Fourth Day: to Broomfield, CO

Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 12:05 am:

If I ever get around to blogging, the times of these things will be slightly off because I am marking the beginning of the writing, not the time that they are posted, but, oh well.

I don’t know if I would make a good blogger or not… I think I have good potential, because I think I can be a funny writer, but this particular subject and form—more of a travelogue—have so far not lent themselves to the type of concise and specific writing that I think make for more successful blogging. Ah well…

So, not to pick up too closely from where I left off (I wrote much of the last entry in the car mid-afternoon after writing down some keywords the night before) but we had a bowl of cereal with Greg Smith this past morning and then hit the road. We got going on I-70 West after needing a minute to get oriented on the roads. Jason took first shift, and drove til we ran out of gas. Or nearly so. This was our first introduction to how far apart gas stations can be west of the Mississippi. We are used to being able to gas up at any point every 5 miles or so going down the highway, and waiting until the tank is almost empty for maximum efficiency and minimum stops. Well, it almost cost us a several mile hike to the gas station early in the day. As the needle came near E and the light just came on, we bypassed a Gas-N-Go or something like that because we were hoping to find a stop that also had a Subway or some kind of deli sandwiches so that we could eat while we were on the road.

Well, as we continued west on I-70, we went further and further past a number of exits with no indication of gas options. We went past one exit in particular where we could look down and see a gas station just below the highway, and Jason lamented that there was no sign for that stop. As we drove by I noticed that there was no sign because that gas station was closed down. The needle crept lower and lower—eventually into that region you never want to see: touching the E line, completely covering the E line, dropping below the E line, so far below the E line that it’s no longer touching the E line. Finally we came upon the exit for Manhattan, KS, home of the dreaded Kansas State University, bitter rivals to KU, the team of my youth, Kansas University.

We had driven right past KU because we had a long drive ahead and would not have time to stop in Lawrence, where KU is located. But we were now in dire straits, and so we pulled off at the Manhattan exit, only to discover that Manhattan is actually 9 miles from the interstate. So with the needle threatening to fall off the gage, we dropped down to 55 miles an hour, supposedly the most fuel efficient speed, and limped into the first gas station we came to 9 miles down the road.
Finally safe from the indignity of having to walk from the interstate onto the K-State campus begging for help, we set off on the road, determined not to let this happen again. We began to realize that we will not be able to drive until the gas light comes on, but we did not have a hard and fast rule as to when we would gas up in the future.

We drove west on I-70 through Kansas, and we drove, and we drove. We had been told by multiple friends that driving through Kansas is flat, straight and impossibly dull. For much of the width of Kansas, we found it to be a little bit hilly, somewhat curvy and only a little boring. Plus, it was easy driving. The farther west we got in Kansas, we did experience that there are some stretches that are really straight, and it does get pretty boring, but it wasn’t that bad.

We hit the Colorado border and saw our first 75 MPH sign of the trip. It didn’t really change our driving habits, in that we didn’t drive any faster upon finding the sign, but it was novel. Eastern Colorado is a lot like western Kansas. I kept waiting to see the Rockies appear on the horizon, but it didn’t happen. Not for a long time, anyway. While it was a long day of driving, it really wasn’t that difficult, I would say.

I finally saw the first bit of the Rockies just a little bit outside of Denver. For whatever reason, I guess because it’s a “mile high,” I figured that Denver was in the middle of the mountains. We spoke to Dave Cunningham on the road that day and he told me that Denver is actually in front of the mountains, so I had a better idea of what to expect. I was underwhelmed at first, until I realized later that I was seeing what are really the foothills of the Rockies, known as the Flat Irons. We got into the Denver area around 5 pm and hit a little bit of Tuesday evening rush hour, but it was not bad at all.

We finally made it to Jason’s friends Michael and Becca’s house right around dinner time. They live in Broomfield, CO, which is basically in between Denver and Boulder. Michael was out of town, but we got to meet their two greyhounds, 4 year old female Skadi, who is named after the Norse goddess of the hunt, and 10 month old Ares, of course named after the Greek god of war. Skadi is a former race dog that was quite successful, but developed epilepsy and was retired. Michael and Becca saved Skadi, who is a very chill dog. They also rescued Ares, who was the runt of an 8 dog litter that had been mistreated. He’s still growing, and looks pretty thin, but it seems like he’s made great progress. It was amazing to watch the two play and run in the backyard. We didn’t get to see them really open it up and hit top speed, but they are so incredibly graceful and fluid animals. They seem like they are meant to run, and they seem to enjoy it in the backyard, but it is a shame that so many have to be saved from the dog racing industry.

After several huge meals in a row, we were still pretty stuffed, so we were relieved (at least I was) when Becca said she had a dinner salad for us to eat. It was made with lettuce, chicken, craisins, almonds, feta and/or gorgonzola, and a delicious homemade dressing which was made with mayo, a type of vinegar, sugar and poppy seeds. The salad was really good and we ate a lot of it, but I was still grateful for a lighter meal.

After dinner, Becca drove us into Boulder, and we checked out some of the neat areas of the campus area of Colorado University. We stopped at the Sink, a local university bar which was pretty cool. The walls were painted with murals of local culture, and the low ceiling was covered in graffiti. They had a great selection of Colorado microbrews on tap, and an impressive presence of college students for 8:30 pm on a Tuesday in July.

From there we walked down the Pearl Street pedestrian mall. We managed to dodge a quick rainstorm on the way there which left behind some real cool clouds and lightning in the evening sky. The Pearl Street really reminded Jason and I of the Downtown mall in Charlottesville, VA. From there we walked to a local Mexican restaurant that had really good margaritas that are made with apple juice and are strong enough that you are limited to three of them. Becca and Jason each had a small one and I had a full size margarita. Becca was driving, but I don’t remember what Jason’s excuse was.

We got back to Becca’s house and crashed for the night after a very fun time in the Denver/Boulder area. Goodnight…