A Zany Dart/Poker run
Sunday was ABATE of Colorado - District 17's Dart/Poker run. Now, maybe you have been to a dart/poker run before and know what it is. I hadn't, and didn't. But now I do ... and I hope more people do poker runs like this one! It was a blast.
We started out at the VFW south of Hwy 285 in Englewood. I was handed some darts, and shown the spot on the floor where my behind couldn't be in front of. My behind? Yeah, I had to lay on the floor, and throw the dart at the piece of cardboard that had all 52 cards stapled to it. I didn't think I'd even hit the board! But I did, and struck an insignificant card. The nothing-of-clubs was scribbled onto my paper, and I socialized a bit, meeting several new people.
Another woman, Jeanette, said she was there alone too, so we decided to hang together for the day. As it was, a big crowd of bikes left the VFW and headed west on 285. I'm not used to riding in big groups, still! One or two other riders is more the norm for me. It took me a while to get the hang of the group thing again, but finally I relaxed enough to take in the scenery.
Hwy 285 passes through some dense city, but eventually the land opens up to bare farmland, and I was happy to see a herd of horses to one side of the road, foothills in front of me, and bare fields to the left. Of course, at this time of year, the fields are a uniformly- bland tan speckled with white dots of fading snow .. but it's still pretty, in a stark sort of way.
We hopped off of 285, grabbed C-470 south for just a short way, and exited at Quincy. Right close to the freeway is Shipwrecks, a bar. I never went inside, because the dart/poker thing was out in the parking lot. Why in the parking lot? Because we weren't using darts. We were using spears!
I had never thrown a spear before. It's a wondrous day when you can go for a motorcycle ride in November in 60 degrees (amazing in itself in Colorado), AND do something completely new and different. My first toss was pretty lame, and I didn't even hit the big cardboard box that the cards were stapled to. My next toss was pretty lame, too. I hit the box, but the spear bounced off. Finally, my third try, I hit a card. Actually, I think I hit just kind of close to the card, but the guy probably felt sorry for me. *grin*
The record of another lousy card got scribbled onto my paper, and I hung around a bit to watch Jeanette do her tosses. She did okay, after a few tosses that went a bit wild. We watched for a bit more, then headed to the next stop.
The day's route was all major roads, since the organizers didn't have a clue what the weather would be. Generally, even if it snows here in Colorado, by the next day or two, the major roads are dry and clear, courtesy of the brilliant sun that burns down most of the winter. We didn't need the sun to clear away snow today, but it sure felt nice warming my leather jacket while we were cruising along the freeway at 65mph.
We got back onto C-470, and curved around the southwest corner of the metro area. This part of the region is still undeveloped for the most part, so again I was treated to views of empty fields and rolling hills. Finally, we were back in the city again, and sidetracked up Santa Fe Blvd. to the Platte River Inn. Again, I didn't go inside, just did my dart/poker thing out in the parking lot.
Why the parking lot? Nope, no spears this time. We had a bow and arrows! I was given a quick lesson in how to hold the gadgets, let loose my first arrow, and it went wild. My second arrow bounced off the box. I was advised to pull the string back farther, and to kneel down, so I did. Amazing! It worked! I got another insignificant card.
Jeanette and I watched the other competitors for a while. The guy running this stop had some interesting rules. After three trys, if you couldn't hit any card, you automatically got the "dummy card", a three of diamonds. If you hit in a blank spot, you got any one of the surrounding cards that you desired. There were a few other strange rules that I don't remember. But I do remember chorusing in astonishment, "THOSE are the rules???" with several other people, several times.
Once again, we hopped onto our trusty steeds and galloped off into the ... er, wrong story. We hopped onto our trusty motorcycles and sedately putted southwards. Other folks hopped onto their trusty steeds and blasted southwards, but I guess we're a bit more mellow than that. We caught C-470 eastward again, to I25 south, to Lincoln, took that eastward. And east, and east, and east, and east more!
