Day one of the road trip was uneventful, which is what one wants when one is driving from Chicago to Cheyenne, Wyoming (which you can have, thanks). Three "highlights": an interesting lunch at a Cracker Barrel in Omaha (average age of the wait staff: 246); seeing what we thoughts were black clouds on the horizon but realizing as we drove closer that they were actually birds (Tippie Hedren, call your agent); and getting pulled over by one of the Cornhusker State's finest for going 83 MPH in a 75 zone (with just a warning, thank you).
Nebraska smells. But then you knew that.
Day two? A lot more interesting. First, a visit to Fort Collins, Colorado and a stroll through the campus of Colorado State University. Should any of their fine administrators be reading this, you could probably spring for a couple hundred gallons of paint. It'd spruce up the joint a little bit.
Next, off to Boulder and The University of Colorado, which is the complete opposite of its scholarly neighbor to the north. What a beautiful campus. Spent some time scoping out their English department (one needs a job eventually when one's education is finally finished) and then checked out the rest of the city. Seems like everyone has a mountain in their backyard. Not all was super-Boulder real estate is a lot like Chicago's.
And this is where the fun really starts: we then drove to Denver, where we almost got killed on I-25 by someone who decided to take a rest in the left lane. I guess old Cadillacs get tired too. After driving past all of the major sports venues (required) we wasted some time downtown before heading off to the fine town of Glenwood Springs, which should have been a two hour drive on Westbound 70.
It was five. Winter's not quite finished up in the "High Country" and to get to GS required an up-and-down drive through the Rockies. It's a drive that I've made before, and it's stunning. There is no way to adequately describe the scenery-it has to be seen to be appreciated. I had left enough daylight in our Saturday to make sure that my wife would see everything as we rolled through the Rockies.
Didn't happen. As the sun slipped behind the crags and peaks, we were in the midst of an hour and a half full stop on the road thanks to the jackknife of a semi-trailer somewhere near the top of the world. It had snowed for most of the day and the roads were tricky, and perhaps Mr. Truck Driver didn't heed the warnings.
By the time we reached Vail we were at an elevation (which I kept saying as "evelation" in conversation) were snow wasn't a factor anymore and the roads were in great shape. The rest of the drive was bends and curves through valleys of rocks breathing down on you from both sides. Would have been fascinating in the daylight. It was terrifying at night because every single semi that had been stuck with us decided to make up some time and blow past us going about 80. I saw at least five trucks take curves at speeds that made their entire rigs tip left and then right. How they stayed up is beyond me.
Five hours after we left Denver we were here. I started writing this last night and thought I lost it when my computer spontaneously shut down, but thanks to the most recent Mozilla Firefox install, it magically reappeared this morning. So this day has started well. We are off to Durango, a long drive through the mountains.
Till next time...
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