Getting Random on the Near East Side

I can’t think of a theme here. I only know that I need to tear myself away from the fascinations of far-west side Chapman Park and immediate-east (of Broadway/US 285) Acequia Drive. There are other fine scenes to bear witness to in this town as evidenced by the contents of my photo folders.

One of the busiest intersections in town in a quiet moment. To the left and at the end of the block is the Safeway, one of the two supermarkets in town. Behind me is the Colorado Potato Advisory Committee HQ. Here, I’m looking straight at one of the two liquor stores in town as the sun sets over Second Avenue.

After two years and change, a New Year’s resolution I should get to work on immediately is to broaden my local horizons. Old habits die hard for me, though. With minor variations, I walked the same three-mile route in Colorado Springs for just over nine years before I moved here.

This is probably the best photo I’ll ever get of the moon with this pocket camera. The zoom created an interestingly exaggerated perspective that included the southwest corner of the Carnegie Library at left, and the orange walls of Baldo’s Mexican restaurant one block over and centered.

In Monte Vista I only walk a short length of US 160 as it cuts through the near east side and out west, straying only mere blocks from the main road. The general “metro” area, such as it is for a small-to-mid-sized farming hub, extends several miles north and south. Much of it isn’t pedestrian friendly, of course, but there are still a lot more places my feet can take me than where I’ve already been so many times before. Also, why not drive to Homelake and walk around there, as I’ve been advised to do a few times since I’ve been here?

Looking west by southwest across Second Avenue on a particularly dramatic summer’s evening.

I can see this town filling up just as Colorado Springs did after we moved there in early 2007. It’s good seeing the economic expansion—Monte Vista has come a long way in two years—but I hope it moves at a much slower, far better managed pace than it was in Colorado Springs. 

One can only hope. Meanwhile, let’s savor the energy that comes with improving fortunes. There are fewer empty retail spaces than there were a year ago. We recently got a stretch of US 160 paved. It's a short stretch, and rather hastily and clumsily painted, but I’ll take it. 

The seasonal events were the biggest and best ever this year.

Yes, that’s me rockin’ my Perpetual Tourist attire in the reflection at left, complete with pocket camera.

I’ve always admired E. Sprouse-Rowe’s plate glass paintings, mainly for the energy it takes to go all over the San Luis Valley as she does making her mark. Here, though, we see Ms. Sprouse-Rowe channeling an inner Big Daddy Ed Roth I didn’t know she had. This is her finest illustration work, at least as I’ve seen it in Monte Vista (I don’t go out much.)

Oh, and one more thing. This vast, empty corner space is already open as a fitness center, even as they finish the remodel one bit at a time. Let’s hope this does well.

There’s a new energy even in older establishments like this one.

The Sugar Shack shut down shortly after we got here two years ago. It’s in an inconvenient location for travelers coming off the main road, and competing directly with a very clean and well-appointed gas station/convenience store next door, which also sits at a safer remove from that final bend on the east side where US 160 begins its straight east-west course through town. It’s a shame, but I don’t see how such a place could work. Maybe as a real estate office or somesuch, but not as a food service joint.

Thanks to the same helpful people who blow up my pageviews whenever I post links on the community’s Facebook page, I learned that the big mountain dominating the horizon in back is called Pintada Mountain, though it is often colloquially referred to as Baldy. The fall colors are especially striking this year.

One day I’ll get a really good shot of US 285 as it blazes a straight line north to Saguache. Not today, but I’ll keep at it.

All photographs Copyright © 2018 by Lawrence Roy Aiken. All rights reserved. If it’s worth a beer, drop some change here, and God bless.