A Shithole Called Salida

A few weeks ago, I was camping in the Sawatch Range of the Rockies - a bit south of Buena Vista and the favored Collegiate Peaks. After a 14er summit of Mt. Shavano, I was beat. My friends and I headed to the nearest source of mega-protein in the closest place we could find - the "shithole" town of Salida. "We better find a burger joint in this dump of a town." We all thought aloud. Yuck, Salida. Middle of nowhere, probably a ghetto, with a gas station Wendy's at best.

How wrong we were.

My friends continued on to watch a bat migration, but I was too tired to hike anymore after dinner. I stated I'd just hole up at a coffee shop and read a book because my legs felt broken. I started walking around Salida aimlessly, meandering up and down the main street. And I found out that Salida, Colorado, is an incredible, artsy, unique, hidden gem.

I chastised myself for ever letting myself do what I criticize others for doing to my homestate - making baseless presumptions based on the fact that it's not a major metropolis or that "nobody's ever heard of it." You see, the cliche phrases, "Assuming makes an ass out of you and me" and "Perception is reality" hold valuable truths. Assuming also makes you skip over places because you've heard lame things about it, assuming blinds you, assuming creates bias.

Salida is such a great place that I almost didn't want to share it. It has a gazillion art galleries, funky coffee shops, beer gardens where patrons wear viking hats complete with fur and horns. There are incredible thrift stores (where I snagged a $2 vintage bowling shirt and a skirt with a watercolor picture of Venice on it), cheap, hearty eats, flowers on every street corner, and old, painted works on brick buildings. Someone even made art out of old kayaks. Pictured: Salida's old town charm.

This happened to me when I went to South America. People that had never been there flipped absolute shit, because they were basing their judgment on other people's full blown, retarded assumptions. And this has happened my whole life with regard to my homestate of Kansas. "So boring, so flat, so ugly, full of fat people." Even about Colorado, "But it's so cold there."

When you repeat a statement that is based on someone else's repeated opinion, you look like a moron. A great alternative is exploring the option, experience, city, job, whatever it might be on your own, and deciding for yourself. When I visited my girlfriend in Baltimore a year and some change ago, I was expecting the best, because she had prepped me for it. Still, I heard lots of, "Going to Baltimore? Why?" I'll tell you why - because it's a fantastic city with delicious soul food, incredible, white-washed stone history, and cherry blossoms galore in the springtime.

Finding beauty and wonder in places that are not-so-obvious is like opening a surprise present someone gave you just for being awesome. Kansas is a fantastic place, with endless plains, gorgeous, heaven high cumulonimbus clouds, painted-pink sunsets, limitless lightning bugs in June, the best BBQ on planet Earth, and pieces of cottonwood tree fuzz that dance lazily in the breeze. And Salida is a funky mountain town in the heart of the Rockies, with easy access to Monarch skiing resort, world class kayaking, and 14ers-a-plenty. And Baltimore has a unique character - including larger than life pink flamingos in Hampden and the best crab cakes you've ever feasted on.

Don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself. Create your own perception. Don't assume a place is horribly scary, lacks character, or is boring until you've seen for yourself. You just might find yourself with an opportunity to check out a place like Salida, or Wichita, or Baltimore, or some nameless place that holds wonders that you'll only discover with an open mind. Perception is reality. How tainted is yours?