The Remains of the Days (and Nights)

It was like going to the frat house where the big party had been the night before.

I'm talking about the riverfront after the Folk Fest this weekend.

Sneaking up on the remains of it all by taking 14th Street to the pipeline walkway, I got behind a British couple who've been Richmond residents for three years now.

The paused to let me pass by, presuming I was moving at a faster pace than they were, but instead I stopped to chat with them, learning it was their first time on the pipeline. We gushed about the river views it afforded and the pleasures of rushing water so nearby.

Like me, they'd been to the Folk Fest, but had to leave after seeing only two bands because their kids were getting restless. Today the kids were at school and they were enjoying a leisurely hike.

When the subject of the weekend weather came up, they laughed it off as "English weather," something they were used to. Good for the complexion, that's how I like to look at it. I hadn't minded it a bit.

Since they'd never taken the pipeline up to Brown's Island, they followed me up to see where it came out and then headed back down to the riverfront.

Teams of workers were busy disassembling all the trappings of the Folk Fest on the island - collapsing tents, folding chairs -and while the Dominion Dance pavilion stage was gone, the big dance floor remained so I glided across it, alone on the expanse that had seen so many dancing feet (including my own) all weekend.

Passing a Segway tour group further on, I paused to listen to the guide's spiel, learning something I never knew about the Federal Reserve building: it's a 1/8 scale version of the World Trade Center.

How had I never heard (or noticed) that interesting fact?

Heading up Fifth Street, I turned off on Gary Gerloff Way where a worker was pulling up the protective strips that cover the countless extension cords that went to the nearby stage.

I waited until he drove his little golf cart away and then ran down the hill to the RTD stage and mounted it like I had a right to be there. I may have even taken a bow to the empty field while I was up there.

The way I see it, life is full of opportunities and it's my right to grab them when I see them.

Good for way more than the complexion.