| Posted | Sep-03-2006 12:30 PM |
| Latitude | 42.21055 |
| Longitude | -108.78865 |
| Altitude | 7,158.78 ft. |
| Gallery | https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=4c1fc107a2cb4bea&resid=4C1FC107A2CB4BEA!565&parid=4C1FC107A2CB4BEA!111 |
| Headline | Rawlins to Boulder |
| Entry |
With no shade from the night before and the fluctuations in heat from night to day we wake up baking. This parking lot isn't any prettier in the morning and we're more than ready to hit Coloardo.
We shoot south from Rawlins after having little luck finding anything decent to eat in town and pass multiple bicycle riders we presume doing the whole divide on the way down. Wyoming really is desolate and we can't imagine taking that on. As we approach Colorado the soil picks up a red tinge and green begins to show iself after the long trek through the Red Desert Basin.
You notice a fairly immediate change in the population seeing many more cars and trucks on the back roads of Coloardo giving a weird feeling after having not seen much of anyone the past few days. Later in the afternoon we arrive in Boulder and are blown away by the number of Toyotas and Subarus that make up almost every other car in town.
After stopping into a laundry mat with wifi, tearing everything out of the truck, cleaning it, and putting it back in we grab a bite to eat around the corner on "the hill". Hanley having gone to school at CU his freshman year knows his way around and with a call to his brother Peter we find a friend of a friend (Meg) willing to let raid her shower and facilities. In and out we head onto - *cough* *cough* - Red Rocks looking for some off roading trails but end up lost and unable to find our way out of a Allman Brothers concert. Given the situation we decide to make the best of it, fighting the good fight for Miller Lite in a Coors Lite town. You can't show up in Red Rocks and let those guys run the show, you just can't do it. We crash.
Never make the same mistake twice. We know. But sometimes those sorts of things sneak up on you. I say right, Han drives left. Call it a communication breakdown. After spending a month within 3 feet of someone else these things are bound to happen. Though we've navigated countless mountain passes, fading desert roads, and dense national forests, nothing compares in the mind boggling confusion of the maze that is Red Rocks.
Who would have known that Government Mule would be playing and that Greg Allman himself would be back out to join for a few sets. To our bewilderment people here still seem to be drinking Coors Lite so we figure they haven't gotten the message. That night it gets cold, very cold and though too tired to discover it right then, AutoHome has zippers which individually close off every crease in the tent. Won't make the mistake of not closing those in the future...
Back at Meg's place we head over to the laundromat to continue with updates and posting, finally moving to a roof top spot on Pearl Street getting strange looks as we fire up the external hard drive which glows different colors of neon when power runs to it (something Hanely still attests he had no idea of when he purchased). Doing the regular update gig we squat on a wi-fi spot until it begins to get uncomfortable and we start getting the laser eyes from the servers.
Though probably obvious, in a town like Boulder it's not easy to move from place to place without welcoming a slew of questions from like-minded locals all being into the same genre of sports. With the IPOD issue as mentioned before Han stops into a local record shop picking up the latest Peppers album which turns out to be the soundtrack for the Colorado portion of the Expedition.
Boulder is also home to Illegal Pete's which is oddly reminiscent of Chipotle and QDoba but has been around long before. Funny to see how these small start-ups grow to spark ideas which become universal corporate pillars. Wow that statement sounds "crunchy", maybe we have been here a little too long.
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