That, folks, is tricky territory. Not the valley, the cabins for sale. It is as bad as mobile homes for trying to get good old-fashioned information about a place with the land. Some places listed as “cabin property” are missing the cabin, others are missing the property. Other cabins don’t allow year-round residency, but as they’d say at IBM, other than that, it is yours. There are too many rip-offs to list here, so beware. The obvious rejects are cabins in a community where you don’t own the land and must pay rent. (Like with mobile homes, many people don’t see the logic of buying the structure, then having to pay a mortgage-sized monthly rent.) I see that none of the standard sites (like Trulia) that I use for cost comparisons even have a section for cabins. I also question ads with “cabins” for over two million dollars. At that point, you ain’t buying any cabin.
As with anything in the USA, every square inch of anything with value is already owned. I passed countless spots that would make dandy cabin sites while admitting I don’t have the foggiest about what is involved in either cost or zoning. But with so much of it, why would anyone build without owning the land? Here is the view from the top of Pike’s Peak, looking north and showing the smoke haze. Woodland Park is down there somewhere.
Of course, I took a look at what’s entering the market, since I’m a total city-dweller. The banks here seem to hit certain areas in batches. Right now, slightly over a dozen north Aurora properties appear at once each week. When that happens in south Aurora, I’ll be paying close attention. I make a point to view the quality of the lowest priced offering, and some of it is beginning to look pretty nice.The 283 mile trip cost just $47 including gasoline with the largest outlay the $12 park admission. We love that, paying taxes to create the park, and then getting charged a fee to go see it. It wasn’t people like me who elected all those liberal bozos for the past forty years, so we know who to blame. But there is no denying the effectiveness of the sidecar for this type of vacation travel. When I explore a new area, I have a method, part of which you may have noted, how I take the freeway back at the end of a day. I estimate it would require four years to explore Colorado this way.
Later I rehearsed with the new guitar guy, who promptly chose some of the most difficult music for next Thursday. He will be pressed to learn these arrangements by then, and when you make mistakes on stage with me, there’s not place to hide. Afterward, I went to Sheabeen’s to see this Sunday Karaoke show. It was the worst I’ve ever seen. Not second or third worst, but the worst.
Blog rules say I must explain my reasons. It was the entire presentation that was off. First, the PA was overpowering the speakers, making for booming bass notes rattling the cones and plenty of feedbac. The majority of the room were the B crowd from high school now pushing 35 . There is nothing inherently wrong with the B crowd, except they are not the A crowd. They are into this draggy indie music with juvenile themes of unrequited love at 50 beats per minute. I indentified a few of the tunes only because I recognized the music from the time I played with Jeannie in Hollywood.
For my turn, I did “Spiders & Snakes” and had the entire room watching. As soon as I was done, they turned back to their drinks and convo, which I was quick to point out to the server. Oh, he says, that is only because I was new. Yeah, I told him his tip was going to be a buck each for the number of people who actually watched the next singer. Two dollars. But he kept insisting the best singers in town were there. If that is the case, forget Karaoke. Find me a talent contest.
I won’t be wasting my Sundays on that. The B crowd has taken over the room, the only fast beat was an Oriental guy singing rap. The women were severely overweight and working the personality angle, the guys were the type that had receding hairlines in their teens. If I had a good word to say about that show, I would do so now. I was there over an hour thinking it could not get any worse. But then they started doing duets. My advice: Run, don’t walk, for the nearest exit.
Here is sunlight, actually sunset, over the Honda in your standard west Colorado scene. Depending on the cost of a motorcycle repair tomorrow, there may be another of these highly economical trips in the works before I head back to Florida. The area south of Colo Spr is most appealing to me as it fits the notion I have of the foothills and Rockies.As far as the run back to Florida, I know it will cost $511 including food, gas, and shelter. That is not a problem, so the immediate plan is to cut across the prairies, which I’ve seen most of my life, to the eastern mountains, and drop south to the scenic route there, which I’ve only seen once. It is hard to see the mountaintops from inside a Cadillac. My confidence is the Honda has grown to the point I’m not that worried about long uninhabited stretches.
If it breaks down on the road, I’d just buy a car and tow it home. My home, not the one Wallace would have for free right now if he’d kept his word of honor. Instead of trying to shaft me because the idiot Patsie convinced him his name on the title made him a big shot. I wonder if she paid him back all the money she cost him on this one?
