The Rockies beckon
My August 2004 cross-country trip now takes me through Colorado. Onward...
Our stay in Salina, Utah was uneventful outside of weather which was interesting. It was humid as hell and there seemed to be heavy weather blowing in, a rainstorm that never happened but would have been welcome as far as I was concerned. I was happy just to sit in the comfort of our air conditioned room in my underwear watching The Olympics. Swimmers and gymnasts, swimmers and gymnasts. Good God, bring on the track and field already! At least I can understand a horse race. Well, I guess there's something there for everyone so vive la difference.
Utah isn't really my cup of tea. There's no denying the intrinsic beauty of the state, but I need greenery and there's little to be found here. I do remember being fascinated with Utah's rock formations on another cross country drive as a kid 40 years ago. Anything of a scientific nature interested me and I liked learning about geology. Such a long time ago, am I really that same person or have I molted my skin so many times that I've become unrecognizable? I still retain my childhood love of scientific endeavors so I guess there's something left of that little person here. But where did that world go? A world of Ipana toothpaste, Ed Sullivan, Sean Connery as James Bond, my favorite TV shows...The Outer limits and The Twilight Zone, The Beatles, TV dinners, the Vietnam War and the never healing wound of JFK's assasination. How distant and remote we seem to be from those times yet I can conjure them up instantly so perhaps they're not lost at all. See what happens when I recollect a childhood memory? I have to make a huge thing about where time goes and why can't we get it back? Anyway...Utah. I don't want to live there unless they bring back the multiple wives thing. And I need someplace that's got a touch of the Old World to it and this isn't the place. I hope they don't take it personally, I've different tastes these days.
I ended up going to bed around 11:00 PM, thankful that we made so much mileage on almost zero sleep from the day before. Any sleep we do get tonight will be far more than we had the previous night, bring it on.
I awoke at 2:45AM and decided to hit the road. After packing up the car and checking out we managed to get going at 3:20, heading for Green River and the Colorado border that followed. When we made the border of Colorado I was pleasantly reminded why John Denver liked it here. The terrain was gorgeous. Trees, grass and flowing streams, This is more like it! It was a touch cooler too, no problem there. About 20 miles into the state I stopped for breakfast at a town called Parachute, yes, Parachute, Colorado. I had my usual sausage and eggs at Outlaws Restaurant and shared the leftovers once again with my big furry friend. I made it my goal to at least make it over the border to Kansas so we had to get going. We pressed onward and soon got into even greener and more magnificent terrain. I can see why people love Colorado, it has so much to offer in the way of natural beauty. I can honestly say that I wouldn't mind living there which is saying alot because I naturally tend to favor older cultures over newer western ones. But Colorado is beautiful enough to overcome such quibbles.
I remember gazing wistfully at the exit sign off of I70 for Aspen, I had been talking to a gal I knew who was a costumer for a theatre company the week earlier and even though she was working on a show there in Aspen and even though she was heading into dress rehearsal week she still wanted to find some time where we could meet up in Aspen and have lunch. I nixed the idea as I really needed to get going and besides, I had Jackson with me and trying to eat fast so I could get him out of the car didn't seem too appealing. So I drove right on by the Aspen exit, we'll get together in NYC one of these days. We stopped for gas a little beyond the Vale Summit and while there at the gas station I walked Jackson around a bit. He got to wade into the nice clear water of the Colorado River which was flowing right behind the gas station where we were at. He waded around and drank from the flowing water which was barely a foot deep at its deepest point here. Just good enough to get one's feet wet. We set out for Denver, hoping to make good enough time to reach Kansas. It took about 20 minutes to get through most of Denver, big city that it is. We emergered on the eastern side of Denver and something amazing happened within 5 miles of the outskirts. The landscape changed dramatically, gone were the mountains, trees and streams. Now there were just grassy fields stretching to infinity. What the hell is up with this? We had another 135 miles to Kansas, why was it starting so early? Would I be able to take the infinite boredom of watching these endlessly empty fields for the next 350 miles? Jeeeeeeeesus.
We traverssed 15 miles into Kansas to a town called Goodland, Kansas. We'd journeyed 649 miles on our second leg, a good day. Oh Christ, I'm in Kansas. *sigh*
Our stay in Salina, Utah was uneventful outside of weather which was interesting. It was humid as hell and there seemed to be heavy weather blowing in, a rainstorm that never happened but would have been welcome as far as I was concerned. I was happy just to sit in the comfort of our air conditioned room in my underwear watching The Olympics. Swimmers and gymnasts, swimmers and gymnasts. Good God, bring on the track and field already! At least I can understand a horse race. Well, I guess there's something there for everyone so vive la difference.
Utah isn't really my cup of tea. There's no denying the intrinsic beauty of the state, but I need greenery and there's little to be found here. I do remember being fascinated with Utah's rock formations on another cross country drive as a kid 40 years ago. Anything of a scientific nature interested me and I liked learning about geology. Such a long time ago, am I really that same person or have I molted my skin so many times that I've become unrecognizable? I still retain my childhood love of scientific endeavors so I guess there's something left of that little person here. But where did that world go? A world of Ipana toothpaste, Ed Sullivan, Sean Connery as James Bond, my favorite TV shows...The Outer limits and The Twilight Zone, The Beatles, TV dinners, the Vietnam War and the never healing wound of JFK's assasination. How distant and remote we seem to be from those times yet I can conjure them up instantly so perhaps they're not lost at all. See what happens when I recollect a childhood memory? I have to make a huge thing about where time goes and why can't we get it back? Anyway...Utah. I don't want to live there unless they bring back the multiple wives thing. And I need someplace that's got a touch of the Old World to it and this isn't the place. I hope they don't take it personally, I've different tastes these days.
I ended up going to bed around 11:00 PM, thankful that we made so much mileage on almost zero sleep from the day before. Any sleep we do get tonight will be far more than we had the previous night, bring it on.
I awoke at 2:45AM and decided to hit the road. After packing up the car and checking out we managed to get going at 3:20, heading for Green River and the Colorado border that followed. When we made the border of Colorado I was pleasantly reminded why John Denver liked it here. The terrain was gorgeous. Trees, grass and flowing streams, This is more like it! It was a touch cooler too, no problem there. About 20 miles into the state I stopped for breakfast at a town called Parachute, yes, Parachute, Colorado. I had my usual sausage and eggs at Outlaws Restaurant and shared the leftovers once again with my big furry friend. I made it my goal to at least make it over the border to Kansas so we had to get going. We pressed onward and soon got into even greener and more magnificent terrain. I can see why people love Colorado, it has so much to offer in the way of natural beauty. I can honestly say that I wouldn't mind living there which is saying alot because I naturally tend to favor older cultures over newer western ones. But Colorado is beautiful enough to overcome such quibbles.
I remember gazing wistfully at the exit sign off of I70 for Aspen, I had been talking to a gal I knew who was a costumer for a theatre company the week earlier and even though she was working on a show there in Aspen and even though she was heading into dress rehearsal week she still wanted to find some time where we could meet up in Aspen and have lunch. I nixed the idea as I really needed to get going and besides, I had Jackson with me and trying to eat fast so I could get him out of the car didn't seem too appealing. So I drove right on by the Aspen exit, we'll get together in NYC one of these days. We stopped for gas a little beyond the Vale Summit and while there at the gas station I walked Jackson around a bit. He got to wade into the nice clear water of the Colorado River which was flowing right behind the gas station where we were at. He waded around and drank from the flowing water which was barely a foot deep at its deepest point here. Just good enough to get one's feet wet. We set out for Denver, hoping to make good enough time to reach Kansas. It took about 20 minutes to get through most of Denver, big city that it is. We emergered on the eastern side of Denver and something amazing happened within 5 miles of the outskirts. The landscape changed dramatically, gone were the mountains, trees and streams. Now there were just grassy fields stretching to infinity. What the hell is up with this? We had another 135 miles to Kansas, why was it starting so early? Would I be able to take the infinite boredom of watching these endlessly empty fields for the next 350 miles? Jeeeeeeeesus.
We traverssed 15 miles into Kansas to a town called Goodland, Kansas. We'd journeyed 649 miles on our second leg, a good day. Oh Christ, I'm in Kansas. *sigh*
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Take care my friend.