(Cross-Posted to DemNotes at www.DemNotes.com)

Sunday, we woke up early and headed over Wolf Creek Pass to Durango, where the La Plata County Democrats were holding their annual Summer BBQ at the Isgar Ranch.

From my perspective, it was a great fall day — overcast, crisp, with the trees changing colors along the way and a light mist falling throughout the journey. Wolf Creek Pass itself was fog-filled, but still an amazingly beautiful drive.

Of course, from the perspective of the La Plata Democrats — a group wanting to hold a major outdoor event on this day — the weather was not so “great”. There was even apparently some talk of either canceling or postponing the yearly tradition on Sunday morning. But leaders of the county party decided, “the show must go on.”

The decision to go ahead and hold the picnic was a good one. Because the skies cleared just in time for the Democrats to gather. When I arrived in Durango — a bit late — Democrats were enjoying their food and their local Democratic leaders under a beautiful sunny fall day. It was a beautiful sight — if you looked in the sky, it appeared that there was just a break in the clouds over this little patch of heaven at the Isgar Ranch. All around, ominous gray clouds circled — but for the Democrats, it was bright and sunny.

We heard from several key local leaders, including Senator Jim Isgar, whose 90-plus year old parents hosted the picnic. Senator Isgar talked about how refreshing it was to have a Governor who actually cared about the people of Colorado and to whom he could talk about issues important to Southwest Colorado. He thanked the attendees for their work in electing Democrats. Then, I spoke for a bit, talking about the challenges facing us in 2008, and how we are going to win the U.S. Senate race and send our 9 electoral votes to the next Democratic President.

The last speaker was Art Isgar, who gave a moving speech about how his birthday was coming up (I can’t remember how old he said he’d be — maybe 93?), and how being involved with the Democratic Party and living his life in La Plata County had been such a great part of his life. It was a truly touching moment.

By then, most everybody was done with lunch. The speaking was over. There was some light music playing, but the “program” had concluded.

And only then did it start to rain.

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On the way back to Canon City, we stopped by Treasure Falls on the western approach to Wolf Creek Pass. I’d been up there a couple of times before, but it was even better in the rain. If you ever find yourself going over Wolf Creek Pass, be sure to make some time for a quick hike up to see Treasure Falls. You won’t regret it!

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Last night, I headed up to Denver for our meeting of State Party officers. It was a very productive and interesting meeting. I won’t go into the details, because they are generally closed sessions, but I will tell you that February 5 is much closer than anybody really thinks, and we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us, both before and after that date. Furthermore, the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner will be a little earlier this year than in past years, so watch for an announcement from the State Party in the next few weeks (via e-mail) about the date and details on how to order your tickets. We’ve sold out of JJ tickets for the past few years, so you will want to get your tickets as soon as you get the announcement from the CDP.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 11:11 am and is filed under CDP, Counties. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.