Needles and Tracee, our gracious and generous hosts
The Double E Ranch was our base for five nights in Colorado. We might have to change the name of our website to Greg & Amelia’s Adventures as this was another non Airstream trip.
If you recall our blog post First Came the Thunder, we are big Chuck Prophet fans. Amelia is fanatical about his latest release Wake the Dead. She’s calling it her favorite album of the decade. We’ve been dying to see Chuck live, sure as shit, he was in San Diego while we were in Alaska. So we checked the upcoming tour dates. He had two gigs in August in Denver and Boulder. And we have friends that recently moved to Fort Collins. It was the proverbial killing two birds with one stone. We booked our flights, bought our tickets to the shows, and reserved a hotel room in Denver for one night.
The agenda was take the shuttle from Denver to Fort Collins, spend Wednesday night at the Double E Ranch. Needles and Tracee were kind enough to let us use their new Audi Q7 and on Thursday afternoon we drove back down to Denver, checked into our hotel, and caught the show Thursday night at Globe Hall. On Friday we had time to kill so we did a few things around Boulder before the 7pm show at eTown Hall. After the show we returned to the Double E for the weekend, and departed Monday.
Chuck Prophet and his Cumbia Shoes did not disappoint. It’s rare nowadays when something exceeds your high expectations. The first show at the Globe Hall in Denver blew us away. The energy was amazing. The second show in Boulder was quite a bit different. It wasn’t really a show, it was a taping for eTown. The sound quality was perfect and we were in the front row for this seated show where the hosts also interviewed the artists.
The Double E is on a nice little 120 acre spread west of Fort Collins. They’ve just started raising Dexter cattle. They have five cows and one Aberdeen Angus bull. They are all short and stocky, just like Needles and me, since I’ve been shrinking.
We’ve known Needles for decades. Never in our wildest dreams did any of us think he’d end up as a rancher in Colorado.
It seems like all of us have nicknames. Needles real name is Doug. Back in the early 90s we were all calling him Neidermeyer, because of the character in Animal House, Douglas C. Neidermeyer. The classic story from back then involves Rheinhardt. Dave House had a condo in Mammoth where we all hung out. If you stayed there you left your season pass on one of the jacket pegs in the foyer. One day Rheinhardt was looking at all the passes and had Doug’s in his hand. With a perplexed look on his face, he said, “Doug Hoffee? I thought his name was Neidermeyer!” Neidermeyer eventually evolved to Needles and now he’s stuck with that name.
The ranch house and shop
The view north from the second level looking at the cattle grazing.
They are just like dogs. Shake the treat container and they come running.
Petey, the bull with Buttercup
Amelia ready to drive the side by side for the first time!
A field of Blue Chicory
I absolutely love the fact Needles has a urinal in his home!
Smoky sunset on Wednesday
In Denver we stayed at Catbird, a boutique hotel in the RINO (River North) district.
I thought for sure I’d kill myself getting out of the bed and down to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
Chuck and Amelia pre show
Yes, Globe Hall is kind of a dive bar. If you’re familiar with San Diego it’s a cross between the Casbah and the Belly Up.
Amelia with Alejandro “Flaco” Gomez. He shreds the 12 string acoustic and keyboards.
Look at Chuck’s shoes!
A 38 second clip to give you an idea how fun Cumbia music is.
Showmanship
There’s always a funny guy adding an F to ART.
An interesting apartment building in the RINO district.
While killing time on Friday we drove up Boulder Canyon and spent some time on Boulder Creek.
Then we killed more time at Sanitas. Of all the breweries in town we picked this one because my mom loved owls.
The eTown hosts and the artists that perform for the evening always come out together and do a final song. They have a strict no videoing or picture taking policy while the artists are preforming. Alysha Brilla, in the dress, was the other artist performing. She was really great.
Chuck was happy to see Amelia again. He said, “You’re beautiful, singing along to all my songs.”
The wrinkle brothers Saturday day drinking.
I’m doing exactly what it looks like I’m doing, and what a great view. That weekend we saw White-tailed deer, Pronghorn, and a Great Horned owl on his property.
Mabel and Lu the Pug. Lu can be a real shit ass, in a lovable way.
Beautiful glow on Saturday night
We all took a Sunday drive up Poudre Canyon and made numerous stops along the Poudre River before having lunch at Mishawaka. Poudre is pronounced “poo-der.”
Our generous hosts busted out some incredible wine for our last evening.
A storm came in with rolling thunder and hail. It was pretty exciting for us San Diego folk.
As quick as the storm rolled in, then it was gone.
All in all it was a fabulous trip, but one can always find something to complain about, commercial air travel is a drag. If you’re not a fan of people, then you are going to have a tough time with the busy airport terminals, and being packed like sardines on the plane. We are looking forward to our next big Airstream trip in October.
You got to see Chuck twice!!! So jealous. What great trip! Looking forward to seeing you in September🥰
So are we, it’ll be here soon
Thanks for visiting, we had a blast! You guys need to come back when the calves are born.
Wow, there is so much to love about this blog..looks like a phenomenal trip was had and awesome memories made! Thanks for sharing!!
Thanks cousin. Looking forward to hearing about NM
Looks like such a great little trip! I’ve never heard Cumbia music, loved it! “I thought his name was Neidermeyer!” ..Classic Eric! If he loved you, you had a nickname!