The directions had said to go to Parker Road. We passed West Parker Road, a little drab road that looked like it went nowhere. Now, I'm not familiar at all with this corner of the metro area, but I knew just from the morning traffic reports that Parker Road was a BIG road. So I rode along thinking, "Maybe that's West Parker as in, there's a town called West Parker, and that's the road that comes from it. And doesn't Parker go north/south, anyway? Hmmm..."
We contined heading east, and finally ended up at a road that was indeed very big. Meanwhile, we traveled through what used to be countryside, fairly recently. There were new houses and businesses everywhere, with "Grand Opening" signs every few blocks. This part of the region is growing very quickly. It's a shame in that the unique beauty of the region is being destroyed. But I guess it's good for the greedy capitalists in all of us. (*sigh*)
We turned north on Parker Road, and quickly came upon our next stop, Buffalo Boyd's. This time, there were no spears or arrows in the parking lot, so we went inside. I grabbed a Sprite, and looked around the walls for any dart boards. None were to be found. Finally, I asked someone where the darts were. He pointed to the corner, and said, "On the floor behind the pool table."
On the floor? Behind the pool table?? I checked it out. We were to stand on one side of the pool table, toss the dart up and over the lamp that hangs over the table, and (we hoped) it would land on a good card on the coardboard on the floor on the other side.
Mine didn't. After several tries, I finally managed to hit the board, and got yet another insignificant card, that would have been great (I was on a clubs roll) except for the non-clubs card I'd received somewhere else. Oh well. We chatted a while, finished our drinks, and made our way to the final stop.
I'm glad I don't drive Parker Road every day. It's a nice, wide road, with a spectacular view. I could see the entire Front Range from north north of Rocky Mtn National Park to - I think it was probably Pike's Peak. The mountains were gorgeous, all snow-covered and sparkly in the clear air. But it has a downside.
I was really having a rough time dealing with the traffic. The road has a 55mph speed limit, which seems crazy because there are frequent stoplights and constant driveways that lead from shopping centers. In addition, the traffic was really heavy, and there was a crazed driver to our left, absolutely insistent that she get into our lane, right where Jeanette was occupying it. Finally, the driver darted forward and yanked her wheel to the right to force her way into the lane in front of Jeanette. Idiot! Double idiot, because the lane slowed down, and she yanked herself out of our lane, and into the left lane again.
I tried to practice my MSF skills in a spirit of mellowness, while self-talking calming words and keeping my senses alert. The new-agey stuff worked a little bit, but I was still muttering invectives about the woman in a gold sedan driving north on Parker Rd. at about 1:30pm on Sunday, November 28th, are you out there reading the Internet, lady??? If so, mellow out!!
Okay, that's out of my system.
Our final stop was Pappy's Road House, a really cool bar/restaurant on Parker Road just north of Yale. The owner showed us a really great time, donating food and door prizes. The dart challenge this time was to hold a dart in each hand, and toss them at two separate boards that were about four feet apart. The card we got was the better card of the two that got hit. Or, in my case, it was the _one_ card that got hit. The other dart landed on the floor, I think. Once again, it was a boring card.
We ate, we drank, we talked, we laughed. I chatted with a cool-looking guy who turned out to be a bit too insistent that having a few beers made for better traffic skills, because it took away that paranoia about the other drivers at intersections. Uh... yeah, right. I'll stick with Sprite and paranoia.
We finally got around to the door prizes, 50/50 and poker prizes. Of course I didn't have a good hand. I didn't even have the worst hand. But I did win a door prize, which was pretty cool. And then, since sunset comes early at this time of year, I had to head home. From the southeast corner of the metro area, it's about an hour's drive home for me, and the sun was sinking quickly. I put on my warm stuff and took off.
The interstate traffic wasn't that bad, which was surprising for the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I made it almost all the way home before the sun disappeared behind the mountains. Then it got _very_ cold. I could have stopped to put on another layer, but figured that I was so close to home, I'd just tough it out. Brrrr!
All in all, it was a fabulous day. I rode about 125 miles, met some really nice people, enjoyed the sunshine, and all in late November. What a deal!
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copyright 1999 Amanda Hargis, [email protected]