Gypsum - June 27

June 27, 1999 - Gypsum, Colorado

Rest day at the Lindows

What a nice day. Slept in a little bit. Went across the street to church with the Lindow family at 11:00. It was very nice to be in church. The sermon was about the sacrifice Abraham was asked to make in giving up his only son, Isaac. I've always wondered how Isaac felt about that. I don't mean how we would like to THINK he felt about it, but about how he really did feel. The story is an analogy for the sacrifice of God's only son, so we know how Isaac was SUPPOSED to feel. I wonder.

After church I watched Brazil tie West Germany in the last second in the Women's World Cup. Then Helen drove me down to Glenwood Springs. I took my back wheel back to BSR. They were open til 4:00 and we got there in plenty of time... to discover they were just locking up for the day.
I explained my predicament. Would they just look at the rim and see if they could see ANYthing wrong that I have missed? It was the owner and his wife. Her mother had just remarried yesterday and they wanted to spend some time with the new couple before they left town.
But without any hesitation, they brought us in. Their names are Debbie and 'Scratch' Katers. Scratch took the tire off the rim, looked at the rim for about 2 seconds, and said, "It looks to me like the rim tape has a couple of gaps where your tube might sneak down into the spoke holes. I'll just replace that." And it took him about as long to do it as to say it.
Then they noticed that the tube I had in there had a patch (yesterday's flat) so they put a brand new tube in. Then Scratch noticed that my hub was binding just a little bit, so he put it in the vise and cranked it all apart, loosened it to the proper setting, retightened it and announced it "Better".
And for this they refused any kind of payment at all.
So once again I find that my "calamities" lead to a positive experience with people I've never met before. Helen and I walked out of BSR Sports in Glenwood Springs feeling really good. And it's not about saving $10 or $20 or something. Far from it.

I didn't have the camera with me, but the web address of BSR is
http://www.glenwoodguide.com/bsr
and their email is
bsr@rof.net
Wouldn't it be nice if a bunch of you dropped them a line from various parts of the U.S. and told them what you thought of them?

Watched the U.S. women defeat North Korea 3-0 to sweep their group and advance into the quarterfinals against Germany this Thursday.

Dinner in the Lindow front yard
That's Chelsea on the left, then her friend Kirsten (a soccer fan), Dick at the head of the table, Helen to his left and then Ivor. What a pleasure it is to eat al fresco on a beautiful night with friends in a small town; they wave to half the cars that drive by.
Gypsum's population is around 3000. When Dick and Helen moved here around 1980, the population was around 800. Real estate values are climbing.
Gypsum is named after its number one product, the white, chalky stuff that is mined there by American Gypsum, most of which becomes the stuff of the wallboard in your homes.

After dinner we were invited down the block to Kirsten's house for s'mores on The Volcano. The Volcano????? This sounded very intriguing.

The Volcano in action
The Volcano is the barbeque in Kirsten DeGroot's back yard made out of lava from the Dotsero lava flow just down the road from Gypsum. There was a friendly mix of neighbors of all ages in the DeGroot backyard. Bluegrass music wafted from the camper Steve has parked next to the Volcano. We sat and ate s'mores and watched the full moon come up and felt the temperature drop and talked about our children and then ate s'more s'mores.
Steve DeGroot (Kirsten's dad) is boy at heart. Like all boys, he loves fire. (Warning: NEVER do the following in your own volcanoes at home.) Man, it was the funniest thing you ever saw when he took a cup of gasoline and dropped it down the top of the volcanoe. I caught the action as well as I could before laughing my eyes out with everybody else.

Steve DeGroot's hobby
This is Steve's garage/shop. Steve loves bluegrass music and his hobby is making guitars and mandolins. Here he is with a finished mandolin and parts of a guitar in progress. It's painstakingly detailed work, and great therapy.

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