Saturday was sort of crazy

Saturday was an insane day - in the sense that it had more stuffed into it than is wise. But we managed to get through it in one piece, and it was enjoyable, if exhausting. We started out in Craig, CO, and had to get to Rob's house in Boulder by 1p.m. or so. The Rocky Mountains lay between us and him! When I checked the weather early in the morning while still in bed in the motel, it indicated cold temps and rain - possibly freezing, but also potentially foggy in the higher elevations, up in the clouds. So I decided not to go through Rocky Mountain National Park, on Trail Ridge Road, but instead to go north of the Rockies to Fort Collins and then down to Boulder. We left the motel around 7:30 a.m., early for us. That route proved both wise and also very nice in terms of scenery - our highway was a scenic highway and it went through a spectacular canyon - the Poudre River Canyon, which was deep and went on for 30 miles or more. Pretty spectacular rock cliffs on either side of us.

Scenes along the Poudre River Canyon. **************************************** We got to Rob's house by 1:15p.m., which was perfect, but as we drove up Sunshine Canyon Drive, it got foggier and foggier, and we realized that's what much of the trip would have been like the Rocky Mountain National Park route - navigating hairpin turns on Trail Ridge Road in heavy fog would have been no fun! So we came the rght way! We had a nice lunch with Rob - a cup of soup and we made our own sandwiches from sliced turkey, swiss cheese, sliced tomatoes, spinach leaves and a variety of mustards. And we got really caught up on many topics - personal, family, work, the whole bit. We hadn't been together to talk face-to-face since his wedding in Santa Fe, which was in November of 2018 - almost four years. We had talked on zoom, the telephone, and had texted a lot, but there is nothing like being with someone in person. I was so engaged, I forgot to take any photos! But here is a nice piece about him from the Colorado University website, and a recent portrait: Robert Shay is Professor of Musicology at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he previously served as Dean of the College of Music from 2014 to 2020. His writings on the music of Henry Purcell and seventeenth-century England are well known, particularly the book Purcell Manuscripts: The Principal Musical Sources (Cambridge University Press, 2000, co-authored with Robert Thompson), a recipient of the Music Library Association’s Vincent H. Duckles Award, given annually to “the best book-length bibliography or other research tool in music.” Shay’s articles have appeared in the journals Early Music, Music & Letters, and Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association. He has also contributed chapters to the books Purcell Studies (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and King Arthur in Music (D. S. Brewer, 2002). He is currently editing Purcell’s opera, Dido and Aeneas, for Bärenreiter (Kassel, Germany). Shay is a founding member of the Society for Seventeenth-Century Music, serving as treasurer from 2000 to 2003 and chairing the program committee for the 2004 annual meeting. He hosted the Society’s 2018 annual meeting in Boulder. He has been an invited lecturer at Brandeis University, Northwestern University, the Round Top Early Music Festival, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Western Illinois University. Shay previously served as Professor and Director of the School of Music at the University of Missouri (2008 to 2014) and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Conservatory at the Longy School of Music, in Cambridge, Massachusetts (2000 to 2008). From 1991 to 2000, he was on the faculty at Lyon College, in Batesville, Arkansas, where he directed the Concert Choir and taught courses in music history. He also served as Chair of Lyon’s Fine Arts Division for two years and was a visiting professor at Duke University in 1999-2000. Shay holds the M.A. and Ph.D. in musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the M.Mus. in choral conducting from the New England Conservatory of Music, and the B.Mus. in vocal performance from Wheaton College (Illinois). He also studied voice and conducting during two summers at the Aspen Music School, and participated in Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management in 2006.

Robert Shay. We talked with Rob until close to 4p.m., and then we felt we needed to get down into Boulder and find Max. We had arranged to meet Max at his work place, and then Mais would join us and we would go out to eat. So we said our goodbyes with hopes we could come again next year and went on our way. The day had already been pretty full, but it was about to get fuller! We got to downtown Boulder and found Amante Coffee on Walnut Street, where Max works. Finding a place to park was a challenge, but we resorted to using our Handicapped Parking Tag, and got a spot within a half block. We went in, didn't see Max at first, but he came out from the kitchen, and made a latte for us - on the house! Mais did join us, and after 6p.m., when Amante Coffee closes, we talked about supper. The restaurant Max had chosen - Taco place - was on Pearl Street, in a pedestrian-only area. I couldn't be dropped off from the car. So, I got both poles, and we walked. It was ok. But when we got there, they said they were closed to inside dining! We discussed options, and decided on take-out. But that involved at least a half-hour wait. So we decided to go to Max's place, and then Max and Mais would come back and pick up the food, bring it back and we would eat at his "house," - it actually is a little house that he shares with three other guys, down in South Boulder, a neighborhood Ellen and I recognized because it was near where Lyria Pascal, Betsey's Qi Gong practitioner, lived and where we frequently took Betsey for her healing sessions, back in 2015-2016. So we walked back to the car - about two-three blocks! - and re-arranged the luggage, so Max and Mais could squeeze into half the back seat, and we went to Max's place. Forgot to get a photo of the house! But after we had our supper - fish tacos for Ellen and me - we again took a little drive to the Sweet Cow Ice Cream place for cones. It was an easy walk for Max and Mais, and an easy drive for Ellen and me. And again, Sweet Cow ice cream was familiar to us - but not this branch. We had often gone to their other branch in North Boulder, back in 2015-16, and liked their ice cream a lot. I experimented and got "Larry's crazy peanut and chocolate bonanza" (or something like that). I don't usually for strange flavors. I usually get Maple Walnut. But how could I resist? It turned out to be loaded with peanuts and chocolate bits - it was good, but I had to hope it wouldn't keep me awake. (It didn't).

At Sweet Cow Ice Cream Shop with Max and Mais. We said our goodbyes at the shop, but the day was far from over for us! We had to get to our motel, which was in Brush, CO. About an hour and a half drive east of Boulder. I had had to guess where we would want to get to, guess what time we would be able to leave Max. It was later than I had guessed. And we had to find our way to Brush. Thank goodness for the GPS on the phone. It got us there, but itwas stressful for Ellen driving the Interstate in strange territory after dark. She really hates nighttime driving. We did not get to the motel until after 10p.m. It had been a long, long day, packed full. But we made it, and we fell gratefully into bed at Boarders Inn and Suites by Cobblestone in Brush.

Boarders Inn and Suites by Cobblestone************************************************* Today, we drove from Brush into Kansas, and almost all the way across Kansas to Holton, KS, not too far from Kansas City. Another long day. We looked in vain for a museum and lost time in that endeavor, but did stop at the Geographical Center of the U.S. We didn't get in to the motel until 9:20p.m. - another nighttime driving stress for Ellen! More about that when I get a chance to write about it. Time for bed.