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 3: Wild Life

Today's route:

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The Colorado RTD staff clearly suffers from our substandard education system…but that did not stop me from enjoying the "wild life" evident in and around Ouray.

Similar to the way in which Esalen captures the essential vibe of 60’s hippy California…Ouray embodies the spirit of an old western frontier town albeit with a preponderance of hot springs, great food, a lack of unholy stink and little evidence of rotten teeth in the indigenous population...but i can feel the authenticity deep down.

Don't believe me? I submit Chad....

As I descended into the flats driving north from Ouray I came upon the town of Delta. Delta is transported straight out of the 1940's. I was motoring through when my R8 pulled a "Kit" and doubled back to check out a "classic car" dealer's inventory. Car porn for both of us my friends. Before us was a yard littered with unrestored car hulks some of which were nearly rotting off the frame...but provided some beautiful architectural contrast to my precious.

Some pretty cool vintage signage as well across the way...

Leaving Delta and heading back towards the interstate brought steady elevation and anticipation of the cool drive just ahead as the peaks beckoned on the horizon towards Vail Summit.

The engineering along interstate 70 inspires some serious awe as it cuts through the granite mountains. More porn for an architecture technology fan (dweeb) like me.

After all the awe and appreciation of the great Rocky Mountains it was time to prepare for the most difficult leg of the road trip. Tomorrow I drive east through the rest of Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois. There's over 1000 miles to cover and I have no desire to hang out in Des Moines or Omaha so I gotta gear up and blast on through. The weather is also calling for some freezing rain/snow later in the day tomorrow and i'm not interested in that experience if at all possible. A friend questioned my sanity making this journey in early March as the weather tends to be unpredictable in this part of the country. Since I'm here there's not too much I can do with that thought except to plow through if necessary.

Come what may tomorrow....tonight it's all about a nice dinner at the Palm after checking into the Westin Tabor Center in downtown Denver. I'll be damned if i'm going to "rough it" tonight. I'll be using the last of my Starwood points and those points are going go out in a blaze of glory.

Day 1 - LA to Little America

As i was leaving LA today at noon-ish....it occured to me how amazing my wife is.  She actually let me do this 2 week road trip by myself.  How cool is she?  Most of my friends think we are both insane...but mainly that she's nuts for being cool about it.  Hey...she knows me.

Alright...so, of course, a photo of my Chariot.  I'll be living in this thing fo

r the next 2 weeks so it's more like my mobile home...but chariot sounds more a bit more like there's glory associated with what i'm about to do

my chariot....

my path today.....

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first ya gotta get out of LA which is easier said than done

but before you know it you find yourself with a first taste of the desolate desert...it's a great entree to the process of figuring out why you are doing the road trip

Today's journey included about 490 miles out of LA across the desert into flagstaff. I arrived at the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff at about 9pm local time and promptly cracked a new bottle of 1942 which expect will be a staple for the trip...gotta come down from the drive and all.

The Little America is a very unusual place to stay for sure....Upon checking in Jim told me, "the owners like to offer something special to their guests...without being too fancy" which i thought was an amazingly candid note and was clearly the case. This place was rated the #1 hotel in Flagstaff....and i really dig it.

but it is kinda like The Shining around here...