Living like a local in Buena Vista

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 2023

We have seldom stayed in one location for a whole month, but being in the mountains in the middle of the summer was a treat. So we worked at becoming locals as we got to know our new community of Buena Vista, Colorado. The first step was to learn the local pronunciation of the town name. While we all know how to pronounce "Taco Bueno," we had to forget any semblance of Mexican pronunciation when it comes to saying Buena Vista. The locals say something that should be spelled Buna, and begins like the sound in "buick" or "beautiful." So every time you read Buena Vista in this blog, think beautiful Buna Vista. Or you can try another local trick and just call it BV.

We were looking forward to becoming regular customers at the local farmers' markets. The first Saturday we hit both the Buena Vista and the Salida farmers markets because we love summer farmers markets! While we purchased a few things, we have to say that the prices were very high and we didn't find a vendor that we looked forward to seeing every week. Denisa was disappointed, but we recognized that Colorado was an expensive place to live and shop for fresh produce.

Speaking of fresh produce, we were not far from Palisade, Colorado, famous for the best peaches in the country. In downtown Buena Vista we had a tent where they sold Palisade peaches every day. We stopped in to buy some, but left empty-handed when they were $6 per pound or $60 for a small box with only two layers of peaches! To top it off, the fruit was looking bruised and soft from being too long under that tent. So we were glad when the local grocery store had a special on Colorado peaches for 99 cents per pound. We were feeling like locals because we downloaded the grocery store's app to start receiving digital coupons. We don't often stay in one place long enough to claim a local grocery store. We bought a bunch of peaches, and made four-layer-peach-delight more than once. Denisa got the recipe out of the newspaper when it won the Palisade Peach festival grand prize when we were visiting there several years ago. No pictures of the desserts because we ate them faster than the camera could focus.

The Arkansas River rolls through the town of Buena Vista. A nice trail along the river was a popular place any time of the day. We always saw kayakers in the water, practicing their skills on the eddies and play areas.

Experienced kayakers can hold their position in the churning water, or practice flipping upside down and then righting their boats. The antics of more inexperienced kayakers provided entertainment to the people strolling along the trail.

A bridge on both ends of the town trail allowed walkers to make a loop, and enjoy the views down the Arkansas River.

Another local thing to do was to sit in the park just above the river. Especially on the weekends, the restaurants and bars were crowded. But we could always find a place to sit. We especially liked this cement and tile all-weather living room that came complete with tile family pets.

Families bring their picnics to the park, and street performers bring their guitars to play for tips. One evening a couple brought their props and performed in the park. She was doing aerial silk acrobatics suspended from a 25-foot metal frame, and he was in costume and walking on stilts. It felt a little like a circus at the park.

Occasionally, a more famous performer had a private concert in the park. We found out that a singer/guitar player named Trace Bundy was performing the evening we were strolling. While they put up a black screen to keep everyone out that didn't buy a $35 ticket, the music flowed right through the screen.

We found another seat close to that side of the park, and enjoyed $70 of music for free. We were proud to say that our hiking had kept our hips in shape this summer. We both squeezed into that ski-backed chair to listen to the music.

When we were looking for a local place to go to church, we were excited about the chance to go to the same church for several weeks in a row. Mark had it narrowed down to a couple different churches, but we ended up at the Lutheran Church. Denisa thinks the decision might have been made based on the fact that they were having an anniversary party after church that first Sunday, to celebrate the completion of their pastor's first year in Buena Vista. He often uses the availability of cake to help make important decisions.

We also enjoyed getting to know some of our camping neighbors. Our favorites were Ronnie and Connie, who come here every summer to avoid hurricane season on the Gulf Coast. Ronnie's Buena Vista hobby is panning for gold. We were intrigued by his gold-panning equipment, and he let us watch the process. It's a good day when you find "some color" in your pan. This day he even found a little nugget that might be worth around $10. Connie pointed out that the $3,000 gold panning machine he uses will never get paid for in gold, because a nugget was a rare find.

We went to most of the free concerts in the park. Buena Vista was proud of the brand new covered stage in McPhelemy Park, where they hosted a concert every Thursday evening. There was also a monthly all-day music festival that we attended on a Saturday. In between acts, a local juggler performed, and she needed someone to help her. Denisa was just like a local, volunteering to learn some juggling skills. 

Buena Vista had six new pickleball courts that were available for anyone to use. We learned that playing pickleball at over 8,000 feet in elevation will really get your heart pounding. We also tried the morning league that met three days each week, where we got to meet some locals. But we were obviously focused on playing, because we always forgot to take a picture of the nice new pickleball courts.

Even though we got haircuts right before we started our summer travels, we were both in dire need of a trim by the time we got to Buena Vista. The plan was to ask a local (sporting a good haircut) for a salon recommendation. But we found that no one seems to cut hair in the mountains. Denisa's hair would grow to look like a big white bush was growing on top of her head, and Mark's was the longest it had been since 2020. Denisa took this picture while riding behind him on the four-wheeler. While his cap usually covers his hair, the unusually long ends were blowing in the Colorado wind.

He begged for a haircut, and Denisa finally agreed. It was the shaggiest he had been since Covid when you couldn't go to a barbershop. 

We forgot to take a picture of the finished haircut, but Denisa was relieved to know that his hair was usually covered with a cap. Besides, hair will grow, right?!? It's all part of living like a local in Buena Vista.