I’m not a shopper. When I need something, I order it from Amazon.
My wife, Dianne, on the other hand loves to browse small town shops. Turn her loose on a mountain town Main Street and she darts around like a dog in a fire hydrant factory, sniffing out stores to explore. Obediently leashed along, I’ve discovered a myriad of creative peddlers proffering interesting products.
Ouray
On a trip down the San Juan Skyway, she led me into the Gator Emporium (608 Main St.), a shop vending everything from beads to imported African carvings and masks. I offered to buy her a furry skunk cap whose vertical stripe, I argued, would make her head look thinner. She thought the idea stunk.
Up the street at Mountain Fever (644 Main St.), Dianne checked out some cute battery-operated dogs that appear to breathe while sleeping. I found T-shirts displaying male-centric maxims such as “Half of all emergency room visits begin with the phrase, ‘Hey guys, watch this!’ ”
We departed with two dogs, no shirts.
Aspen
Aspen can be a shopper’s delight, at least for bargain-hunting one percenters. We passed a store offering $198 women’s jeans for a mere $99, and at a local fur shop, Dianne tried on a $45,000 sable jacket on sale for $18,900. She suggested it would make a nice gift.
“I’ll go eat somewhere and you can surprise me,” Dianne offered.
I preferred the Autograph Source (525 E Cooper Ave.) store, which displays everything from musical instruments to sports memorabilia signed by the stars, including helmets and jerseys autographed by quarterback Tim Tebow.
“Tebow was one of the best-selling guys I’ve ever had,” admitted owner Rick Schultz. “Remember, he won all those games and took us deep in the playoffs. He was the hot guy.”
So easily we forget.
Gunnison
On our way toward Kebler Pass, we stopped for lunch in downtown Gunnison. Between parking and paninis, we passed the Castle Creek Guitar Company (132 N Main St.), home of the Dobrato. These Dobro-like electric guitars have a shiny metal resonator plate dominating their bodies.
“It was my concept to put a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece on a resonator guitar,” explained owner Kent Viles.
Purchasers include Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Michael Martin Murphey and Jimmy Buffett. Even though I’m a musical Neanderthal, I wanted one too.
“I’ll go eat somewhere and you can surprise me,” I suggested to my honey.
Buena Vista
Heading for Cottonwood Pass, we stopped for lunch at the Eddyline on South Main in Buena Vista. Across the street sits Sundance and Friends (1111 Riverpark Road), where Dianne bought a pair of leather and sheepskin slippers handcrafted in the out-of-the-way Colorado town of Guffey.
Before heading up, we stopped at the Book Nook (127 S San Juan Ave.), which is my kind of store. The shop, which occupies an old house, sits stuffed with books, arts and crafts. Best of all, they served free cookies in the kitchen. Now that’s something I don’t ever recall finding at Barnes & Noble.
Estes Park
On a restaurant search in Estes Park one time, Dianne and I ran across Big Red of the Rockies (460 E Elkhorn Ave.), one of the most seemingly out-of-place stores around. Located just 30 miles from the University of Colorado, it sells nothing but Nebraska Cornhusker paraphernalia. I had to ask why it’s there.
“That question is asked 20 times a day,” smiled the clerk. “Estes Park has always been an escape for Nebraskans. It’s a Nebraska vacation place.”
As staunch Colorado football fans, we once defined level-10 pain as watching our Buffs annually get shucked by the Huskers.
We left without buying a thing.
