Colorado

So I don’t know about you, but when I think of Colorado, I think mountains, snow, men with beards, maybe a log cabin or two… Of course, I had never been and only know of the state via friends who ski there or move there to be mountain hippies (what, you didn’t know there was such a thing?). However, it turns out a good portion of Colorado is flat, hot, dusty and more or less a lot like Kansas until one hits the Rocky Mountains. Oh, and did I mention it was hot and dusty? We had to stop a dozen times just to buy water, chap stick and a large watermelon which we ate half of in one sitting. It was delicious.



Well, we got the hell outta Dodge in the morning hours and even made a stop to see the original Santa Fe Trail. This reminds me of the numerous times my family and I stopped on the Natchez Trace on our way back from the reunion in Mississippi to see the “original Trace wagon tracks.” It was always a little disappointing; just a smallish sort of ditch on the side or the road. Think drainage ditch with a lot of history… Well, this was similar except in a big dry prairie. When we got out of the car, we followed this sidewalk that just sort of ended at a plaque. Ah well, we got a picture anyway.



After a few tormenting hours of back sweat and dehydration, we can just begin to make out the mountain range in front of us and some looming cloud cover. As we roll into Pueblo, the wind picks up and some teasing drops begin to fall, but in the midst of our excitement due to an end of the monotonous landscape, we manage to wander off route 50 and head toward Colorado Springs. Whoops! Well, no problem, we’ll just get off at the next exit and turn around. What’s that sign say? Whatever, just get off. Wait… why does the road turn to dirt and dead end at these railroad tracks? Is this even an exit? How do we get back on the freeway? Oh, we just have to reverse a quarter mile on this dirt road in the windy rain? Great! Oh, I guess that also means we have to get back on via the off ramp that wasn’t really an exit at all. No merging lane, just a bumpy shoulder. Great! Has anyone ever seen The Hills Have Eyes? If it took place in Colorado, this is how the movie would begin… So, we’re forced to drive like 10 miles in the wrong direction before there is a legitimate exit where we can turn around. Oh, and the rain? Yeah, drove right out of the cool reprieve before we could enjoy it. But enough grumbling!

The Rocky Mountains, though they only took about 2 hours to drive through, were gorgeous! Once we got to the top of Monarch Pass, we even saw snow on the ground, so needless to say it was far cooler. Route 50 followed a river all the way through and some of the views were just so stunning I wish I had better pictures to share. We were rushing to make it to the next campsite before it closed a 8 p.m., so we really couldn’t stop to enjoy the vistas. You know the picture on the front of the Hidden Valley salad dressing bottles? I’m pretty sure it’s based on the valleys heading out of the mountains. All moist and green and rolling with a pleasant little creek to keep everything all fertile. Lovely…



Well, we made it to our campsite in plenty of time and even got in a quick game of putt-putt golf. I think I won… Unfortunately, the rain followed us over the mountains and as we were pitching our tent, the wind picked up and there was some pretty intimidating lighting and thunder off in the distance. Luckily, our grandparents had to foresight and compassion to buy us a tarp and some extra tent stakes in the instance of rain (given our little adventure through the Ozarks). So we hurriedly got the tent up and painstakingly erected the tarp in such a precise way as to ensure absolutely no rain whatever would enter our sleeping champers. We even provided ourselves with entertainment until we fell asleep with a 40 of beer and Trev’s i-Pod wannabe thing. So we hunkered down just in the knick of time and waited for the downpour. And waited. Finished our beer and waited some more. It’s like mother nature was just messin’ with us. No rain fell that night, we just had the fortune of sleeping in an exceptionally humid tent. Nice.