubby #2 and my oldest daughter when he finished residency and she was heading into seventh grade. It was a sleepy little town…the kind of town where you just sign your receipt at the grocery store if you forget your checkbook with a promise to come back and pay the next time you’re in town. I once brought a Suburban home for the weekend for approval simply because they knew where we lived.

It was an idyllic life. We lived in a log house on two acres. I could get from my kitchen to the top of the ski lift in less than thirty minutes. I did my housewife duties in the morning, skied all afternoon and got back in time to pull fresh cookies out of the oven when my daughter got off the bus from school. We literally knew everyone in town. Then the interstate was completed and there was a huge influx of new people moving in and our sleepy little town woke up.

We held a pretty high profile in the community with my husband being a doctor and me being active on committees and the school. Four years after moving here, baby number two came and my life took off in an entirely new direction. With a teenager and a new baby, my finger was in a lot of pies.

Ten years went by with a lot of struggles with depression and health concerns. Then, the unthinkable happened and this couple that everyone thought was perfect…wasn’t. And we went our separate ways. I had a strange perception of my position in the community after that. My station had changed and as will happen in any breakup, people chose sides. It’s a normal but unfortunate process. I held my own though. I owned a business in town for a few years and co-parented my youngest. Her sister married and moved away. And eventually, I met and married Mr. Virgo.

Now I come back whenever I can…to visit my brother, to visit my second parents, my brother/friend and all these wonderful faces I still recognize. Wednesday night in the summer features live music in the park and it is THE place to see and be seen. Many of these beautiful people I go years without seeing and it is so great to catch up. So, I sat last night as the sun went down on another perfect Rocky Mountain summer day and I soaked it all in. Because, in five days, I’ll be driving east and my summer here will be complete. Bittersweet but with so much love.

❤️

“Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.”

Deuteronomy 8:2 NIV