Colorado or Bust
This entry was posted on 11/3/2006 7:27 PM and is filed under XCountry.
| It seems like we've been driving
forever, and I think Jason was right about Kansas being flatter than a
pancake. We finally got almost to the end of that farm filled
flatland and stayed in a little town called Colby - at this cheap motel
run by a bible thumping bush loving conservative. <insert
psycho music here>. He had a photo of good ol' GW up on
his wall with a hand written "God Bless our President" underneath
it. The room was very nice - and cheap at 35 bucks - so I didn't
mention that I voted for Kerry. We took off early the next
morning to complete the remaining 220 miles or so to Kyle and Kelly's
in Denver. |
| Colorado is beautiful. Kyle &
Kelly (aka K&K) and their two dogs Izzy and Bronco live at the
bottom of the Rocky Mountain foothills in a place called Highlands
Ranch. You can walk right out their back door to running,
walking, biking, xcountry skiing and horse jumping trails.
Everything you need - including a huge "Super Liquor Luke's-esque"
liquor store that stocks Cruzan Vanilla - is rediculously close but if
you need a little city you can be in downtown Denver in 20
minutes. In 2 hours you can be shredding on some crazy nice
slopes, and homes cost much less than Boston. I love it.
Get me out of here before I skip Mexico. |
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K&K had the next day off so after a
breakfast of delicious homemade waffles (we seem to get a lot
of these on this trip) we and the dogs headed down to "Garden of
the Gods", just past Colorado Springs. The place was
magnificent. We hiked around for hours and the dogs sniffed a lot
of animal pee. Here's a shot of all of us together at 'the Gods'.
It
was such a great day, topped off with dinner at the local Irish pub and
then drinks at home. Thanks to K&K for an awesome stay and
introducing me to "Shaun of the Dead"... my new favorite movie.
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| Anna wanted to head down to Telluride so
we did! It's not far the way the crow flies but the Colorado
Rockies are not so flat so it took a long long
time. Man the folks out here drive fast on these windy roads,
which by the way have no guard rails. It reminded me
of riding the hellish mountain roads of central america
in a crazy taxi with Jim and Sean. |
Along the way to Telluride we went through even more
mountain passes, and the Jeep had a hard time keeping up with the
posted legal speed limits. It also seems to have developed
some kind of transmission problem... it seems to shift in and out of
overdrive on it's own, and seems to miss an intermediate gear when
pressing hard on the gas. Have to get that checked in Cali...
along with maybe a serpentine belt change, just in case we get stuck
later in the trip. I'm pretty sure they don't have them readily
available in Nicaragua.
Our first stop was at Red Rocks... the
only reason I even know of this place is because of the Dave Matthew's
Band "Live at Red Rocks" cd. Holy crap this place is amazing... I
would love to see a concert here one day... maybe Jack Johnson?
That'd be sweet. This is a shot of Anna at the top of the
amphitheater... we got more shots of the theater itself, but come on,
I've only got so much room on this damned blog. |
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After Red Rocks we really hit the mountains.
Along the way we saw some really cool stuff... like this herd of "big
horned sheep". At first we thought that somebody owned a herd of
them, but when we stopped to check them out we realized they'd come
down from the mountains to eat this poor guy's lawn! These
animals were huge... we didn't want to get too too close lest they
charge us. The one in the foreground was the biggest of the herd
and seemed to be calling the shots. |
| Apparently this picture was taken at the top of
Monarch pass... which for the layman is the continental divide. I
had no idea - i must have missed the giant flashing 12x20 highway sign
that said "Continental Divide". I think my eyes and hands were
glued too tightly to the wheel and road respectively... it was kindof a
stressful ride for me because everybody was FLYING downhill and if
you weren't careful you'd either get run over or go flying off the
mountain into a valley that was at least a mile below you. Not a
good way to end the day. Anyway, we crossed this pig and ended up
stopping for the night in a neat little town called Montrose to
recharge. |
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