BY ROB PEW
The Woody Creeker is pleased to welcome Rob Pew and Susan Taylor. Natives of Asheville, North Carolina, they recently traded the Blue Ridge Mountains for the Rockies and have been a great addition to our beatnik cowboy Shangri-La.
Susan and I did not intend to buy a house in Woody Creek. It crept up on us, like a day you spend fishing just to get outside, and find that the fish are not only biting but that big one you thought Was under the over-hanging limb had moved out to feed and was bigger and more gullible than you thought.
We had spent four winters renting a house in Vail. I love Vail Mountain, but had never been enthralled with the town. What I loved about the mountain quickly vanished when the Vail Ski Company started to do major marketing in the Denver area. We decided to visit our friends Jan and Bob Blaich in Aspen. They had been long-time residents and Bob was always telling me how wonderful it was in Aspen. The weekend of our visit was a windy, snowy one. . . but guess what? No crowds! It was settled then, and we found a duplex in the West End to spend the next four winters.
There was a restaurant in Vail, actually in Minturn, called the Minturn Saloon. It was one of our favorites. I was always rewarded with wonderful quail, quail, quail, and of course multiple margaritas. This is actually the beginning of the story. We described the Saloon to a friend in Aspen, looking for a similar place, and we were directed to the Woody Creek Tavern.
My wife loves cats. Each year as we made our trek west to ski for two months, we hired a cat sitter to stay with our cats. Susan’s love of cats is so strong that some years I was not sure she would even go. Fortunately she loves me too, and knows how much I love skiing, winter, and the mountains. She always came along, and whenever a cat crossed our path, we stopped. In fact, the cats who have presently chosen to live with us are named Hampton and Hickory, for we found one at a Hampton Inn and one at the Hickory House in Aspen.
During our winter sojourns to Aspen, cat withdrawal was a serious condition that we had to deal with. Our first visit to the Woody Creek Tavern introduced us to Biff. Biff became the solution to cat withdrawal. Once a week, all winter long, 1 would get that look from Susan, and know that we had to head to the Tavern for dinner. If Biff happened to be out for the night, we might visit the tavern sooner.
I am not a big pet person. It’s not that I don’t like cats or dogs, but my business travel always had prohibited a pet in my life. When Susan and I were married, the cat came with the deal. And since, four have joined our happy family and 3 have left. What I have learned is that cats are seemingly very independent. This requires their owners to be tolerant of independence. The fact that the Tavern has a working cat roaming freely around the place tells me something very positive about the owners, workers, and patrons.
A LOOK AT THE VARIOUS MEMORABILIA ON THE INSIDE SCREAMS, TO QUOTE A STATE MOTTO, “LIVE FREE OR DIE”.
The Tavern sends a strong subliminal message beyond the presence of Biff. A look at the various memorabilia on the inside screams, to quote a state motto, “live free or die”. There is definitely a “this is not Aspen” atmosphere. The ambiance is a combination of cowboy and hippie that, as I understand him, is reflective one of the more famous·, notorious Woody Creekers: Hunter S. Thompson. The Tavern is a place where you can be yourself, speak your views, and of course have great food. Did I mention · the margaritas? The final straw that cemented my relationship with the place is the bumper sticker on the wall, “Impeach Bush / There is some shit we won’t eat.”
Somewhere during the third and fourth year of our renting the duplex in the West End, Susan met friends. She already loved Aspen for its authentic town feeling. Not like the manufactured Disney-esque feel of many ski towns. Real estate in Aspen surrounds you at every turn. The four color glossy magazines published by the real estate firms jumped at us at every street corner. We started bringing them home and discussing them with more than a passing interest It did not take long before a house that would have been the most expensive house in our hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, looked like a bargain.
I was still not sure that all this looking was any more than a recreational activity. Sometimes we might visit a place and just look at the real estate listings as an activity. I guess my clue this time was that we actually got in a car with our friend Ron Erickson who happened to have a local real estate license. My criteria were to find a location either on the bus line, walking distance to town, or on the river. I love to fish and ski, so I wanted to be close to either activity. Neither Susan nor I had voiced a statement like, “we want to be in Woody Creek”.
I had no idea that the atmosphere I had experienced at the Tavern had permeated my subconscious. I had no idea that the decision had been made for me by Biff, and all his friends at the Woody Creek Tavern. When we drove down the driveway of the house that eventually became ours, Susan and I looked at each other and we both knew it was all over. We were going to be on the river and walking distance from the cat that brought us here.
The best part is that after we had moved to Woody Creek, we attended an event to raise money for the Woody Creek Community Center. The people we met represented the best of what you see on the walls of the Tavern. l always love to meet people who are as interested in meeting you and learning about you as you are about them. People who are not full of themselves in that ego-bursting way, but are full of themselves in their own self-esteem and confidence; people with the· confidence to listen to other opinions and the tolerance of many points of view. People all drawn together by their love of a place and a lifestyle best described as . . . Gonzo!
Finally, of course, is the fishing. But you know, there are rules about whom you tell what.
