Here it is — the post I promised a couple of weeks ago to wrap up the events and happenings at the Cripple Creek Steem meetup — the Block Party!
I won’t trot out the excuse of being busy, although it’s true. It’s a life condition. But the fact is, sometimes when you have a truly powerful experience it is hard to write about it until you can look through memory’s lens. But I’ll save my thoughts on that until the end.
So what was this thing? Who was there, what happened, what did we do, see, talk about…?
The Block Party was sponsored by @thealliance and coordinated by the amazing, adorable, sweet-natured, caring, giving community builder @enginewitty — aka “Witty.” For those of you reading this who have not been exposed to the Steem blockchain, and the social media and content development apps built on it, just click on any user name in this post to learn more.
The people who gathered in Colorado are from here, there, and everywhere. Many but not all of us have met through Steem and Discord. It’s amazing to meet people face-to-face that you know but have never met! Some of us had actually met before in person. For example, @enginewitty and I have traveled to two past meetups, in Tennessee and Krakow, Poland. (You can read my reflections from SteemFest3 in Krakow here.)
With that introduction behind me, I’m going to share some of the happenings. It was such a spectacular experience. Huge hats off to @thealliance and all of the supporters who helped to make the trip a success. (You can read more about that here.)
Trip Start in Colorado Springs
After flying in to Denver, I met up with @enginewitty and we drove to Colorado Springs, stopping to visit an overlook on the way where we could see Pike’s Peak and watch glider planes soaring down to the US Airforce base. The views were incredible.
In Colorado Springs we connected with the fabulous @snook at an AirBnB. That first night I got to hang out with just @snook and @enginewitty. These are two people who love life and make me laugh. We had such a lovely time together.
I also took a nice walk from the AirBnB, and you can read my post about that here.
On to Cripple Creek
The three of us drove from Colorado Springs to Cripple Creek the next day. The drive and the views of the foothills and Rockies were amazing, and we drove through probably two or three weather systems along the way.
At last, we arrived! The town of Cripple Creek sits at a little over 9,000 feet. We all felt the effects of the elevation!
Settling in and rubbing elbows
We arrived at our accommodations for the weekend — a Victorian mansion set on a hill above the charming town of Cripple Creek.
The views from the porches surrounding the mansion were incredible.
But the interior was totally mind-blowing. Every room is gorgeously done in quaint furnishings and wallpaper. And every bedroom has its own fireplace!
The place is massive. I don’t know if anyone ever counted how many rooms there are. But there were living rooms and bedrooms everywhere. It could sleep quite a few people!
All that afternoon and evening, people arrived to join the festivities. We met, hugged, cooked together, dined together, played cards, walked, raised glasses, and got acquainted with those we had not yet met.
The first picture is of @mariannewest and @dreemsteem.
The next one includes (left to right) @michaeldavid, his adorable son, Liz (who is not active on Steem), @prettynicevideo, @dreemsteem and @snook.
I began to learn about the wildly varying experiences people have on Steem. Liz could not remember her Steem name but was an amazing part of the weekend. She spent a couple of days doing long hikes. Michael David is involved in a behind-the-scenes way and is not actively posting right now. @prettynicevideo, @dreemsteem and @snook have all built a really nice community and presence in different ways and are amazing women. I’ll touch on that later.
The next picture includes (left to right) @prettynicevideo, @ecoinstante and @ecoinstant (@snook‘s son), @dreemsteem, @bethvalverde, @davedickeyyall (tucked behind the column), @michaeldavid, and @enginewitty.
And the next picture includes (left to right) @bethvalverde, @mariannewest, @davedickeyyall, @rakkasan84, and @scarletreaper.
Strolling around town
I have never been to Cripple Creek before. It’s the most darling town, only about a mile long. I took quite a few walks on my own as well as with groups, with @mariannewest and with @bethvalverde.
I’ll share a few pictures here, but will need to do a #WednesdayWalk post or two another time because I have so many great pictures from strolling around.
Note: The pictures in this post do not appear in the order they were taken, but are grouped by happenings.
I love a town with a sense of humor! The jail museum was really cool. The town of Cripple Creek has quite a few casinos today, and some of the income goes toward preserving the historic nature of the town. Back in the day, it was a gold rush town, and there were brothels and derelicts and gun fights and the whole deal! Today, they honor the past and have some fun with it.
The downtown, as I said, is super charming. Even though there are casinos about every 20 feet, it has a small town historic charm.
There’s an old narrow gauge railroad, and people can go for rides on it. I intended to do that, but never got around to it!
They were celebrating Donkey Days while we were there, and there was a really nice downtown festival.
We made Witty kiss a donkey’s derriere!
The formal activities
Okay, back to the mansion and the Block Party activities! We had a number of educational sessions and fun activities over the course of the weekend.
SBI
We learned about @steembasicincome (SBI) from @ecoinstant (in person) and @josephsavage (skyped in). I am honestly wowed by this innovative model, designed to create a steady income for anyone, anywhere. Right now there are people with limited means who are sustaining themselves on SBI. When you gift SBI to someone, you both benefit. So it is a total win-win! Be sure to visit the @steembasicincome blog to learn about SBI and about all the great contests they are running.
As you can see in the picture below, we had a lot of information to digest from @josephsavage. That man has an incredible mind and is passionate about this project. We had our listening ears on!
