Breckenridge In The Fall

My sister Susan and I headed to the mountains from Denver Thursday afternoon to check out the fall colors on Boreas Pass, and afterwards stopped in Breckenridge on the way home. I must say, it was much different than the last time we were there, on a mid-September weekend for Oktoberfest. Main Street was closed to traffic that day, and packed wall-to-wall with partiers, many dressed in lederhosen and dirndls. Thursday afternoon was much more laid back, with a smattering of tourists, most of them seniors, like us.

Breckenridge is, of course, a world-class ski resort, but although there was a dusting of snow on the mountaintops, as seen in the photograph on the right, ski season is still at least a month away. At the final Colorado Rockies game of the year, there was an ad on the scoreboard that encouraged fans to enter a contest via text message for a free 5-day stay in "Breck," as we hipsters call it. However, I have not yet heard back. The last time I entered such a contest, while attending either the People's Fair or the Taste of Colorado in Denver's Civic Center Park, I wound up being hassled with telemarketing calls from a hotel chain for the next 5 years or so. As so many people have said, the definition of crazy is when you do the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.

And as can be seen in the photograph on the left, the free downtown trolly is still up and running, taking people from outlying parking lots to the center of town and back, although on a quiet mid-week afternoon, there were plenty of spaces available on Main Street. In fact, when we went to Oktoberfest, despite the huge crowds, I was able to find a parking space right in front of the Gold Pan Saloon (which has been in business since 1879). I suspect most people feel the odds are so slim of finding a place to park that they automatically head for the outlying lots and take that trolly. As for me, I don't mind circling the block a few times, until someone pulls out, instead of taking that trolly. Of course, if they were serving free drinks, that would be a different story.