Pagosa Springs Fly-in 2019
This years fly-in events featured a lot of opportunities for hot springs. The Pagosa Springs fly-in featured another opportunity to relax in the often hot mineral waters of the south central Colorado. A quick flight for most folks, we had some fly-in regulars and several CPA members joining us for their first time. The weather was absolutely perfect the entire weekend. Cool mornings warmed up to t-shirt weather by mid-morning.
After everyone arrived in Pagosa we stopped for some grub at the Malt Shoppe - and it is exactly as it sounds, a greasy spoon with massive twisting ice cream cones. After that everyone enjoyed a nice walk back to the hotel for a little R&R before the evening meal, oh and a quick soak in the springs at the hotel.
The meal we had wasn't too far from the Malt Shoppe at the Riff Raff on the Rio - which overlooked the Rio off the back deck. The food was excellent and if you ever get a chance to visit this establishment, do NOT miss the cheese curds with the honey glazed bacon bits/chipotle sauce. It is worth the trip down there JUST For that dish.
While there have been other fly-ins to Pagosa Springs over the years, this years even offered a first for any CPA event - horseback riding at a dude ranch! A large contingency of those on the weekend event mounted the horses provided where we went for about an hour ride through a valley just west of Pagosa Springs. The "dude" at the ranch, Dave hustled around and got everyone safely up on their horses, the entire ride was led by 10 year old Sophie. Yes, you read that right - TEN years old. She had been volunteering at the ranch all summer and had just learned to ride horses this year - but she clearly was already an old pro.
After the ride we enjoyed a picnic on the ranch site and headed back for another opportunity to relax and/or soak before the evening meal at the Alley House Grille. The weather continued to be perfect for the weekend as we enjoyed our meal on the deck under near-perfect conditions.
Now Pagosa certainly is a small mountain town community, but it is not lacking for the arts. Our evening entertainment was at the Thingamajig theater and their performance of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire". Now I do enjoy intimate theater event as they seem more personal and genuine, but small venues certainly can be hit or miss for the quality of the performance. In this case, Thingamajig is the real deal. The cast put on an outstanding performance. The music was all live and the vocals were top-notch. The show was every bit as good as anything you'd see in a major metropolitan area. I definitely would be looking to their next season for a quick weekend jaunt down there.
By fly-in standards we could not have asked for a better weekend. The reports about the flight home came in that the winds were smooth the entire way back to the metro area. The opportunity aviation provides us as pilots is one of the things I am most grateful for. Without aviation we wouldn't have the opportunity to come together in this way to share time together in such a special place. If you're reading this and you haven't joined in on a fly-in there is opportunity for one this weekend - and if you miss that, definitely be on the lookout for ones just like this coming next year.