Day 4: Marathon Man

One of my favorite movies is “Marathon Man” with one my all-time favorite moments in film. Considering that you’ve probably already seen it…and instead of trying to describe it which will ultimately fail to do it justice please allow me to show it to you in order that i might set the proper mood for this day of my journey:

Now…I’m not going to sit here and tell you that driving mindlessly across the vast expanse of this great country from Denver through Eastern Colorado...

Through Nebraska...

Through Iowa...

Through Illinois (no photo avalable but this one from Iowa should do)...

...while it mercilessly sleeted on me and my icicle laden precious and while the temperature hovered around freezing on a day in which the sky and earth looked like super-creaminated coffee was akin to being tortured by a Nazi war criminal or anything.

Nay...I was being tortured by the collective spirit of all these square-state persons who are pissed at me for living in Los Angeles with access to medical marijuana. I could feel them pointing and glaring as I snugged up with my precious...foot frozen to the throttle. Now everyone is staring at precious wishing to relieve me of the burden...but We swears to protect you precioussss. Sauron's orcs would do anything to get their hands on you precioussss...Yess, wretched we are, precious but WE won't let you go!

Here's the last guy I met before entering Mordor:

Eastern Coloradoan: Is it safe?

Me: Sure…it’s safe why wouldn’t it be? I’m keeping it under 120 MPH today due to the sleet.

Nebraskan: Is it safe?

Me: Ah…no…it’s very dangerous perhaps I should not be out here partaking in "The Good Life" as you have promised upon entry to your lovely state…can I go?

Iowan: Is it safe?

Me: Um…ok…it’s clearly not safe and now i'm hallucinating that i'm on Dancing with the Stars as Belinda Carlisle's professional dance partner and I can only dance slightly better than Piero. I must be a fool for putting myself through this today. I promise I’ll neve drive 14 hours through sleet and Des Moines again.

After about 950 of the 1022 total miles driven today (with Cabaret Voltaire playing for the duration of course) I began to imagine how nice it might be to be sitting in the chair with Szell standing over me.

So…today’s trip was not without it’s amazing moments I must admit. One scene worth sharing…which I have attempted to capture on video but which was nearly impossible to grab on my tiny flip video camera whilst driving was this:

Since it’s hard to see let me just tell you how amazing it was to witness the horizon swarming with migrating birds heading northwest in formation waves. There must have been 10 miles of this with hundreds of waves with what I can only guess included millions upon millions of birds trying to get away too.

The other scene that woke me up a bit was this giant blade from a wind farm being transported on interstate 80. I've only seen wind farms from far away so the real scope of these behemoths became apparent when I passed this oversized load in Iowa. A short time later I came upon the wind farm itself and used this as yet another excuse to go pee pee and photograph my preciousss with something cool in the background.

After arriving in Schaumburg (my Dad's hood in suburban Chicago) around midnight and checking into the "Wyndham Crapola Hotel" I kindly requested my drinking partner to come over to share a celebratory drink. We had a few swigs of the 1942 and proceeded to watch some senior citizen neighbors dance until about 3am. I really wish i had a zoom on this thing to have properly shared this moment with you because it was a capper to a day beyond compare.

I really am starting to lose it here (Seamus---queue up the scene from Marathon Man where he's running for his life)

Day 2 - Cabaret Voltaire or Bust

When I arrived at the Little America Hotel last evening I proceeded to recharge all my technology and immediately discovered that I screwed myself…total rookie move…ipod syncs with itunes and proceeds to ifuck me by erasing everything except the small collection stored on my laptop. Turns out all I have left is the music (excerpts from Courtney’s outrageous master collection) I added at the last minute to augment the vibe….now I’m loaded with the obtuse Cabaret Voltaire, Loop, X-ray Spexs, Coil, B.A.L.L. and a bunch of shimmy disc stuff I’ve not heard in almost 20 years. After spending a day with my new music collection sans all my main music…I’m beginning to think this may be just the ticket.

What better way (I am now rationalizing) to lose your mind than to deny yourself access to all your favorite music while spending 2 weeks in your car. I believe the goal here is to lose my mind...i'm not sure anymore?

I have about 15 hours of Spacemen 3 queued up for tomorrow!

The terrain is morphing as I head north.

The wind-blasted red clay of northern Arizona is populated with strange amorphous formations and markers where loved ones died along the way. I always wonder what might have happened to these people and if they were just drunk and stupid or did someone drunk and stupid come out of nowhere and kill them right here.

Paying the obligatory $3 to visit the 4 corners landmark provided an opportunity to stretch the legs and stand on 4 states simultaneously. A nice distraction for about 10 minutes….but I wanted to get to Ouray before dark.

Up into Colorado brought about some radical change with Snow, Foliage and some significantly colder weather. The scenery on this drive was spectacular.

Arrival at the Box Canyon Inn was proceeded by a drive through the town of Ouray where I spied the Outlaw Bar and Grill. What a great meal and appropriate environment to decompress and drink a “Million Dollar Marguerita” which cost a mere $8.50. The “Millionaire Marguerita” I’ve had the pleasure of drinking courtesy of Tony’s tab at the Penninsula Hotel pool cost about $25….The Outlaw has ‘em beat hand’s down.

I wrapped up the day with a dip in the natural hot springs which are an integral feature of the Box Canyon Inn. Climbing the hill behind the hotel brings you to a couple private redwood hot tubs running about 104 degrees. The best part was watching the clouds pile up at the top of the moonlit mountain peak…then accelerate and disintegrate on the other side.