I am at the beginning of another road-trip adventure. Seeing, doing, being.
I left Connecticut on Thursday, August 22. I drove about 400 miles, spending my first “overnight” at a Pennsylvania I-80 rest area near Barkeyville, thirty-one miles from the Ohio border. I had a great sleep. The next day, staying on I-80, I drove about 640 miles. I pulled over at a rest stop near the end of my drive to watch the sunset. It was magnificent, highlighting the clouds with pink-purple wisps of color. I drove another ninety miles or so after that, doing my second overnight at a rest area near Ladora, Iowa. I rose early, before sunrise, and I experienced this great huge orange-red ball slowly appear on the horizon and dazzle my imagination with feelings of awe and wonder. There are a lot of windmills in Iowa. From my vantage point I could see several, all rising tall from farm fields of corn and soybeans. By 2022, wind power was supplying 64% of Iowa’s electricity! The blending of natural energy resources, solar represented by the Sun and wind by the windmills, was juxtaposed with the fossil fuel burning phenomenon represented by the interstate, with all of its trucks and cars, spewing gases into the air. Change is happening.
On Day Three, Saturday August 24, I did a short (under 100 miles) drive to Saylorville Lake, just north of Des Moines. There is an Army Corp of Engineers’ Campground on the lake. I did a twenty-five-mile bike ride on a paved trail that passes through forested land on the east side of the lake. It felt really good to get in a ride after all that driving. On Day Four, I drove 670 miles to Boulder County Fairgrounds Campground in Longmont, Colorado, about ten miles from Boulder. It was a hot day driving through Nebraska and all its beautiful farmland. Temperatures were in the high 90s for several hours. Those temps dropped as I drove closer to the mountains in Colorado, where it was around 80 when I arrived in Longmont. It was a relief to step out of my van in cooler air, just before sunset, and enjoy having my feet on Colorado soil, once again. It felt so wonderful.
Not to waste time, on Day Five, Monday August 26, I went for an eighteen-mile hike on the Lobo Trail. The trail, which is basically flat, runs from Longmont to the outskirts of Boulder. It is a cinder-based trail between the two cities through grasslands, farms, and residential areas. I walked out and back on a section of it. On the return segment, I diverted from the trail, going into Niwot, about three-quarters of a mile off the trail. I wanted to say hi to Patti Machen at her coffee shop, the Old Oak Coffee Shop, where she and her husband Michael have created a thriving business in a cute small-town atmosphere. I also used the opportunity to obtain more water for my hike, and I had a piece of their store-made banana bread. It was remarkably fresh and delicious.
On my way to Patti's shop, I crossed paths with three people wandering on a sidewalk. I checked with them to make sure I was headed in the right direction to the coffee shop. Guess what? They were headed to The Old Oak, too! They pointed me in the right direction. They were a couple from Toronto visiting a sister-in-law in Niwot. I told them I had been to the Canadian Maritimes recently. We talked about my experiences as well as other things Canada and USA. They said Newfoundland had amazing scenery, not to be missed, but be prepared in terms of food and supplies due to the remote location. I was wearing a bright yellow Harris-Walz ’24 T-shirt. Even being from Canada, they were energized by the recent changes in the political environment.
Patti is the sister of one of my Boulder friends, Jonathan. Jon and I worked at the Harvest Restaurant & Bakery in the late 80s-early 90s. Jon is an artist and musician in terms of that question, “What do you do?” More on that question in a moment, but Jon is many other things, such as a husband, father, friend to many, and an all-around good guy. He’s also a writer, back-packer, hiker, and ski-guy. They have parakeets flying loose in the house, too.
The Harvest was a part of a magical period of my life. Not that other periods were not magical, the Harvest environment was a unique experience in terms of people. It was a collection of travelers, Boulder imports, and locals with wandering spirits and uplifting hearts, all on their way to some other form of “real life” further down the trail. There was amazing joy in our work as waitresses, waiters, bus-persons, hostesses, line cooks, prep people, dishwashers, and yes, managers, too. It was work, but so much more happened there in terms of interactions with each other and with customers.
My email is otomola@gmail.com and my website is otomola.com. What the heck is this Otomola? Otomola is a name I came up with in my Boulder Harvest time period. It is actually short for Otomo-otomola. It is simply something that popped into my mind one day while out walking in the woods. In part, it had to do with the movie, Dances with Wolves, which was out around that time period (1990). Otomo-otomola meant, to me, Dances with Nature, with nature in this context being landscapes and environments, desert and mountains and all they represented physically (vegetation, animal life, wind, rain, the skyscape, etc.) and in spirit.
At the Harvest, there was a time when each server had their own tray for carrying beverages or food. We used masking tape and a Sharpie to mark the trays, and Otomo was the name I used. We also added additional tape, three pieces that created a equilateral triangle in the round-shaped trays. I added one word to each piece of tape: Kindness, Compassion, and Wonderment. It was great because the tray would at times become a topic of conversation with customers. Interesting conversations, even if short. It was the spirit. Friends in Boulder occasionally use variations of Otomola still: Otomo or Tomo.
On Day Six, Tuesday, August 27, I went back to the Lobo trail, with my bike this time, and rode to Boulder and back. Later in the day, I drove to Boulder and visited with two other former “Harvesters” yesterday. First, I stopped to see Denise and her husband Dave. I first met Denise on my initial trip to Boulder in September 1984. That’s a story in itself. Here is the short version, just a couple details.
I had been working at the Sesame Seed Restaurant in Danbury from 1980 to 1984. When I left on my first cross country road trip in September, Dee, who owns the Seed, gave me the phone number of a woman who had worked at the Seed before me. He name was Sue. Dee said to call her if I was near Boulder. I drove I-70 into Denver and called Sue. She said come on up and say hi. I went to her house, where she lived with Dave and Denise. (Sue and Denise are cousins.) We all hit it off well, and they invited me to stay awhile, as they had an extra room. I stayed about three weeks and experienced how great the Boulder area was.
In 1989, I decided to move to Colorado. I stayed with Sue and her boyfriend Jim for a week when I arrived. Denise was working at the Harvest, and I soon found myself working there, too.
Anyway, back to 2024, after spending time with Denise & Dave, I wandered over to Pearl Street Mall to meet Marty, the second Harvester. Pearl Street is an open-air, pedestrian street mall. Marty works as a plant caretaker. His employer is a corporate entity that contracts to supply and care for plants in various office buildings and other entities. He drives (about 400 miles each week) all over the Denver-Boulder area watering plants and doing maintenance to keep them healthy. We went to a restaurant, Avanti, with a rooftop patio overlooking the foothills of the Front Range. Among other things, we talked about several aspects of our Harvest experiences, and amazingly, he brought up the idea of the server trays with our names on them. His Harvest name was “Stu,” and he recalled how we used masking tape on the trays. I found it interesting that only the day before I was thinking and writing about the same thing.
Have a good day …
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