Estes Park... Monday

An absolutely perfect day here in Estes Park.

Alex and I both slept so soundly and awoke this morning to a beautiful view of the mountains and gorgeous weather. Other than the fact that I had a disturbing dream about John and then one about Shaun Groves, it was a great night’s sleep. I can explain both dreams… John played the piano at church last night and I was wishing I was there with him. Shaun is here this week… singing at the concert tonight. So that explains that.

Anyway… we drove into town about 8:30 and had breakfast. Sadly, Ed’s Cantina has closed. I had great memories of eating dinner at that place one evening with a bunch of other writers. Dave Clark, Brian White, and Don Koch went out on the patio in back where some guys were playing country music and sat in on a couple of songs. Ah… good times.

But there was to be no breakfast at Ed’s Cantina, so we went to The Egg and I. Then we did some souvenir shopping. I LOVE shopping with someone who shops the same way I do… you know, jumping from thing to thing and never spending too much time in one place. We shopped for about two hours before we headed out.

I have a little booklet I bought a couple of years ago that lists all the great places to hike, from very simple hikes to Long’s Peak… the big status symbol climb out here. We drove to Lily Lake and had a wonderful hike around the lake. We saw chipmunks galore and took a ton of pictures. It was beautiful.

We got back to the “Y” just in time for me to get ready for my afternoon class… Write With a Pro. I walked in to find Dennis Dearing, Bev Herrema, Kara Smith, and Debbie Dewart… all Wajonians… on the front row. It was a two hour class and I was pretty darned tired by the end, but it was still fun. Don Koch helped me out. I gave him a lyric and he showed how he would put a melody to it. Then he played a melody for me and I went through how I would begins writing a lyric to it. It was fun in a totally terrifying kind of a way.

After the class I got to meet quiet a few wonderful people… a young guy who is rapper from Colorado, a guy who is a friend of Travis’ from Detroit, a couple of guys who are writing a lot together and just trying to get started. Some sweet ladies from New Mexico and Oregon. Hopefully, some of these new friends will end up at Write About Jesus this year.

By the way, our royal blue writeaboutjesus.com lanyards look awesome around everyone’s neck.

The concert this evening was sponsored by Compassion, so all the artists were Compassion representatives and sponsors, including the two hosts, Shaun Groves and Rebecca St. James. Both of them did a great job, and I don’t know where Compassion could find a more eloquent or passionate spokesperson than Shaun. Plus he is hilarious onstage. Halfway through the concert, two of my new friends from the afternoon class came to the bleachers where Alex and I were sitting and asked if we’d like to sit up closer. They had two empty seats on about the fourth or fifth row. So we got to see Hope’s Call from there, and that was fun because they sang two of my songs… “Never Been Broken” and “Good News Bad.”

Also on the program tonight, a group called the Colorado Wranglers, who make great cowboy music, and Aaron Shust. Aaron led worship early and wow, “My Savior, My God” just has to be one of my current favorite worship songs.

We’re having a Wajonian lunch on Tuesday at noon on the side porch of the Administration Building. It’s an “Everybody bring your own sandwich and we’ll have fun catching up with each other and take a picture or two” lunch.