You're going to want to get comfy for this one...

Due to my incredibly neurotic nature when regarding how my vehicle is running I have stopped in Elko NV. The mechanic here took it out and told me my tires are all choppy and that I should replace them once I get where I am going and have it aligned again once the new tires are on and that should do the trick. That is some seriously wonderful news as I have been sweating it out while riding on these lonely barren highways. When he took it out he felt the rumble and looked at me like I am out of it since to him it is very very slight. Once again I have worked myself into a frenzy over nothing. I kept waiting for the tire to fall off. Ha. Since I have all ready booked a room I thought I would catch up on all my blogging during the hot part of the day and later on once it cools off a bit JimmyT and I will stretch our legs in the field behind the building. Perfect.

The last time I saw you I was in Wellington about to drive across the Rocky Mountains. I chose Wellington because it was right off of 25 and right next to the route I had chosen to go across the mountain range, which was route 14. 14 turns into 40 and goes straight into Utah where I picked up 80 to go into Nevada. It wasn’t half as slow or as pretty as the Apache Mountain route but it was still very pretty. I started out later than planned as not only did my phone die in the middle of the night but the place I was staying at lost power during the evening as well. Jokes on me huh? But it was fine as it didn’t take me half as long as I thought it would.

First I would like to say the people in CO are either super friendly and happy or complete assholes. It’s weird, there’s no in between. But I lucked out and dealt with a large amount of overly friendly enthusiastic people. I stopped to have the truck looked at in CO Springs and while they tinkered about James and I went to have lunch. We decided upon the French bakery LaBaguette. I had a scrumptious sandwich and all the coffee I could ever want while Jim lounged around on the sidewalk. The girls in the bakery made certain Jim had water and attention whenever they were on break. A lot of people stopped to pet him and comment on what a wonderful guy he is which he confirmed by kissing them and wagging his tail wildly. Since they had outdoor seating and endless coffee I stuck around a read The Secret for a bit while Jim scrounged for dropped crumbs. French bread is a favorite of his after all. While we were having our tasty lunch and down time we met lots of people. The one that sticks out in my mind the most is a guy named Steve. Steve just recently got out of a divorce. He also does playacting. You know, like Dungeons and Dragons? Yeah, well he’s “grown out” of that childish nonsense and has moved on to more adult like playacting. I don’t know what that means but I am practicing the smile and nod instead of bursting out laughing so we continued talking and I am so glad I held back because the next part of the conversation was best of all. We started talking about dogs (imagine that) and he started telling me about his friends Chihuahua. I guess it’s a rambunctious little guy. Well, Steve made sure to let me know they are that way because they were originally bred to hunt bear. He tells me that if you loose a group of Chihuahuas on a bear, sure, you lose a couple of them but they can take it down no problem. Clearly the smile and nod was no longer practiced. Clearly I laughed until my sides hurt. He was serious. I laughed harder. But now that I think about it, he might be onto something with the out of control bear issue in Mexico. Bah ha!! Oh man was I glad I stopped there for lunch. While walking back to the truck I noticed an antique store nearby and ended up getting more keys for my project. It wasn’t many but any little bit helps at this point since no keys equals grinding to a stand still.

I drove out of CO Springs and up toward my Rocky Mountain starting point. I was going to stop in Denver and Boulder. I really was. However, between the huge amount of construction and traffic I was totally turned off and just kept going. Boulder is a college town and Denver is a large city. I have had my fill of both and I don’t feel like I missed a thing so that’s okay… Everywhere you look in CO there are BIG MEN in their BIG TRUCKS. It’s kind of funny really. There were also a lot of Jeeps and it made me think fondly of my little yellow truck that I miss. Once I stop somewhere I am considering getting another Jeep. I enjoyed that truck so much.

I ended up leaving Wellington and taking a wrong turn, which dumped me into Fort Collins. Very cute. It reminded me of Harvard Square a little with all the shops, pedestrians and traffic lights. It also had a large yard people were hanging out in reading and napping. Seriously, it was cute.

Once I was back on track and going toward the mountains on route 14 I had a little time to think. People used to do this shit by mule team. I bet it felt way more like an adventure. I’m not saying I don’t feel like I am on an adventure, but if I do this again, it’s on horseback or by mule team for sure. I also had time to wonder what the definition of gulch is. What makes it different than a gully? And open range… what does that signify exactly?? (By the way, once you click on the link, page seven clearly states that “Open Range” as an area wherein livestock may lawfully be permitted to run at large.) I see all these signs and can’t help but question many a thing. Thank you Wikipedia. Thank you Google. Without you I would have to actually do something like go to the library and pick up those heavy encyclopedias. The horror.

