The Strater Hotel, my new favorite place to be when my flight is canceled. I was happy my phone took such a nice picture.

Some airports are more fun than others. Yesterday afternoon I waited in the airport in Durango for over four hours. In a bigger airport, you can kill a few hours by looking at magazines, chillin’ at Starbucks, or watching people. None of these were possible at the Durango airport because there was only a snack bar and a gift store. There were about 10 employees at the airport, and only 3 passengers. They were goofing off like junior high kids whose substitute teacher didn’t show up for class.

To keep myself entertained, I put on all my layers of clothes from my suitcase and stood outside in the snow to see how long I could make it before having to rush back inside to the warmth. I made it 40 minutes.

The minutes turned into hours, and finally it was time to pass through security and get on my airplane. Before I could remove my shoes and empty my pockets, the airline announced that the flight from Durango to Phoenix had been canceled. My heart sunk in my chest. This is the first weekend I’ve been away from Candyce since I found out she is expecting a baby, so it’s harder to be away than it used to be. But there’s not much you can do when there’s no plane at the airport to take me home.

Minivan Madness

After another boring hour, I hopped in a minivan taxicab with the other two other frustrated passengers to our hotel rooms bought for us by US Airways.

The whole experience in the minivan was weird and isolating. First, the Dodge Caravan smelled like it’d been smoked in for the last 10 years. This instantly brought me back to my childhood in the rural South where many of my friends’ parents chain smoked on our way to Wal Mart. Next, it’s just weird loading into a small van with strangers. Because lets be honest, when you bend over to slide into a van and try to find a seat, you are sticking your butt in the face of the next person in line. There I was in 15 degree weather in the dark, staring at the butt of a stranger by faint glow of the minivan’s interior light.

Most of the time a driver will try to find some music that is universally acceptable like jazz or classical to sooth the frustrated passengers. Not this guy. It was Saturday night, and he wanted to listen to Meatloaf so dammit he was going to listen to Meatloaf.

He was in chatty mood, so he prodded each of us to find the talker. Out of compassion for strangers that were sitting next to me in the dark, I decided I’d be the talker. While I was answering his question about where I what I do for a living, the driver turned up Meatloaf twice. Apparently he likes Meatloaf singing “I Would Do Anything for Love”, and he didn’t want me drowning it out. I stopped answering his question and the 4 of us reverently absorbed the melodramatic bridge to the song song (I would do anything for love…anything you’ve been dreaming of…) This moment of Zen was interrupted by the driver’s cell phone going off with Elton John’s “Like a Candle in the Wind.”

Bad Night Turned Good?

I was so happy when the van pulled up to the curb of the historic Strater Hotel right on Main Street in downtown Durango. It might’ve been the prettiest hotel I’ve ever stayed in.

After dropping my bags off in my room, I hiked down Main Street to Carver’s Brewing Company to get some dinner. I love ski towns because they’re unlike anything else. I sat at the bar wearing my hipster wool beanie with small brim that I got in New York. Next to me was a dude in his 20′s with a burly beard and a trapper’s hat, the furry hats with the floppy things that come down over your years. On the far end of the bar was a guy with a 1970′s looking beanie with a fluffy ball on the top. Yeah, we all looked goofy, but somehow we looked cool because we all looked goofy together.

We watched Green Bay beat while the senior bartender explained to the rookie waiter that there is a difference between Irish Coffee and coffee with Bailey’s Irish Cream.

Good Morning Colorado

I got up this morning at dawn because I wanted to explore downtown Durango. One thing I’ve learned from traveling over the last decade is that a city is most magical in the morning. Maybe it’s because nobody else is out yet and I feel like the town is all mine, or maybe it’s the way the low sun throws sharp light over the whole place. So if I can get to bed early the night before, I always do.

I started off the morning with a double espresso at the Durango Coffee Company, and then I hiked up the hill to explore the neighborhoods. After 20 minutes of trudging through the snow, I was beginning to feel the bite of the cold. I looked up to see the lit sign of the local bank that told me it was 7:12 in the morning, and it was 4 degrees.

King of the Ski Town

The new king of the ski town is the Toyota FJ. This shouldn’t be a surprise, because Toyota SUVs are staples of the ski town lifestyle, but it felt good to see FJ’s scattered around town with 6 inches of snow layered on its boxy rooftop. I loved seeing these toys parked on up and down Main Street, and on the snowy hillsides next to cool little houses.

The coziest place in Colorado, complete with real icicles.

Out of nowhere I bummed into Sacred Heart Catholic Church tucked in a cute tree-lined neighborhood. I left my coffee cup at the door and slipped inside. It was a good Mass with a funny priest.

Flying Home

The flight from Durango to Phoenix was beautiful. It’s rained quite a bit in Phoenix this January, so the higher altitudes in the state were covered with snow. As we got closer to the valley, the sun would ignite a trail of silver down the sides of the mountains. The water rushing down to the valley created the perfect mirror to reflect the bright rays of the sun back up to our airplane at 15,000 feet. The light show made me feel like I was in a fantasy movie.

Now I’m here in Phoenix trying to unpack my mind and my suitcase from a weekend that was full of surprises. It was a lot of fun speaking at the retreat in New Mexico. It was such a lively group. I think it’s time to go downstairs and watch some football.