Denver, CO
I moved from Denver to Portland, Oregon, alone and broke. I struggled for years to adjust and make it feel like home.
- I moved to Portland, Oregon, from the west edge of Denver for mostly practical reasons.
- My rent was lower, but I missed my friends and struggled to adjust to the wet weather.
- I realized I had to put in years of work to feel at home in the Pacific Northwest.
In 2017, when I was 66 years old, I moved to Portland, Oregon, after 40 years in Colorado.
My stream of income had ended abruptly, I was having issues with my landlord, and I was tired of almost nonstop snow and sunshine.
Plus, my brother and his wife offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse: low rent in an apartment building they owned in Portland. They promised to update the unit and give me a lifelong lease.
The move made sense for me financially and practically, but it wasn’t easy emotionally.
It took a lot of effort, eight years, and multiple trips back to Denver to convince me I’d stay in Portland for the long haul.
The first few years of living in Portland were especially difficult — I had to push myself to establish connections
I physically and emotionally struggled to adjust after the move.
Even my curly hair, manageable in Colorado, was out of control in the Portland humidity. It didn’t know how to adjust.
For the first few years, I felt depressed by the city’s cloudy, cold, and wet winter weather. I felt like I could never get warm.
Although I thought I’d be prepared for less sunshine, I ended up buying a Seasonal Affective Disorder lamp, purchasing “mood” supplements, and taking Vitamin D (“the sunshine vitamin”) daily to cope with the season.
I also underestimated how difficult it would be to start over in a new community without roots, especially since the only friends I had nearby was my brother.
Eventually, I began pushing myself to connect with my surroundings instead of just surviving in them.
I started a local chapter of the national writers’ organization I belonged to. I took a part-time job so I could meet people, attended networking gatherings, and met my neighbors on daily walks.
I also began discovering new favorite spots, like Portland’s wine country about 30 minutes away. I drove there often, which helped me missed my Colorado mountain views a little bit less.
Plus, I found a curly-hair specialist and began making appointments.
After 8 years, and several trips back to Denver, Portland feels like home
jose1983/Getty Images
Since I moved, I’ve made several trips back to Colorado, and each seems to reaffirm my decision to leave.
When I visit Denver, my skin is no longer used to the dry weather. Big-box stores have replaced many of my favorite small shops and old friends and sisters who were once my neighbors have scattered geographically.
The last time I returned from Denver was in June. I still remember the refreshing feeling of leaving its 90-degree weather and walking out of the Portland airport to the welcoming chill of 60 degrees.
On my way home, I picked up groceries from the local market, where I now know people by name. I visited my naturopath, who has become my confidante in the eight years I’ve been here, and made plans to meet up with a now-good friend over lunch.
What I had missed about Denver I have now found here — I needed only to see it.
My social circles and friendships have been going strong. The city’s winter weather no longer depresses me and I finally have money in the bank and feel financially secure.
When I first moved to Portland, my therapist, who specializes in relocations, told me it would take eight years to feel at home here. She was right.
Now, instead of pining for the past, I see what is before and what is ahead. I’m here to stay.
New Denver Broncos tight end Justin Joly posted his first message to Broncos fans after being selected 152nd overall in the fifth round of the 2026 NFL draft on Saturday.
Joly (6-3, 241 pounds), a sure-handed receiving tight end will join Evan Engram, Adam Trautman, Lucas Krull and 2025 seventh-round pick Caleb Lohner ahead of team activities in May, and training camp in July. Joly has the ability to fight through contact to make a contested catch, but has average speed, and needs to develop as a blocker.
Joly sent a message to fans shortly after being drafted. “Job not finished let’s do it ya,” tweeted Joly.
Joly joins a loaded Broncos roster which fell four points short of a Super Bowl appearance, and is poised to go even further in 2026.
Welcome to Denver, Justin! We’re glad to have you.
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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton and general manager George Paton have spent dozens of drafts inside team headquarters during their respective decades-long careers in the NFL.
They have rarely waited so long to get in on the action.
The Broncos on Friday selected Texas A&M defensive tackle Tyler Onyedim with the 66th pick. That came at the top of the third round, after the Broncos acquired a sixth-round pick from the Bills to hop back from the 62nd spot. The result was that the Broncos, for only the third time in franchise history, did not make a first- or second-round pick during a draft.
“It fell like we thought it would,” Paton said.
The Broncos never felt the urge to dart up the board in search of an instant upgrade. It was the continuation of a message the Broncos have sent to members of their roster this offseason, a group that finished 4 points shy of a trip to the Super Bowl. Denver may not travel the same path in their championship quest this season, but it’ll largely be bringing the same cast on the journey.
Denver has added exactly one veteran free agent since the new league year began in March: Tycen Anderson, a part-time safety and full-time special teamer. The Broncos on Friday became the only team in the league to end Day 2 having made only a single pick.
There was the major splash, of course, that brought dynamic wide receiver Jaylen Waddle to Denver. Can you imagine the pitchforks that would be out in the Mile High City if Waddle hadn’t penguin-danced into town back in March?
“Yesterday, that was a boring day,” Paton said of the draft’s opening round Thursday. “But we forget that we did trade (their first-round pick) for one of the better receivers in the league, so it was a good day.”
