8/30/14
Montrose, Colorado
When I planned this trip, there was one thing for which I did not
account, something I did not even think to consider because imagined it might a
problem: the elevation. It is kicking my
ass. I love mountains, but I usually
view them from the base. It is a very
different experience for me to be travelling continuously at such a high
elevation. When I woke up this morning,
well ahead of schedule, I knew that I could take my time. I was rewarded by a mamash view of the
mountains from the front door of the hotel.
I also realized why the hotel was so crowded. As my reader may be aware, the USAF Academy
is in Colorado Springs, and this was homecoming weekend. Every table I saw at breakfast had someone in
uniform or wearing a USAF shirt. My
breakfast, of course, consisted of a Denver omelet, even though I was an hour
south of Denver.
Whenever I travel west, I always debate when I should upload my
photos. Does Facebook’s algorithm make
sure my photos are visible to the people who’d want to see them, no matter when
I post them? Or does it make more sense
to post them first thing in the morning? When I travel east, there is no question, since I’d be posting the
middle of the afternoon New York time. I
have been saving my blog posts promotions until the morning recently because I
want to make sure they are visible, but Facebook seems to promote photos at a
higher level than text-based posts. I’m
probably just overthinking this. I’ve
posted photos in the middle of the night New York time only for them to get
multiple Likes when I wake up in the morning. Let’s see how it plays out with
this album.
Anyway, after breakfast, I
headed to the Olympic Training Center, and I knew it instantly to be
mecca. There was a gift bag waiting for
me at the front desk, and the tour started shortly after that. We saw training facilities for various sports
spread out over a beautiful campus. The
guide asked some trivia questions along the way. There were four questions. I got two of them, while another guy got the
other two. I didn’t think that anyone
there would have been able to match me on Olympic trivia. After the tour, I got some stuff from the
gift shop and headed to Florissant Fossil Beds NM, the NPS unit that would
allow me to say I had been to half of all the NPS units. I lit up a My Father cigar, finishing it as I
hiked along the brief trail. It was
about a mile, and I was winded by the time I got to the end.
Alright, I’m very exhausted from the drive
and the elevation, so I’m going to try and wrap this up as quickly as
possible. I got back in the car,
exhausted from both the heat and the elevation, closed the windows, put the AC
on max, and headed to the State Fair.
Other than some vendors selling cowboy wear, there was absolutely
nothing to suggest that this was the Colorado State Fair, not even a place
where I could buy my flag pin, but it didn’t matter. They had lots and lots of fried food. The pigs were missing, though. I started with a corn dog and then lit up an
Avo. That was the great thing about this
fair. There were no outdoor smoking
restrictions, not even so much as a dirty look when I was smoking my cigar
while ordering a fried cheese stick from one of the vendors. I was going to call it quits after that, but
I saw deep fried cookie dough. I had to
try it. Then, figuring I was in for a
penny, in for a pound, I got some ice cream, probably blowing my carbs for the
week. I was so full and spent when I got
to the car, I wasn’t even in the mood for another cigar, though I wound up
lighting up a God of Fire a bit into the drive.
Have I mentioned how glad I was
to be in shorts rather than a suit today?
Well, it would have been impossible to do the sand dunes in a suit. When I got to the VC, I figured out the best
way to officially see both the National Park and National Preserve. The first stop was the great sand dune
itself. It was way too crowded and open
to even consider an official U, but I knew that I could take one on the hiking
trail that led to the NPres. The dunes
were breathtaking. I had never seen
anything quite like it before, and I lit up my Montecristo to make it
official. The wind cut the life of the
cigar in half, but that was all the time I needed. Once you have that mamash moment, there is
not much pointing for staying for longer than 10-20 minutes, unless you’re
hiking, and I was not able to do any more hiking than I did, even overexerting
my lungs in the high altitude. When I
got back, I headed across the way to the other parking lot for the trail that
led to the NPres. The ranger had thought
it might be an hour to the border. It
was less than five minutes.
As soon as I
got on the trail, I realized that I had left my cigars in the car, so I had to
head back. I lit up an Olivia as soon as
I got to the NPres and did a little hiking, getting a little lost, but I didn’t
care. I was well ahead of schedule. I got back in the car and stopped for gas
when I was ready to ditch the cigar. I
then made the unforgivable mistake of stopping for dinner before it got
dark. Instead of driving an hour in the
light and hour and half in the light, the entire, brutal two and a half hour
drive would be in the dark. All I wanted
was Coors and a steak, and that as exactly what I got. It was mamash. I just officially added mamash to my MSWord
dictionary. Alright, my pipe is almost
done, so I will really need to wrap up.
I picked up a Coors Light for tonight another Coors for tomorrow night,
lit up a Perdomo, and then put on my Frozen soundtrack. If thought that I couldn’t be any happier
than I was, I would have wrong. Singing
along to the songs I loved, I was in heaven, until I started to feel
nauseated. It made the difficult drive
even more brutal. At first I thought it
might have been the steak, then I blamed the fried food. Now I’m thinking that it is the
elevation. When I got to the hotel, I
was out of breath by the time I got to the front desk. I headed to my room, a non-smoking room, put
out the towels, lit up my Ardor, and proceeded to write this entry, which I
will now close so that I can get some sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment