The Mayor’s Travel Memories from the Road (Bluegrass Pick in Lyons, CO)

I have been trying to write a HeidiTown blog post for weeks. Let’s face it, this year has been a punch in the gut. I’m not traveling right now and with everything else that’s happening—pandemic, forest fires, nasty politics, continued event cancellations—any creativity that I may have had has left the building (along with my sanity).

The Mayor's Travel Memories from the Road (Bluegrass Pick in Lyons, CO) (5)

This website has been neglected since I did the road trip campaign to Southern Colorado with Visit Colorado. I should have gotten something posted quickly as there are all sorts of new eyes on the site. Alas, I did not.

READ: A Road Trip in Southern Colorado

Well, I am finally getting around to posting a few articles. I got a little inspired when I ran across the following video and was reminded of a trip to WeeCasa Tiny House Resort in Lyons, Colorado.

Bluegrass Pick in Lyons, Colorado

I was staying for one night with my friend Karen in The Dogwood, a tiny home at WeeCasa. We’d just had tacos in the twilight hours at Mojo Taqueria and were walking back to WeeCasa when we passed Oskar Blues, a restaurant, bar, and live music venue, and decided on a nightcap.

The Mayor's Travel Memories from the Road (Bluegrass Pick in Lyons, CO) (3)
Mojo Taqueria

The Mayor's Travel Memories from the Road (Bluegrass Pick in Lyons, CO) (4)

We stumbled into the upstairs bar and unknowingly into a Tuesday Night Bluegrass Pick. A “bluegrass pick” at Oskar Blues is where people who play bluegrass music, come together and jam for an evening. If the group were to get together and play Irish tunes, it would be a “session.”

We sat at the bar while people carrying mandolins, fiddles, banjos, and more, filed in, forming a large circle. As they began to play, I realized we’d accidentally become part of something special.

I grew up in a musical family going back for generations. I am sure that relatives in my family’s past played banjos and drank whiskey deep within the Appalachian Mountains. 

As a child, I went to bed many nights listening to my dad strum guitar downstairs, and I grew up on old hymns and the folk songs of Bread and Simon & Garfunkel

Oskar Blues

The group at Oskar Blues played and sang, “I’ll Fly Away,” and a shiver went up and down my spine. As I sang along, my eyes got a little moist. There is something ethereal about people making music together. And for some reason, it’s moving.

Humanity desperately needs to come together over music right now. I am incredibly sad that due to this worldwide pandemic, music jams are not happening anywhere. 

The pickin’ will start again at Oskar Blues at some point in the future, that’s a fact. For now, Karen and I will hold on tightly to this memory. We are so lucky to have happened to stop in that night. This experience will always be one of my most cherished travel memories.

The Mayor's Travel Memories from the Road (Bluegrass Pick in Lyons, CO) (2)
WeeCasa Tiny House Resort
The Mayor's Travel Memories from the Road (Bluegrass Pick in Lyons, CO) (1)
The Dogwood

This week, I’ll share a couple more special travel memories here on HeidiTown. Stay tuned!

Do you have a lovely travel memory? Share it here, and until we can start properly moving about and gathering again, we can revel in good travel memories together.

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