Go ahead and scan the initial 53-man roster the Broncos put together last fall, the one that embarked upon a journey that ended with the AFC’s No. 1 seed. A conservative projection right now could point to somewhere between around 43 and 45 of those same players being on the roster that Payton and Paton put together ahead of their 2026 season opener in September. Open starting spots on this roster? They are in short supply. The foundation is largely set.
Quietly, though, the Broncos have set themselves up for a substantial Saturday. The trade with Buffalo pushed Denver’s total of Day 3 picks to seven. The work they do with that capital will be critical to Denver’s quest to ensure its status as title contenders becomes an annual occurrence for the foreseeable future. A massive contract for quarterback Bo Nix looms, but that’s an anchor only if the Broncos can’t continue to reinforce critical rotational spots on their roster through the draft.
And that doesn’t have to come, Paton said, with the glitzy Day 1 and Day 2 selections that garner all the headlines.
“As we go through our discussions, these two fourth-round picks will define our draft,” Paton said. “We should, if we’re doing our job, hit on the second-round (pick), now third. It’s really the middle-round picks that define your draft. We’re looking for young developmental backups with traits that we can develop.”
Onyedim fits that description. After four years at Iowa State, where he played one season with current Broncos defensive lineman Eyioma Uwazurike, Onyedim transferred to Texas A&M in 2025 and put together his best season. Importantly, the scheme at Texas A&M under defensive coordinator Mike Elko showcased his ability as a one-gap interior pass rusher.
“That defensive scheme sometimes, that’s one of the challenges to projecting (a defensive lineman),” Payton said. “The importance of him at the A&M exposure, you got to see a guy play a different position or technique. I think that probably helped a lot of teams (with Onyedim’s evaluation), not just us.”
Uwazurike produced his best season with the Broncos in 2025, his third in the NFL. He’ll enter the final year of his contract this season while playing alongside Onyedim and Sai’vion Jones, the second-year player whom Denver selected out of LSU in the third round last year. The Broncos lost John Franklin-Myers in free agency after he produced 14 1/2 sacks the past two seasons, but the Broncos are taking a developmental approach in replacing his production, while planning to lean more on freshly extended veteran Malcolm Roach.
It’s not a flashy process, but it’s one, extrapolated at positions across the roster, that explains how the Broncos have steadily risen from a five-win outfit the year before Payton arrived in 2022 to a team that ended Kansas City’s near-decade run atop the AFC West.
“The reason why we’ve been so good the last couple of years is because of our depth, and where you get that depth is the third day,” Paton said. “They may be backups in Year 1 like (outside linebacker) Nik Bonitto or (cornerback) Riley Moss, and then in Year 2, if you hit on them, maybe you get a starter or a key contributor. That is what we are looking for on Day 3.”
Bonitto (a late second-round pick in 2022) and Moss (third round in 2023) were actually Day 2 selections, but the Broncos have found other impact pieces on the draft’s final day since Paton became the team’s general manager in 2021. Edge rusher Jonathon Cooper, center Luke Wattenberg, offensive lineman Alex Forsyth, safety and special teams ace JL Skinner, wide receiver Troy Franklin and Uwazurike are all starters or rotational contributors taken in the fourth round or later. The Broncos drafted wide receiver Devaughn Vele in the seventh round in 2024 and were then able to flip him for one of the fourth-round picks they have in this draft in a trade with the Saints last August.
The reality is that good teams with complete rosters are rarely the most buzzy teams during the NFL Draft or the offseason writ large. The Broncos have embodied that truth to the highest degree in the months since their special season ended on the doorstep of a Super Bowl appearance.
Saturday could nonetheless prove to be a pivotal day for the Broncos. The pieces they need to make a championship run in 2026 are in place. But making similar chases in the seasons to follow demands that they hit the defining Day 3 picks ahead.
“We feel good about where we are at, and we feel really good about the day,” Paton said. “We feel good about the first day (of the draft). We got Waddle. Then, we got (Onyedim), who we really like. (Saturday), we’re going to have a good day.”
The last time the Broncos didn’t make a first- or second-round pick in a draft was 1995. A player they did pick? Running back Terrell Davis.
No pressure, George.
Denver, CO
Denver police still looking for help solving double murder at American Elm restaurant 3 years ago
Police in Denver sent out a reminder on Friday that they are still looking for the public’s help trying to solve a double murder that sent shockwaves through the city’s food-service industry.
Emerall Vaughn-Dahler and Ignacio Gutierrez Morales were killed three years ago to the day — on April 24, 2023.
The crime was committed at the American Elm restaurant in the city’s West Highlands neighborhood.
Both people were employees there and were fatally shot at the restaurant in the late part of the morning.
Morales was a 58-year-old prep cook at the restaurant whose nickname was “Nacho.” He had three grown children. His family said after his death that he had a kind and gentle spirit and that they couldn’t think of anyone who would have wanted to harm him.
Vaughn-Dahler, 34, worked as a general manager at the restaurant. She was married with a 12-year-old son. Her husband Andrew Dahler told CBS Colorado when he learned she had been killed, he was devastated and “didn’t want it to be real.”
“Three years have passed, and their killer has still not been identified. The families of Emerall and Ignacio continue to live with unimaginable loss and are still searching, still hoping, and still asking for answers,” Denver police wrote in a Metro Denver Crime Stoppers bulletin.
The reward for information provided to authorities that leads to an arrest is as high as $32,600. Anyone who might have seen something suspicious on the 4100 block of West 38th Avenue between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. pm April 24, 2023, is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at (720) 913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous.
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