When Was The Last Time You Did Something For The First Time?

Did you ever have a moment of self-realization that made you stop and say “Wait… that can’t possibly be right… can it?” 

I was thinking about getting away for a night, maybe two, and something occurred to me: 

I have never been in Colorado in June. 

At first, this seemed inconceivable. So I started a mental rundown of my experiences:

My first Colorado visit was in August 1988 (1). I stayed at the legendary Brown Palace in Denver with my mother, grandmother, and brother. We got all dressed up to eat in the hotel’s formal restaurant, but nothing looked good to me or my brother, so we went out for Japanese food because, even then, I freaking loved Asian food. 

I would not visit the state again until October of 1996 (2) - spending a long weekend with my friend Erik and my cousin Buckley. 

I visited in February 1998 (3) on the first of the road trips that defined my misspent youth between the ages of 19 and 24. 

That trip took me as far as Boston; I returned to Colorado (4) on my way back in March. 

One year later, another road trip in March of 1999 (5) which caused Buckley to say “Why don’t you just move here? I know you will one day; why not now?”

So four months later, in July of ’99 (6), I did just that. 

And I moved back to California in May of 2000. (I left the state quite a few time while living there, but am not counting any of my returns as “visiting” Colorado, as that was my home at that point.)

More road trips: 

April 2001, during college spring break (7). 

Two weeks later I returned with my friend Ben (8), who was considering moving there. (Yes… two road trips from Pasadena to Colorado in a three-week span. My God, youth is wasted on the young.) 

July 2002 (9), when my friend Tom and I drove around the country (and visited Ben the night he met the woman who, 22 years later, is his wife). 

August 2005 (10) when I drove my then-friend Min to Minneapolis and we spent the night in Denver.

August 2006 (11), when my then-girlfriend Ashley and I were on vacation in New York City and decided to rent a car and drive back rather than fly; we spent one night in the Eastern Plains of Colorado and one night in Denver. 

I would not visit Colorado again for more than 12 years. 

In December of 2018 (12), Christmas Day, I drove my dying brother from our parents’ house in Santa Fe to his fiancé’s sister’s house in Fort Collins and then spent three nights in downtown Denver. 

July, 2019 (13), I rented a cabin for three days on a river in the southern end of the state and unplugged from the world. 

August, 2019 (14), I went to a Minor League Baseball game in Colorado Springs. 

November, 2019 (15), I felt a need to pilgrimage to Boulder after having a dream about Buckley, Erik, and Travis, all dead now.  

February 2020 (16), I visited my friend Miriam in Longmont. 

September, 2020 (17), Miriam and I spent the weekend doing pub crawls in Boulder. 

April 2021 (18), I took my first paycheck in more than a year (pandemic, you know?) and went to Boulder to buy beer. 

January, 2022 (19), I went to Boulder by myself for Wild Card Weekend. 

May 2022 (20), my then-girlfriend Tricia and I went to Durango for two days to get away from the Santa Fe-adjacent wildfires, and so I could visit Erik’s grave.

September, 2022 (21), I visited Boulder and drove down the San Luis Valley on the first weekend of autumn.

November, 2023 (22), my friend Monica and I went to Boulder; her first time. 

May 2024 (23), I visited Durango with my friend Olivia. 

So there you have it: A history of my time in Colorado. 23 trips - TWENTY-THREE! - none of which were in June, and an 11-month period in which the only month I did not live there was June. 

That’s kind of crazy. 

I love the start of the summer and the long days, and I have never once been in Colorado - the "roof of America," as Kerouac called it - in June. 

It’s time to remedy that. 

Then, of course, comes the question of what to do. 

On one hand, I have done Boulder so many times in the last few years, including just 7 months ago. I do not feel the need to do it again. Especially when there are a few places in the state to which I have never been that I would like to go. 

On the other hand… how could I not visit the Dark Horse a couple of days after the summer solstice? Sunday Night Baseball at The Pony for the first time in a quarter-century? 

So I plan to spend just one night in Boulder and then head somewhere I have never been in 23 - er, make that 24 - trips to Colorado. 

Stay tuned.