12.28.2007

Day 2

Today:

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I was worried about hitting snow, so I had planned on going south, south, south before going west. Well screw being scared of the weather, I'm not driving along the mexican border just to go north again for sightseeing. Since I want to hit Colorado anyways, I'm just going to cut across the middle of the country on 64 / 70. It's about 870 miles from here to Denver. For comparison, I drove 830 today. That's two full tanks of gas.

I'm not really sure what I'm doing in CO, but I'd like to go snowboarding, and I'd like to see the Grand Canyon. I'll probably stay somewhere just outside Denver tomorrow night, and then hit up a mountain the next morning.

I stayed at my trail buddy Steiner's house last night. Despite sleeping in a light-sealed room in the basement, my internal clock managed to jolt me out of bed at 8am. I think that marked the first time I ever woke up before Steiner :) I guess I just couldn't wait to get on the road west!

Brian Regan on Comedy Central right now. It's a different routine than the one I listened to on the iPod on the way. Between that, Lewis Black, Rent, interviews with Al Jean and Julie K on Fresh Air, and 6 CDs from my collection circa 2003, I had plenty to listen to as I drove.

It rained through the Shenendoahs, but by the time I hit the flats it was dry, and it was late enough that there was very little traffic. Kentucky's 70mph speed limit rocks.

I wish my car's heater / vent had a setting lower than 'off'.

Onward and westward!

3 comments:

Maddie said...

greetings my favorite wayward traveler!

arapahoe basin will CHANGE YOUR LIFE! make no mistake. while your heart is in san diego, mine is in colorado. i wouldnt steer you wrong. at least drive the road by the mountain. and take a picture at the top when you hit the continental divide. seems like it might be your kind of thing :)

KitchenGirl said...

If you'd turned left at Charleston, VA and bombed it down 119 for about two hours, you'd hit a tiny little un-town called Freeburn, KY. That's Hatfield & McCoy territory, the real deal. Right over the border is Matewan, WV, where in 1920 the local coal company's hired guns held the town hostage as they tried to evict workers who were turning to the unions for help. There was a shootout: the sheriff (a Hatfield) was assassinated by the guards, the mayor and two miners were killed, and seven of the "detectives" were also killed. When I was there I met an old, old man whose father was a union man and whose mother smuggled him and his sister out of the town when he was an infant by wearing a scarf tied around her head so the detectives wouldn't recognize her, and told them she'd been exposed to scarlet fever, so they wouldn't pull the scarf down to see who she was. They all knew ahead of time that there was going to be a shootout. I think his father was one who didn't survive. Add the movie "Matewan" to your list.

Mike Machenry said...

"I'd like to go snowboarding, and I'd like to see the Grand Canyon"

I know you could kill two birds with one stone. You might need your own snow maker though.