Today would have been our 44th wedding anniversary if my then wife Lisa and I had stayed married, but we divorced in 1987 (I think) and Lisa moved on to San Francisco, where she still lives today. I myself moved into an apartment building across the street from the University of Denver and have remained there ever since. We have been apart for so long now that it seems like back then was a different lifetime. Fortunately, there were no children to complicate things, which was good, and we are on good terms these days, although communicate only infrequently. In any case, we took the photograph above with a tripod and timer at Maroon Bells near Aspen, Colorado. We were honeymooning in Vail and decided to drive over to Aspen for the day to check it out. And since we were in the area, we drove on to Maroon Bells, about 12 miles southwest of Aspen, to hike around a bit on the Maroon Lake Trail, which was and still is very beautiful. Back then you could simply drive there, park, and walk around, but it has become such a popular tourist spot that going there now is much more complicated. If you want to park at the Maroon Lake Trailhead these days, you need to make a reservation ($10 per vehicle), and arrive before 8:00 A.M. or after 5:00 P.M., and those spots are very limited. If, for some strange reason, you find that inconvenient, there is a Maroon Bells Welcome Center at Aspen Highlands Ski Area, where you can park for $16 and take a shuttle. Is it just me or is virtually everything much more complicated these days? I have not been back to Maroon Bells since that honeymoon trip all those years ago. I did head up to Aspen in the off-season a number of years ago, but the only part I remember is having a beer at the Hotel Jerome, a local landmark. Hunter S. Thompson used the J-Bar as his de facto office, but he wasn't there, and so I said the hell with it and drove home to Denver. Can you actually believe someone would even think about divorcing such a fun guy like me? Go figure.
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