Driving 14 was a lot faster than I expected. Like 40 mph faster than I expected. It also had quite a bit of traffic. There are a TON of people camping. Also, CO has people living everywhere. Even way up in the wilderness. One minute you think you’re alone, the next you’d looking in someone’s sliding porch door. It’s weird. It makes it so you can never have that tingly I’m all alone and if anything happens no one will know for days and they probably won’t be able to find me out here once they figure it out anyway feeling. I like that feeling. It’s odd. While on this little journey of mine I have wanted to feel fear. Not that deep seated hysterical fear, more along the lines of being afraid of the unknown. Sure, I felt some trepidation when the truck started it’s shimmy but that’s a normal every day annoyance. Vehicles break. C'est la vie. But instead of fear I am feeling wonder and awe. So much so that my fear is replaced and forgotten. I’m so busy wondering what I am going to see next that I forget I am in the middle of no where. I forget that I should worry. That is something I have needed from the get go. I feel small and insignificant because I am surrounded by visions that make my brain explode with emotion. Now don’t laugh, but there have been times when I have come upon something so grand, so superb that I have actually choked up. I have never had that happen before. I have never been so effected. Never in my life. It’s wild. It takes my fear and reminds it that there are other more important emotions that should be focused on. It pushes it aside and shows me not only how small I am but also how small my fear is. That it can be ignored. It rained while I was in the Rockies. At first I was a little bummed since taking pictures in the pouring rain is all but impossible. But I ended up driving right through it into better weather. It was cloudy for most of the day so I expected it even tough I was wishing it away. I’m glad my wishes were not heard. The smell was potent and fierce. Just extraordinary. It was a clean saturated mixture of pine, wood, and earth. It’s funny because at one point it reminded me of those candles we burn just to have that scent flow through our nostrils. But this was uncontaminated by chemicals without any artificial desperate try for the real thing. It was solid. Incredible. Real.

Every time I see wildlife by the side of the road there is that initial feeling of disbelief. They’re just standing there without a care in the world. For some reason I always first believe it’s trickery like those imitation deer people put on their front lawns. Like someone placed it there. Then it hits me that it’s really there and I’m trying to stop and take a picture. That deer on my flickr account is one of them. It was standing right on the side of the highway licking the dirt. Once Mr. Screamy Pants started up it was gone. But not before I snapped the picture. Ha! I’m onto Jim now and he’s expected to get in the backseat when I see wildlife. That way they cannot easily see him and become curious and look at us rather than run from the frothing chaotic beast beside me. Oh yeah, I almost forgot… When we drove into a valley there was this hard corner and half way around it there was this deer grazing. I scared the shit out of it and it did that crazed animal thing where they run about in a panic trying to decide what to do. He had two choices: Run in front of me or go up a steep hill. He started for me and we were just about to collide when his frantic brain caught up with him and he turned for the hill. I’m psyched he didn’t crash into me because that would have sucked. Although, if I hit and kill a deer you know I am tying it to the roof of my truck and finding someone that knows what to do with it. I told Jim he can have the hooves to chew and I’ll cook us up some deer if that ends up being at all possible. We shook on it. You know the skull is going on my grill for decoration. You know it is.

Side note: I took Jim for a walk behind the hotel. The dirt looks packed solid until you walk on it. It’s really just dry and cracked. Sometimes we sunk right into it. It’s soft and covers you with a fine layer. It’s more like ash than dust. I can dig it. Actually, I bet digging in it is pretty tough.

Does all of this become every day life when you move into it? When the Rocky Mountains were looming next to the highway I couldn’t take my eyes off of them. Look at the road, stare at the mountains in wonder, shut my mouth, look at the road, back to the awe inspiring view, back to the road… But there were people driving along with me that never once even glanced towards the mountain view. I mean, I lived in Boston for how long? I would take Storrow all the time for no other reason than to look at the Charles. I would drive all the way to the Cape all the time just to see the beauty of Scusset Beach one more time. Did you know there are times in the year that if you go to Scusset at night the plankton glows under your feet as you walk along the wet sand? True story. Always amazes me. Every time, no fail. How could the Rocky Mountains become a boring ho hum sight?

