Saturday, November 7, 2009

Nice Friday evening in Mancos

Don't have pictures (must still be sick in the head!), but last night was a neat night downtown. Early November is 'tween season ... it ain't summer, hunting's pretty much over, snow sports haven't begun (for the simple reason that there's no snow yet to sport on) and the holiday season is still ahead.

Yet we had a nice turnout for our reception at Artisans of Mancos for our two new artists ... they brought in folks who haven't been to Artisans before, or at least not recently. Arborena had a special showing of gorgeous Christmas decorations (I'm in Scooby's cage for not bringing home a $500 wreath that must be six feet across!) and free wine and delicious puu-puus. Raven House and Goodnight Trail galleries stayed open to support the evening, the Bakery was open for supper and the Columbine had music and other activities. Ian's Distillery (our "speak-easy," located off an alley behind Raven House) had music starting at 7, and it's becoming a Friday night regular for quite a crowd.

We encouraged our guests at Artisans to check out the other places and I could see that many of them did. The response of several of the people that I talked to was, "Wow! You've really got a lot going on in Mancos!" Bingo!

We've really been working on this since Spring, and I really believe it's paying off. We have a combination of places to eat and drink and shop that is attracting people from Cortez and Dolores and even from Durango and Farmington. Mancos on the Move!

The joy I feel in this is, for the first time in the almost-21 years I've been here, folks are working together! There's been times in the past when throat-cutting seemed to be the rule of the day. Now, folks realize that we need to work together, we need to support each other and we need to market to what someone last night called the "near-bys" - regional customers - in order for us all to prosper in the long run. And it's working!

And it's a beautiful morning ... one on which we both had the same thought in our minds, "breakfast at the Bakery." Bye! tv

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