Laugh yoga and freewriting
@mariannewest, the goddess of #freewrite and the @FreeWriteHouse on the Steem blockchain, ran a really fun session to get everyone relaxed and ready to write. We did some laugh yoga, which is super easy and absolutely as entertaining as it sounds. You can’t not relax and have fun. You can see a video of our laugh yoga session in action on @snook‘s blog.
After that, we were given a tablet and pen, a writing prompt and a few minutes to write. Everyone scribbled madly! At the end of that short stint, we were given a follow-on prompt and were told to continue our story.
What came out of this was a whole collection of wonderful stories! Nearly all of us took the opportunity to read our stories out loud. Some were knee-slapping funny, others charming, and some poignant and thought-provoking. Two of them made me cry.
The point of the #freewrite community is to get writing. The idea is to turn off your inner editor, stop fretting about what you’re going to write and just do it. Are these polished pieces at the end? No, of course not. But they are real, and from the heart, and they can even inspire the writer to take the story forward or continue to pull up memories from the past for journaling or writing a memoir. If not, minimally you have explored an idea, found words and inspiration inside yourself that you didn’t know were there. It’s a wonderful self-discovery tool!
Spunkee Monkee
@dreemsteem ran an activity to give an introduction to her wonderful Spunkee Monkee project, which is an enrichment program for kids that rewards them for taking care of themselves, the environment and the people in their life. You can read more in my post called What I learned about Spunkee Monkee and why it matters.
Here’s @dreemsteem modeling her pirate garb. She is such a lovely, inspiring person!
Here’s the audience view! I had Michael’s son take the picture and I forgot to tell him to take more than one, so unfortunately I look like I just ate a sour grape.
I’m not sure we were ever all in the same place at the same time! @ecoinstant and @ecoinstante were not there for this activity, but @crescendoofpeace (also pictured below) had arrived after a plane fiasco. So there was some coming and going throughout the weekend.
@dreemsteem‘s activity was to do a blindfolded treasure hunt and find paperclips in a bin of rice. It’s much harder than it sounds! It was so much fun.
Everyone had a turn! Some of us were more pirate-y than others, ha ha.
@dreemsteem is taking Spunkee Monkee to a new platform, so we wish her all the best!
Cool Vlogging Tools
In another activity, @prettynicevideo taught us about video editing with the Vlogit app. It was a blast and super informative, and we made a cute video for @snook in the process! I learned a ton. It’s a great app for someone like me who really does not know thing one about video.
Live “Pants are Optional” show
On the last evening, @snook pulled it all together with a wonderful wrap-up activity — a live (unrecorded) version of her “Pants are Optional” radio show. In the real show, it’s possible some people choose not to wear pants, but no one really knows. We all kept our pants on!
In classic form, @snook asked everyone a burning question that they had to answer. I wish I could remember some of the really funny ones, and the best answers. Mine was simple: Toilet paper over or under? Hello. Over!
Anyway, we all laughed so hard we just about peed our pants (which we were, in fact, wearing). It’s just a hoot what people will say when asked life questions.
Food, games and chit chat
There was so much more than I can cover fully here. In the mornings we went to a casino for breakfast, because it was included with our stay at the inn. We made meals together, played cards, gabbed late into the evening, and talked a lot about the Steem blockchain. This was one of the wonderful side benefits — the opportunity to learn from one another about the many different ways to be a part of this journey.
But wait, there’s more
After clean-up and emotional goodbyes, some of us went to see the Garden of the Gods, an area of red rock canyons where some rocks seem impossibly balanced. We roved and shopped in the little gift shop and then climbed up on the rocks and posed for one another.
From there we said more goodbyes, and then Witty, Dreemy and I set off for the Denver airport. The drive out was spectacular!
On the way, we had some wonderful wind-down conversation, and they introduced me to the world of silver trading. Uh-oh! Another thrilling diversion!
The most emotional good-byes were yet to come. Witty and I waited at Dreemy’s gate with her, and waved until she was out of sight. Then, saps that we are, we actually waited until her plane pulled away from the gate and taxied away too.
At last it was down to the original two! Witty and I had a nice dinner together and finally it was time for us to say goodbye too. I’m not sure about him, but I was feeling pretty emotional at this point.
All good things must come to an end
It was just really hard to say that last goodbye.
Sure, I was ready to get back home and see my family and get back into routine. But an experience like this is memorable and special and transformational in ways that are really hard to express. When you get together for a short time with people that have something tremendous in common, there is just an amazing kind of bonding that happens. The barriers to creating community are gone because you have an amazing common ground.
I was interested to hear that almost everyone said they had a few reservations about going to the Block Party. Would it be worth the time away from their tasks and to-do items? Would they be able to relate to the other other people there? To a person, everyone was thrilled they made the decision to be a part of it.
And I think, at the end of the day, that is one of the best take-aways. If you feel shy about facing something, maybe it’s a sign that you should. It might take you out of your comfort zone. Someone might make you do laugh yoga! But it’s okay. You’ll be a bigger person and a better person for it. And you’ll be proud of yourself for trying something new. You may even meet people and learn things that will change your life forever in ways you wouldn’t have previously dreamed.
Thanks so much again, @thealliance and @enginewitty, and all the supporters who made it happen. I will never forget my time in Cripple Creek. And I’m looking forward to next year!
