On one of my last nights in Grand Junction, I drove the winding road to the Colorado National Monument to watch ET on the outdoor projector at Glade Park Store. I sat on a tarp with my cardigan wrapped around my knees, shivering. It was a relief when a nearby couple let me borrow their orange sleeping bag. (Hospitality like this is not uncommon in Grand Junction.) I smiled as I sat alternating my gaze between the clear starry sky, the film and the community of families – children nestled in blankets, passing kettle corn back and forth.

Driving back down the mountain, my mind was alive with the landscapes and people that shaped the MobileBooth West experience in Grand Junction. For the first time in my life I have an appreciation for hiking. The people here recognized the beautiful convenience of having the Colorado National Monument at their doorstep. Whenever I asked, “What should I do here?” to test sound at the beginning of the interviews, most people would simply say, “There is so much to see!”

Here is a sampling of some of the faces and landscapes that formed the StoryCorps team experience in Grand Junction:

Paula Anderson and Doris Butler have been friends now for over thirty years – both heavily involved in saving family farms and orchards in and around Grand Junction, Colorado.

Traveling through the neighboring towns of Grand Junction, you will notice several small orchards full of peaches and cherries. You might spot neat rows of vineyard in people’s backyards and at the very foot of the Grand Mesa.

In 1977, Paula rolled into town as the Citizen Participation Coordinator for a new planning initiative to save the farmland. Doris, a housewife and orchard owner, was living in the community at the time and opened her house to host the first organizing meeting, where Paula and Doris were able to plant the seeds of the future Mesa Land Trust.

The two women recalled the extraordinary vision and commitment that the East Orchard community embodied, remembering local meetings that often ran until 2 o’clock in the morning with passionate discourse.

Their conversation exemplified the pride you will find in Grand Junction and Palisade, Colorado – pride in their agriculture. Boasting a unique micro-climate in Western Colorado, the bounty of these communities can be tasted during the annual Palisade Peach Festival or the autumn’s Wine Tours of Grand Mesa.

In a growing American landscape of carbon-copied planning, Grand Junction and the Western Slope is an oasis of original local flavor, thanks to such community-minded neighbors like Paula and Doris.

When Misty found out she was pregnant, she bought the 1953 converted Chevy Short school bus for $500 and left Denver for the countryside. The bus had orange shag carpeting and lots of olive green. “It was ugly, but I saw potential,” Misty says with a nostalgic smirk.

She parked Buster on Gold Hill Road and turned the bus into a home. “There used to be a bed that took up half of it, two closets in the back, a desk, a small stove and a small sink area which had pipes that ran into a five gallon bucket to catch waste water. There was also an outhouse.”

The night Misty gave birth to Comfrey she was reading Dr. Seuss when her water broke. Comfrey’s father left the bus to bring the midwife in a hurry. Five minutes later they returned. It was too late. “There we were,” she says to Comfrey, “Standing there. I was shaking from head to toe, holding a baby that to my relief opened his mouth and screamed his head off. The dogs licked you clean.”

Since the birth, Misty and Comfrey have moved into a larger home on Highway 6. The bus now rests between a pick-up truck and a trampoline, a cozy respite for pregnant cats. “I will never sell the bus,” Misty says with certainty. “It runs fantastic. The engine is in perfect shape. It needs tires. It needs brakes. It needs a clutch.”

“Sometimes I sit in the driver’s seat to escape the chaos of the house,” says Comfrey. “I always had a vision that if I got a good band started with my friends, we would use it as a tour bus.” Misty welcomes this idea.

“How do you decide what goes on the radio?” “What an incredible job you have!” “Where do you go next?” “I have some great stories!” The room was filled with the exclamations and questions of curiously excited community members. Some of these were satisfied when Sara Esrick, our site supervisor, was introduced by KCFR News Host, Anna Panoka: “We are so excited to be in Grand Junction. People here have been so friendly!”

There were MobileBooth tours and good conversations about StoryCorps, Grand Junction and peaches. Yes, this area of Colorado is famous for its peaches. Peaches, stories and the Colorado Monument in our backyard: This is the life for MobileBooth West until August 23rd.