UBC1313 .... Spring Hoedown in Mancos

SPRING HOEDOWN … Tami Graham of Mancos sure knows how to put on a great show. Her family-friendly benefit for the Montezuma County School-to-Farm Project (and her own non-profit The Pay It Forward Fund) packed the Mancos Opera House March 16th.

As emcee, I got to auction off two live humans (for three and a half hours of gardening work). A neophyte as auctioneer, the calling was slow but the bidding was spirited – Farm Boy Harrison went for $70 and Farm Girl Blaize for $88.

We square-danced up a storm with Carla Roberts and the Wild West Squares. My Rainbow buddy (and former Durango Mayor) Michael Rendon led his Caruta Roma Gypsy Band in a slurry of rousing dance tunes. Ashley Edwards of Hello Dollface delighted the crowd with indie soul, and Robby Overfield and the Breaks did their soulful music for the late-evening dancers.

MANCOS … I have to say, this is the second time I’ve been down to Mancos for a great party and huge turnout of tykes and crones, steers and queers, and everything in between – rural Colorado as it moves from red to blue. Some of this energy seems to be La Plata County spillover – Mancos playing Carbondale to Durango’s Aspen. But some of it seems targeted to this rural pocket of Montezuma County, with its back up against Mesa Verde and the San Juans in the distant north. What used to be very conservative, predominately Mormon country, and has now become a haven for alternative lifestyle folks from all over – Santa Cruz to Abilene.

Absolute Bakery in Mancos

Check out Zuma’s the next time you’re passing through on the highway, or maybe make a little detour for breakfast at the Absolute Bakery.