Walkin' Boulder
By Sue Deans
Training for a half-marathon walk, the former editor
of the Camera blogs about exploring Boulder

August 19, 2011

It’s Friday, my day for Rotary Club, at A Spice of Life Events Center near 55th and Arapahoe. I need to be there around noon for our weekly meeting, which lasts until 1:30. Then I’m going to see the movie “I Am,” at the The Dairy Center for the Arts, at 26th and Walnut in the new Boedecker Theater. It starts at 2:30.

And since I’ve gotten up a little late, I decide to try getting around town on foot today, which will add up to a pretty long walk.

It’s cloudy and humid when I leave home, and there’s a possibility of rain later in the day. It’s still in the 70s but it’s supposed to be hot this afternoon. I’ve planned carefully so that I don’t look too out of place at Rotary, wearing long pants and a sleeveless shirt with my walking shoes, but in my little backpack carrying a cardigan to put on at the meeting and bringing a hairbrush and lipstick – and deodorant! – to make myself a little more tolerable to be around.

I leave my house in North Boulder about 10:45 and head east on Valmont. I’m avoiding Arapahoe or Pearl, pretty busy streets, so I decide Valmont is my best option. It is pretty muggy today but not so hot yet, and I make pretty good time. I am taking just a few pictures so I can move faster.

A week or so ago I walked along Valmont, just as far as Airport Road. Today as I get a bit further I find the sidewalk ends on the south side of the street just after the bus stop, so I jaywalk to the other side, where luckily there is a nice, although meandering, walkway/bikeway that adjoins the Valmont bike park.

Last time I didn’t go far enough to see the dog park and today I find it, a bit east of the bike park with a nice parking area and a few dogs and their guardians, as we say in Boulder.

It’s starting to get hot now and the sun has reemerged. I’m sure glad I brought the deodorant. I turn south on 55th Street and walk through the industrial areas. My former colleagues at the Camera aren’t too far from here but it’s almost noon so I can’t stop to say hello.

As I walk down the road to Spice, off Arapahoe about two blocks north of 55th, one of my fellow Rotarians stops his SUV and asks if I’d like a ride. Funny guy!

After I stop in the ladies’ room and clean up, I’m there in time for lunch and a great program by Patty Limerick, a Rotarian and director of the Center of the American West, who talks about her new book on Denver Water, coming out soon.

Out at 1:30, I head back to Arapahoe and west toward The Dairy Center. I hope I can get there in 45 minutes but I am slowing down a little. One foot hurts and I’m really hot so I stop for water a couple of times. I can’t resist taking a picture of some beautiful flowers near 47th and Arapahoe and I try to get one of a guy fishing in Boulder Creek where it passes under Arapahoe. He’s too far away and doesn’t show up, but it sure looks cooler down there!

Going as fast as I can, I arrive at The Dairy at 2:25, rushing inside just in time to get a seat in the back. The Boe is a 60-seat art cinema that opened in March and has been showing the most interesting films you can imagine, thanks to a very involved group of local folks who select them.

“I Am” is a documentary by Tom Shadyac, director of such memorable and very successful films as “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” and “The Nutty Professor.” Following a serious bicycling accident he wonders if he really knows what happiness is – or if anybody does. He asks a lot of people and it’s very thought-provoking. The message I got is something like, “Can’t we all just get along?” and that human beings are meant to collaborate, not compete, and if we do that the world will be a better place. Naïve? Maybe. But it’s definitely worth seeing and thinking about. The film has sold out every time it’s been shown at The Dairy. Check www.thedairy.org/cinema for film schedules.

Afterward I head for home, arriving about 4:30. I’ve done 9 miles, interrupted by stops for Rotary and the film, and I am wiped out. It was thundering a bit the last few blocks before home but I beat the rain and I’m glad to see it cool things down a bit. And there’s a rainbow!