Colorado is flat. Eastern Colorado, that is. It looks exactly like Western Kansas. That should come as no surprise, really, but it's only now that I'm realizing the entire eastern half of this state is completely ignored in favor of the scenic western half, where all the excitement is.
A girl I used to hang out with met a guy from this area and moved out here to marry him. She said the locals called it 'Coloransas' Flat is where its at.
This picture is my first sighting of the Rocky Mountains. They're really hazy and the mountain range isn't too visible on the video clip.
This feels SO well earned.
Route 70 cuts straight accross downtown Denver. An odd thing you notice, Denver is a big city. When you're approaching it from the East, however, it is a speck of matchsticks backed up against a 1,000 mile long, mile-high wall of rock. It seems so insignificant in relation to the mountains it sides up against.
Once in the city, you have to drive right past a Purina Dog Feed Factory. It stinks and it's right in the middle of the city. I guess the locals are used to it.
Immediately after passing through the city, you're launched straight into the Rockies. The trucks engine starts gunning at 3,500 RPM, already under a lot of weight, already at 5,000 feet of thin altitude and climbing much higher.
As I pass the first few towns, gas is running low and I stop in Idaho Springs. This town had streets made of packed snow. Just how 2-wheel drive cars got around here was unclear to me. The Sinclair gas station (my new favorite gas retailer, like Amerada-Hess back east, Sinclair gets almost zero of their petroleum from the Middle East) The octane ratings were 85, then 89, then 91. I'll have to look into why. My truck needs 87 and I have to get a premium grade here?
I climb higher and higher on route 70. When the road takes a dip, its mile-long stretches of 9%+ degree slopes, windy as anything and covered in snow. Not to mention the occasional, momentary white-outs from snow-squalls and you have Tractor-trailers all around you, grinding along at highway speeds.
The truck has already in 4-Wheel Drive since the gas stop in Idaho Springs. I have to drop into 2nd gear to control my descents on this white-knuckle highway. I haven't been nervous about anything on this trip until now. This was classic 'Double-Diamond" Driving. That I haven't seen it this intense since December of 2003 in NH.
As I grind along, the road heads higher and higher into the mountains. I come across a familiar spot: Vail Pass. The sign reads '10,866 feet altitude' My truck has never been nearly that high before. It's doing well, stretching its legs under the weight, incline, altitude and highway speeds.
After the blizzard at Vail, the first steep descents give way to kinder weather and more shallow grades, coming down the other side of the continental divide.
The slopes give way to very scenic canyons. In fact, it looks like I'm cruising on an interstate laid straight through the Grand Canyon itself. Morning turns into afternoon and I keep sailing past town after town in Western Colorado. Back in Burlington, I got some advice re: importing contraband Beer to Utah. Grand Junction was the best place to stop.
Most folks know that Utah's population is 70%+ Mormon. What you may not know is that the Mormon society has passed a whole collection of State Laws to uphold their fundamentalist lifestyle. This is detailed very effectively in the movie 'SLC Punk' with Ben Affleck.
One particularly annoying law is the practice of watered-down beer. All beer produced or sold in Utah can be no stronger that 3.2% alcohol. The result is a beer that tastes like dish washing detergent has been run through it.
I spoke to my friend Ben over the phone. The plan was to stay at his place in SLC Thursday night, hit the slopes Friday, stay at his place Friday night, and head to San
Francisco Saturday morning, to hopefully arrive in San Francisco before I got too tired on Saturday night. My rent: REAL BEER FROM COLORADO. Ben requested"Anything from New Belgium" These were the makers of Fat Tire. When I finally got to Colorado springs around 3PM, I pulled into the local loquor store and found four varieties of New Belguims products: Fat Tire, the very last of their Winter Ale, Summer Ale and their Wheat Beer. The tally was 6-twelve packs. (three cases or 72 bottles or beer, however you measure it) Ben would be very happy.
Once I hit Colorado, I did make a diversion. I sopped in a town to not only top off the gas tank, but also to de-louse the truck. The truck had become encrusted with an opaque layer of road-crud. Salt, dust, dirt, mud, schmegma, and other assorted grime. It had this ashen-color to it. before I got to SLC, I also went to a car wash in Southeastern Utah. Of course, the temperature was 37 degrees when i was driving through town. When I pulled in and started washing the truck, it magically dropped to 28 degrees, and all the water started freezing into the truck, making a proper wash impossible. I scrub off the ice and get back on the road. On the highway it proptly returns to 37 degrees. That was frustrating. The truck is not 100% clean, but its far better off than before the ice-wash.
It looks like I'm getting into town on schedule. I call ben and he's at the office, after 7PM. Since he can take the train, he doesn't have his SUV with him. I pick him up and we head out to 'The Bayou' for a nice dinner.Ben has to work on Friday, so I'm going off on my own to Solitude Mountain. Solutude is probably the one Utah mountain I didn't hit in the month I lived in SLC during the 2002 Olympics.
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