The highest elevation that I remember seeing was the town of Walden at 8,099 feet. It gets hard to breathe. Just walking about gets me winded which I found fascinating since I have never had this issue before. It makes me feel totally out of shape. Ha ha. The valleys I dropped into were gorgeous. All these words I use… Incredible, gorgeous, awesome… they don’t even come close. But I don’t know how else to explain it since silent wonder doesn’t really work out on a blog. The valleys were lush. Thick and rich with all kinds of green while surrounded by majestic mountains. Steamboat Springs was located in one of those valleys. It’s a very beautiful, very windy ski town stock full of oh so posh stuck up rick folk that tailgate like they want to get into your backseat. Where are they going in such a rush? There is nowhere for miles! I know, I just came from there and there’s nothing. I find it bizarre when I come out of literally nothing but wildlife and forest onto a town full of people driving their BMW’s to their loft condos up the hill. It’s kind of unsettling really. Besides, you’d think being totally surrounded by all that clean natural beauty would chill them out a bit. I stopped, caught the feeling of wealthy indignation and moved on.

While coming down the mountain side the downgrade pulls you faster and faster. There are run away truck ramps along the sides just in case a truckers brakes go. Could you imagine how much that would suck? Now think about how much more it would suck without the ramps.

Then I was in Utah. Utah sucks. It really does. It’s full of salt, dirt and people that are stupid and unhelpful. I have yet to meet one person in Utah that seems worth my time. It’s also full of Mormons. Maybe that explains it? Salt Lake City is stock full of Latter Day Saint buildings. They are everywhere! All the hotels were full at the first couple towns I came across. The ones that weren’t full didn’t accept pets. No pets, no pets. It was getting late. Like midnight late and at one of the last towns before the long haul across 40 to Salt Lake I asked the woman to help me out. She had vacancy but wouldn’t take the sour face off and wouldn’t let Jim in. I ended up driving to Salt Lake in the blackest night I have ever seen. It was wild. Deer were everywhere and the stars were extreme. I should have snapped a picture but I didn’t want to stop driving because I was tired and just wanted to sleep. I knew Salt Lake was coming when I could finally start seeing the shape of the terrain again. I ended up getting hosed for a room but I needed the sleep and the people I had met along the way made me wary about sleeping in my truck. And I am not easily thrown by rough characters. So this morning I got up, got an iced coffee and headed out of there across the salt flats towards Nevada. The salt flats go on forever. It looks just like snow sometimes. The smell is rancid and I found myself gagging occasionally. Gross. Once out of the salt flats your into the high desert and it’s just sand and scrub brush with smaller mountains on the sidelines. Boring but worth a one time look eh? In the end I welcomed the sight as it meant the salt smell was gone and Utah as well. Although there are the fires to note right after the salt flats. I got pictures as Utah buring is something I want to remember forever. Fuck Utah. As much as I got the pictures of Utah burning for the memory I also got some of Nevade burning and that bummed me out. Nevada isn't so bad. But it goes to show you that everything is buring. There are fires everywhere I look. If I don't see the actual fire I see the smoke in the distance. All across the country it is burning.

I think I am done with driving. The truck needs new tires to run sound and the tourists are taking all the rooms. I lucked out with this one and I am grateful, let me tell you. Since CA isn’t going anywhere and going there now would mean bumper to bumper traffic I am going to head back to AZ and see what I can do in regards to rustling up some work and a life. I have been offered another grooming job in Payson. I like the sounds of it so I am going to check it out. Payson is as inexpensive as Cottonwood and loaded with horse farms. I want to settle for a bit as the driving and sleeping in strange beds is getting tiresome. I’m saving the Canyon for once I am settled since it’s not even a day away from where I am headed. It’ll give me something excellent to do some boring weekend eh? I’m also saving Yellowstone as again, the tourists. Oy ve with the tourists all ready!!! I’ll wait until the kids are back in school and then head up. I’m so smart. Besides, this will mean more pictures and more blogging about excellent adventures even though I am living every day yawn life. Terrific.

I’m going back to AZ because I loved it there. I’m going by way of 93, which is going to be a trip. There is one… count it, one… town between here and AZ that offers services. Wild. I’m going to bring water, snacks and a whole bunch of nerve. It should be something. I’ll end up stopping in Ely (the only town that offers sleeping accommodations) for the night and then I’ll hightail it over the last stretch of barren highway and back to civilization. Wish me luck, I might need it.

Wow, this is a long read.