Time / distance traveled since last post: About 3 hours, about 175 miles
Total time / distance traveled: About 76 hours, about 5000 miles
I write to you today from the living room of my Uncle Clay/Bruce (all of the males in this family go by at least two names for some reason) and Aunt Eileen's home in Parker, Colorado, where we are currently watching the Rockies in an Easter Sunday pitching duel against the Marlins. Though historically the Rocks have been a rubbish team, they're currently the leading team in baseball so Colorado is pretty excited considering that the Nuggets are down 3-0 in the playoffs.
So I left my last post off with my departure from Downtown Las Vegas at about noon on Thursday, riding northeast towards the sizable Russell flock in the greater Denver area. The total drive was projected to be 12 hours plus a time zone change, making my ETA (presuming absolutely no stopping) 1:00am. Thinking that far too late to bother the family, it had been my plan to drive until I just couldn't drive any more, stopping whenever I felt so inclined. My research of the route promised that I would be driving through many scenic areas with mesas, mountains and national forests to boot, but no noteworthy stops along the way (since I had no intentions of either camping or skiing). I more or less just resigned myself to a good long day of driving.
Driving out of Las Vegas I found that the city ended just as abruptly as it had began, emptying into a vast, vacant desert. One impressive sight was the most geometrically perfect mesa I had seen on this trip:
About 50 miles down the road I found myself approaching the Nevada/Arizona state line, finding yet another decoy batch of casinos at the borderline. Soon I found myself back in Arizona, except this time north of the Colorado river and Grand Canyon. Little did I know that this short chip-off-of-the-corner stretch of Arizona would provide such sights. I was on the phone with my mom when I lost service as I found myself in a natural pass through towering rock formations on either side. I took tons of pics across this 20 mile stretch, so here are some of my favorites:
Note how you can see the strata from the eons of rock formation, and then at some point they are jacked into irregular acute angles with the horizon (seismic activity, plate shifting, etc.).
Pretty cool! After the road opened back up I crossed into Utah and stopped for gas (just to say that I set foot in Utah, since I wasn't sure if my layover in Salt Lake City last year really counted). After adding some ice to the cooler, I was back on the road through some 350 miles of Utah, the first 200 or so were desert and cows. Still, took some pics as I crossed into a thunderstorm:
After I had cleared the path of the storm, my route took me onto the very beginning of none other than I-70 (which, if you didn't know, runs all the way from Utah to good old Baltimore). I-70 began with a mountain range that slowly took me out of the desert and into the snow-capped peaks before settling back down into the desert, which now offered a gorgeous elevated view of the mesas of the southwest:
Here's a great drive-through video in eastern Utah, because the pictures really can't begin to do justice to the environment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuOwtpjr-A0
Soon thereafter I found myself crossing into Colorado. I was amused to find that even though the state line between Colorado and Utah were drawn somewhat arbitrarily with a ruler and a time limit, as soon as I crossed into Colorado I began seeing foliage again, enabled no doubt by the Colorado River. The sun was now setting and I was growing hungry, so I stopped for refueling and dinner (a burrito, of course) somewhere a few miles past the state line. Getting back onto the road it was now dark, and finding that I was running ahead of time (could have been in Denver by 12:30) had to make the call of whether to drive-on into the night or crash somewhere for the night. I drove for about an hour as I deliberated, and decided finally to get a motel upon arriving in Glenwood Springs (though I could have kept going, my family had encouraged me to wait until daylight to drive through the mountains so that I could admire the scenery).
This turned out to be a good call, as when I retired for the night I only knew the I was in a small town, the lights of which were the first thing I had seen other than the road 100 feet in front of me for some 50 miles. Upon walking out of my motel room in the morning, I was pleasantly surprised to have this view:
Kirk had warned me (and I have since found this to be true) that the people Colorado are very, VERY proud of having the only TRUE mountains in the country (Kirk has since informed me that Washington state has Colorado beat, but don't tell anyone!). Prideful as they may be, the mountains were damned impressive. Within the first 10 minutes of my 150 mile drive into Denver that morning I saw two wild rams sidestepping along the side of one of the mountains, just feet away from the road. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get any snapshots of the animals on the high-speed interstate, but it is very cool to say that I can add rams to the list of animals which I have seen in the wild (seals have also been added to that list during this road trip). The next mountain town I encountered was Edwards, Colorado, where I stopped for a coffee (at a Starbucks that DOES NOT offer free WiFi... ripoff). I very much enjoyed the quaint, sort of ritzy atmosphere of this mountain town and can totally picture myself on a snowboarding vacation in the Rockies some day (pending that my lifestyle is comfortable enough that I can do that). Getting back on the road I found that a new ski resort and mountain can be found every five minutes, and that in contrast to the "mountains" of the east, it looks like you can actually enjoy a good 10-15 minute run before getting to the bottom. Here's some of the pics I took in the mountains:
Right before going through the Eisenhower Tunnel (the construction of which I remember was the subject of a Discovery Channel special that I once enjoyed, back when the Discovery Channel played interesting educational programming) I found myself at the altitude of over 11,000ft (that's almost 2 miles high, folks). Needless to say, I did a lot of coasting down to the mile-high Denver (and successfully held my breath through the whole tunnel). Eventually I found myself coasting out of the binds of the mountains into the immense valley in which Denver and its surrounding cities lay. My first impression of the city was that it seemed heavily residential, and that it gives the small-town feel that even when in the center of the city you don't feel totally overwhelmed by the activity surrounding you. This reminded me a lot of Phoenix and Albuquerque in that respect.
