Wardrobe Road-Trip #2

Saturday, October 6th

On Wednesday the Wardrobe Department (abbreviated, this time - Roy's sister was in town, so he hung out with her instead) and I took a second road-trip. Fran and Wayne picked me up in their PT Cruiser Wednesday morning and we headed west. Our first stop was Buffalo Bill’s gravesite.

William Cody is buried in a Denver City Park: Lookout Mountain. While the park is geographically in Golden Colorado, it is owned and maintained by Denver. Denver maintains a “necklace” of city-owned parks well outside of town. The mountain park system was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Cody died in Denver at was buried in the foothills overlooking Denver and the Great Plains with the Rocky Mountains rising dramatically at his back. The view from his gravesite is spectacular.

Buffalo Bill's grave. People throw coins onto it. Weird.

Nearby, the city of Denver maintains one of two city-owned bison herds! They live in Genesee Park, also in the foothills. The herd was begun in 1914 with a few specimens from the wild herds of Yellowstone. Since then, the herd has grown and spawned a second herd. The city maintains about 24 cows and 2 bulls in each herd. The animals we saw have a large area within which to roam free (500 acres at Genesee Park). They even have a special bison tunnel that allows them to pass under I-70 and to another large pasture! When we arrived, the animals were hanging out very near to the fence that keeps them off the roadway, so they were easy to see. They are magnificent animals: great big bodies with enormous heads. They were just lying around and grazing, but I can imagine how impressive they must be on the run.

From the bison herd, we went to visit the Mother Cabrini Shrine. Maria Francesca Cabrini was born in 1850 in Lombardy, Italy. In 1889 she came to New York after founding her own order (The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). After her death in 1917 Mother Cabrini was canonized as the first American Saint (she became an American citizen in 1909) and declared the Patroness of Immigrants. She traveled the country (and the world) establishing orphanages, schools, nurseries and other social institutions. What is now the Mother Cabrini Shrine was founded as a summer camp for orphans. The central feature of the shrine is set of 376 steps that climb to the top of a hill with the Stations of the Cross and central events in the life of Jesus illustrated along the way. At the top of the hill is a giant statue of Jesus. When we were there the statue was under renovation, so we could only climb to the 350th step – that was plenty. At the base of the hill are a small chapel and a spring that purportedly is at the site that Mother Cabrini hit a rock with her staff and produced water. (This is the same Mother Cabrini for which Cabrini Boulevard and Mother Cabrini High School in my neighborhood of Washington Heights are named. She is enshrined under the alter at Saint Francis Cabrini Shrine on Fort Washington Ave. Her body is said to be incorrupt – a sign of her saintliness.)

From the shrine, we went to Red Rocks Park. Red Rocks is another of the Denver Mountain Parks and is most famous for its amphitheatre. The theatre has played host to all manner of big name music acts since its creation in 1906. The modern amphitheatre was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1941 and seats 9.450 people between the enormous sandstone formations. The rocks are of the same formation as the Garden of the Gods. Like Garden of the Gods, the rocks project out of the earth at odd angles. Fran is a big U2 fan, so this was a sort of pilgrimage for her (I guess that would make the second pilgrimage of the day!). We had a tasty lunch in the café built in to the rocks. I enjoyed some buffalo chili and I have to admit that it was a little weird to be eating an animal that I had so recently been marveling at…

The amphitheatre at Red Rocks

Our last stop of the day was Dinosaur Ridge. We had a little trouble locating Dinosaur Ridge and drove around in the foothills for a bit, but we eventually located the visitor’s center. There we picked up a map and guide to the pertinent sites. What is now Dinosaur Ridge was as part of the Morrison Formation created between 148 and 155 million years ago during the Jurassic period. On view along Dinosaur Ridge are footprints of two different species (uncovered on the hillside during road construction for nearby Red Rocks), traces of ancient rivers and plants, as well as fossilized dinosaur bones visible in the exposed rock of the hillside. I have to admit that Fran and I found this stop on our road-trip a bit disappointing. Neither of us was exactly sure what we had hoped to see, but this wasn’t it. The dinosaur footprints look faked. Clearly, they aren’t (the place is a National Natural Monument), but they are in white limestone and have been shaded with a darker color to help them stand out. The effect is like kids handprints in cement. The fossilized bones haven’t been excavated at all, so they appear as cider-colored smudges in the sandstone and bear no relation to the bones you might see in a museum. I’m sure that a good tour guide could make the place really come alive and be super-interesting, but our self-guided pamphlet wasn’t doing it.

Dinosaur footprints - see what I mean, they look a little fake.

I’m so glad that I got to spend another day with my pals in the wardrobe department. (Roy, Wayne and I also took a late night trip up into the mountains to the casinos of Blackhawk, Colorado last week. I won $10 during our short stay!) We had such a good time in Utah and I’m happy to report the chemistry worked a second time – I wonder what we’ll find to do in the coming weeks?!?

The balance of the week was mostly taken up with professional considerations. We’ve been rehearsing a new company member: Ben Davis will take over as Sir Galahad in Seattle. We also welcomed Peter Lawrence and BT McNichol who watched a couple of shows and gave some notes to the company on Thursday and Friday. We’re right in the middle of the 5 show weekend, so my time in Denver is coming to an end. We’ll be off to Seattle on Monday!

A few words about baseball:

My hopes of a Yankees v. Cubbies World Series have been dashed. I really feel for the fans in Chicago – the Diamondbacks?!? Who knew? I kept thinking to myself this afternoon as I watched the Cubs game: “is there a more beautiful baseball park than the Friendly Confines?” I hope that whoever buys the Cubs doesn’t follow Stienbrenner’s lead. Wrigley Field is a cathedral.

The Yankees broke my heart twice the week. It took a Biblical Plague of insects (it should be pointed out) to help the Tribe over the top on Friday night. The mayflies crawling all over Joba were disgusting. The series comes home to New York on Sunday – Let’s Go Yankees!!!

The Rockies continue their astonishing late season run. I’m super excited by and for them, but the fair-weather fandom here hurts my heart. While a team playing like the Rockies are certainly deserves a full house, a week ago Coors Field was less than half full. There were an awful lot of folks at Coors Field tonight holding signs that said “believe” that probably didn’t make it to more than one other game this season. The Rockies and the Diamondbacks playing for the NLCS – WHO KNEW?!?

Finally, TBS’s coverage is a joke. I don’t care how much they paid MLB for the rights to the playoffs, perhaps the playoffs should be covered by a network with a legitimate sports division.

JV