The Day After The Big Night

As the Governor and Senators 35’ Obama Hope and Change Express rumbled west on Highway 40 through Hot Sulphur Springs, way later than 10:00 PM, the expectant and disappointed crowd who’d fallaciously assembled to greet them had long since departed The Riverside. No one who made the trek to The Riverside that night was too upset, as we turned the evening into a bit of a party, complete with food and liquor sales that would have been absent on a normal Thursday night during the off-season; besides, shame on all of us if we actually expected a politician to deliver on a promise.
The next day brought a private luncheon for a group of ten retired Grand County High School teachers, for which our morning preparations lent us an opportunity to quickly forget about the big night that wasn’t. About halfway through the luncheon, I was summoned to the phone to speak with…...Rebecca of the Obama Campaign. It seems that they might have some time on their way back from Steamboat Springs to stop at The Riverside after all. And as luck would have it, they were only a short 30 minutes away. The Sino-American fire drill necessary to prepare for our distinguished "maybe that might actually show up this time" guests was once again set in motion. This time I didn’t have time to give a damn about what shirt I was wearing.
I quickly learned that there is an underground Morse-code notification system between the seven democrats in Hot Sulphur Springs, as they were all assembled at the hotel within five minutes of my warning phone call from Rebecca. How did they know, as Rebecca seemed to have been winging things from the RV? Their leader came with a few large Obama signs that she asked if we would hang in the windows of the hotel, perhaps to serve as a beacon that would signal the Obama-mobile in this hostile, Right-wing environment. It was bad enough that I’d have this rolling campaign advertisement parking in front of our building, let alone have our hotel window honking validation of what was not our political preference in a town that is not only not on the Donkey team, but were an actual donkey to wander into Hot Sulphur, the line to shoot it's brains out would be long and distinguished.
To that point, any business owner that professes their political preference runs the risk of alienating roughly 50% of their paying public. Know your clientele, and if you want them to give you money, don’t slaughter their sacred cows with what might be a contrary political poster in your window. There isn’t any President actually putting any money in your coffers – it’s Seth and Sung Lee from Boulder with their Visa in hand, that not knowing your true political leanings, will help you make your mortgage. And it’s Fran and Frank in Hot Sulphur that wouldn’t spend a nickel to pee in your pot if they knew that you supported someone who might try and take their AA-12’s away. Be neutral, buy patrons.
So after a mad scramble, we’re ready for the arrival of last nights’ politically celebrity-laden RV. And it arrives. There wasn’t a Senator or a Governor on the bus; at least not a sitting Senator or Governor. The sitting Senator, Ken Salazar, left the group in Steamboat in the early AM and headed on to Denver - more important business to be dealt with. We were left with a visit only from the Governor – not the real Governor, Bill Ritter, Mr. Up-And-Coming superstar Boulder-Guy from a low-key western state that always votes for a Re-pub – but Roy Romer, the old Democratic Guv from a western state that always votes Re-pub. Holy Crap! I about stroked out the last few days thinking I was about to have to match wits with a sitting US Senator and the current hot-property State Governor, and I get sloppy seconds on a scale that would make Grand County politics seem like bubble & squeak.
The big RV doesn’t park in front of The Riverside, but pulls around the corner and parks in front of “Rusty Pipes” Plumbing Store. The group enters, mostly young political types – bug-eyed and wondering just what the hell Rebecca was doing when she scheduled a stop at this out-of-the way hole-in the-wall (Thank God we didn’t make time last night to get here !!). Ex-Governor Romer and his lovely wife Bea sniffed about the place with moderate interest as to what we did and what transpired here before we did what we do here. The rest of the crew seemed intent on getting the Ex-Guv and his wife out of here as quickly as they’d gotten in here. No press was here, very few votes to be had; really, what was the purpose – they didn’t even need to use the bathroom.
As I showed our guests around The Riverside, I spoke to Governor Romer with passion of the pride in our venture – we aren’t just entrepreneurs who chucked it all to buy this historic outpost in your beautiful state, more importantly, we’re stewards of Colorado’s history. His vacant look told me that as there were no votes to be had, he wasn’t interested in being Governor anymore and he wasn’t interested in us being historical stewards of his state – he wanted to get back on that RV, use a clean bathroom, and stretch his legs all the way to Denver.