Dear Action Line: Last fall, while my wife and I were bicycling the Portuguese route of the Camino de Santiago, I stopped to get my bearings. I leaned my bike up against a utility pole and realized a sole sticker placed there was advertising all that downtown Durango had to offer. Are we now striving to attract tourists from Portugal? I could think of better places for the exposure. Perhaps covering the David statue’s you-know-what. – Over Exposed
Dear Over: Portugal, Italy, Azerbaijan, Mali, Guam – we take comers from all latitudes and longitudes. If you’re traveling and not putting these stickers everywhere you go, you need to look in the mirror and ask yourself whether you are a true Durangoan. Or maybe that should be “true Durangotang,” but we’ve covered that one before.
And if you aren’t slapping down stickers advertising downtown Durango, then hopefully you’re instead affixing decals from Devo, or Bubba’s Boards, or Ska, or the taquerias Nini’s or Zia. Just seems like the Durango thing to do.
About the Portuguese Way sighting, even the executive director of the Durango Business Improvement District was impressed.
“Wow, that sticker went a long way!” said BID’s Tim Walsworth.
Displaying a keen awareness of Action Line’s nod toward tongue-in-cheekness, as well as an aptitude for historical figures, he continued.
“In BID’s gigantic budget, there is room for me to travel internationally to put up stickers on random poles to attract visitors,” he said. “Portugal loves Durango, and we want them to come spend their money here, so what better place to start my worldwide stickering tour than the home of Vasco da Gama and Ferdinand Magellan.”
This is fascinating, but what most people apparently don’t know is that in 1519-21, Magellan the explorer carried with him “Visit Portugal” stickers that he intended to take to Durango. Alas, the voyage failed to navigate the waterways into the North American interior, and then Magellan went and died and didn’t tell anyone about the stickers.
Magellan’s ill-fated expedition did make it to the aforementioned Guam (for real), and left not only stickers but a bunch of rigging that the natives looted from the exhausted crew’s ships. (The part about Guam and the rigging is true – look it up.)
Walsworth then said he was kidding about his international tour, but did come up with a possible explanation.
“BID’s Downtown Ambassadors hand out those stickers to people visiting downtown Durango, and we also have a stack of them at the Durango Welcome Center,” he said. “As you know, Durango does receive a fair amount of international travelers. It’s likely someone visiting here from there picked up a sticker and then put it on that pole. BID does not encourage people to put our stickers on poles. Instead, we suggest putting it on your water bottle, laptop or your beer fridge. But it’s kind of cool that someone did!”
Dear Action Line: I’m wondering who owns the parking lot on North Main that has Durango Joes Coffee and parking spots for WeFill? There is a very convenient big blue U.S. Postal Service drive-up mailbox there. It is so much easier than using the mailbox downtown or at north City Market’s crowded lot. Years ago, the WeFill spot was a Postal Service outlet, which was incredibly convenient. We have adjusted to a mere P.O. box, but too often, some idiot is parked in front of the box, gabbing with people waiting in line to get coffee. Or a visiting RV is parked there. Can whoever owns the lot paint a big notice in the lane that says, “No Parking!” or “Read the Flow People!”? – PO'd Again
Dear PO’d: Wait, what’s this? The U.S. Postal Service is still in business?
Ha, Action Line kids. It better still be in business. Someone somewhere is snickering snidely because Action Line still prefers getting paper paychecks through the U.S. mail, the old-fashioned way; it’s much more satisfying than direct deposit.
With some sleuthing, Action Line was able to find and contact the lot’s owner, Patrick Dillon of Durango.
“We already have established parking spaces and access lane for the USPS drop-off box, which is placed there as a courtesy for area residents to drop off their mail,” Dillon said.
When the North Main post office contract station closed, “we asked the USPS to allow at least a drop-off box to help accommodate the many customers that used to go there. People parking in front of the post office box is rare, as we monitor the traffic flow regularly.”
He said he was sorry to hear about the problem, and that if there are continued complaints “we will look into it further.”
Email questions and suggestions to actionline@durangoherald.com or mail them (by USPS, of course) to Action Line, The Durango Herald, 1275 Main Ave., Durango, CO 81301. Note to the paper paycheck distributors: Action Line is willing to concede and convert to direct deposit. The calendar shows it’s almost closer to mid-21st century than early 21st century. It’s time.
