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 How does a family from Pasadena, California end up owning a bar in Parshall, Colorado? Easy: go on a fabulous summer vacation to one of the premiere dude ranches in the area, the Bar Lazy J, and then go for a drive. It all started rather innocently, on a beautiful summer afternoon after a morning horse back ride over the hills and dales in the Arapahoe National Forest.
We thought we would give the legs a rest and explore the town of Parshall which is just up the road a piece from the Bar Lazy J. Parshall is a small town of 60 people which is sandwiched between the Colorado River and Hwy 40. It didn’t take us long to explore this charming town of five blocks, complete with dirt roads (a taste of the Wild West) a Post Office, and the General Store, owned by the famous Miss Dorothy. As we turned right onto 1st Street, there was the Parshall Inn (P.I.) with a for sale sign in the window. Now, we knew of this old watering hole as Jerry & Cheri, the owners of the Bar Lazy J, told us about it and how it was a great place for a cold beer and a good burger. What caught my eye was the “for sale” sign. Having been married to Jim for 18 years, I knew of his secret “boy will be boys” desire of owning a bar. I think it was because he and I spent so many years enjoying the front side of bars sipping on our Tanquery and tonics throughout Pasadena. Also, don’t most guys have that silly pipe dream of owning their own bar? So, as a good supportive wife I said, “Oh look honey, there is your dream come true. This place is for sale”. I was kidding, but it didn’t take Jim much encouragement to jump out of the car and go inside and check it out. We had that “cold beer” and talked to Toby, the owner.
I will fast forward through the details, dramas and sleepless nights, not to mention shocked family members and long time friends when we told them of our plans to move to Colorado. Six months later, we sold our beautiful and cherished home in Pasadena, pulled our nine year old daughter, Jessica, out of her beloved elementary school, rented a home in Granby (a town 15 miles west of Parshall), moved and stored all of our furniture, threw the dog in the car and headed east in the dead of winter at the end of December, 2005.
Why you ask? The first and most important reason was economics – with other reasons that fell into place later. Jim had a successful career in banking, and then in investment counseling for 30 years. Like most professions, the investment counseling industry has its cycles. After a long downward cycle in the early 2000’s, (remember the dot-com stock market crash?!) Jim found himself out of a job and came home early on a Friday afternoon in October of 2003 and said, “Honey, I will have a lot more free time on my hands”. Thinking his wisdom, experience, and yes, the grey hair, would help him land another job by February of 2004, we thought what a nice “sabbatical”. Ha! It didn’t happen. I guess he had too much grey hair and experience and no one wanted to pay for it. The months turned into a year and half and we became a little concerned about how we would maintain our lovely lifestyle in Pasadena. We couldn’t stay in Pasadena and enjoy ourselves. So why not move to Colorado? Reason number one.
The other reasons that unfolded were that it was time for a life-style change and the desire to try a new adventure. Pasadena is wonderful – but a city. Granby and Parshall are in the mountains with the surrounding beauty of the Continental Divide, the Colorado River and miles of breathtaking wilderness outside our front door. So we exchanged a big city for one that has a population of 1,500, smog for clean air, traffic jams for country roads where more than five cars at a time is a traffic jam, two seasons for four, gardeners and pool boys for snow plows and shovels, and finally not worrying about the preverbal ax falling at someone else’s whim for taking our own careers into our own hands.
A year later, Jessica has forgiven us for uprooting her and “ruining” her life as she stays busy skiing, dancing, horseback riding, river rafting, snowmobiling and going to the local rodeos and working at the Bar Lazy J in the summer. Stacy, our oldest daughter who was with us on our fateful vacation and had thought we had fallen off the bar stools the wrong way, has accepted our lifestyle change. She actually enjoys the Colorado vacations and welcomes the “rustic and simple” change from her hustle and bustle life in London. My 82 year old mother has joined us and is living in her own home three miles away and loving her new life and being closer to Jessica. Our dear and missed Southern California friends now have a warm bed and a cold beer when they want to experience the beauties of Grand County.
So we are living the combined television dreams of “Cheers”, “Green Acres”, “The Bob Newhart Show” and more recently “Men in Trees” in Parshall Colorado. We are grateful and blessed to be here, and it seemed to be the right turn to make on our bumpy road of life.
Please stop by for that “great cold beer and burger” and a lot more. We are so glad Lew (See History by Lew) and our other local and loyal customers have embraced us, and that the front door cow bell keeps on ringing. More pie anyone?
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