Finally arriving in Denver around 1pm, I was very hungry, and so my first stop was for food. Since Chipotle is renowned for spawning my not-so-secret burrito obsession, I thought it my duty to go to where it all began:
That, my friends, is the original Chipotle on Evans Street, right by the University of Denver campus. Being such a big deal to me, I expected that the restaurant would be the most decked-out location in the whole chain, and that it would be swarmed with locals and other tourist. Alas, this was not the case. I found free street side parking right around the corner on a residential street which appeared as though largely college housing. Making my way inside I found that not only was the restaurant less than half the size of the locations we have back east, but there were only three other customers in there at lunch time! Still, I was very excited and went up to the counter to order my trademark combination: Chicken burrito with black beans, pico de gallo, corn salsa and guacamole (combined with a drink for $10.05-10.12 depending on local sales tax). The friendly cashier then threw me a curveball that entirely knocked me off of my game: "White or brown rice?"
"... EXCUSE ME!?"
Apparently Chipotle is testing their brown rice menu option in only 4 Denver locations, which if successful could go national within a year. I don't know if you will all understand just how exciting this is to me, because one of the only things holding Chipotle back from being a perfectly acceptable health food (save for the high sodium in the beans and the saturated fat in the sour cream, which I do not add to my burrito) is the white rice. I LOVE brown rice, which has much higher compositions of dietary fiber and protein than its white counterpart, and was overjoyed to find that it only improves the taste (though the difference is only subtle) of the final product, since it is prepared with lime juice and cilantro just like the white rice, adding a little nuttiness to the mix. While chowing-down on this delicious feast, I took a quick covert video of the inside of the restaurant so that you can see how tiny it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR8uv534eeM
After lunch I went to a local coffee house and WiFi hotspot in order to finish my last post about my Vegas trip. Finally, I met-up with my cousin Molly in her Denver condo. After catching-up a bit, we went on a bit of a driving tour of the city, passing by a local concert venue where I saw that Deftones just so happened to be performing that night (it was sold out, so no I did not go). On our tour I got to see the various stadiums of Denver, including the Pepsi Center ("The Can"), where my Western Conference favorite Colorado Avalanche play. Molly showed me her personal favorite landmark, which is a bizarre, random sculpture of a big blue bear seemingly looking into the local convention center. I didn't get to snap a photo myself, but here's the handiwork of another young photographer who was equally puzzled about the piece: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ethomsen/148894381/
Molly took me to dinner at a local favorite dive bar which is humorously located in the middle of an exceptionally gentrified strip of high-class restaurants, serving as a sort of refreshing eyesore amidst the class and sophistication of its surroundings. Spending the remainder of the night reminiscing about the Russell family and our hilarious quirks and trends, we soon went back to Molly's place where I played with her puppy, Tabby, before crashing on her couch for the night.
The following morning the whole family was set to meet for lunch at a burger joint in one of the southern suburbs of Denver. Waking up at 9:30, I sprinted out the door and drove to the closest Planet Fitness, which while only 10 miles away took 25 minutes to reach (which seems to be an ongoing trend of this city). After a quick workout and shower, I drove to my Aunt Eileen and Uncle CB's house in the suburb of Parker, CO. After some warm hellos, I saw my cousin Mark coming down the steps with his daughter (my first cousin once-removed) whom I was meeting for the very first time. Upon explaining to the absolutely adorable Isabel that I was her daddy's cousin, she looked quizzically at me for a moment before smiling and leaning-in, arms outstretched for a big hug. Now THAT was adorable!
I rode with Mark, Isabel, and the young Kayden, whom he was babysitting for the day, to the meeting-spot for lunch. During the ride I was absolutely astounded by the intelligence and advanced articulation of Isabel, who isn't even three years old yet! I was totally blown away. I was then blown away once again to find that we were taking the kids to lunch with the rest of the family... at a biker bar? It seemed a strange call, especially coming from my Aunt Lolly who had suggested the place, but evidently Bud's Bar has become somewhat of a local legend for its hamburgers, which are literally the only item on the menu. Nevertheless, we found the "waitstaff" was very sweet, bringing out a booster seat for Isabel and making the kids some grilled cheese sandwiches, deviating from the one-line menu. Still, the burger was tasty and the company was right, so we all had a good time.
Returning back to Clay and Eileen's house, I promptly laid down in the guest room and passed-out. I was curious as to why I was feeling so tired and sluggish, and the family soon explained that it is a typical adaptive response to live at the high altitude. I slept all the way until cocktail hour, upon which I woke-up to a homemade margarita (if the Russell men are good at one thing, which is a huge conditional statement, it is tending bar). For hours we laughed and drank before sitting down to a delicious fajita dinner prepared by the loving Aunt Eileen. Later settling onto the couch to watch Saturday Night Live (which considering the time zone comes on rather early out here), we all grew sleepy and retired for the evening.
This morning I awoke to a tasty breakfast complete with strong black coffee and orange juice, and we are all now preparing to head on over to my Aunt Lolly's for Easter Dinner. Tomorrow I leave early in the morning to drive the next eastward leg of the journey, so stay posted to find out where I am!
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