Pardon my Stream of Conscious type writing. I'm not a writer, and I'm lazy.
Saturday September 24, 2005.
Matt picked my up from my house at 6 am. Stopped for bagels and coffee. Arrived at JFK at 6:30. Checked in. Security. Wait. Worried about hurricane Rita destroying my travel plans. Call my bro. Ask him air traffic control questions. Look for Vogue knitting, nobody carries it. Watch CNN while I wait to board. Everything is about Rita. Stressing about my layover in Dallas. Take off on time. Turbulence. Nap. Untangle knots in yarn. Photoshop. We land in Dallas. 11:15, my connecting flight leaves at 11:40. Have to get from terminal C to terminal A in 25 minutes. Run. Take shuttle. Run some more. Board just before they shut the door. Relief. Off to Denver. Watch 2 and a half men on the flight. Land in Denver, 12:20 pm. Get a call from Chris. They’re meeting me in the West Terminal. Find the West Terminal. Wait outside for him and Nicole to pick me up. Red Jeep Grand Cherokee pulls up. Chris jumps out and gives me a huge hug. Meet Nicole. She’s totally awesome (for a lack of anything else). We head south to Manitou Springs. Listening to the Postal Service. Looking at photos. Siked. Gorgeous weather. Gorgeous scenery. Great company. Excited. Stop at Safeway to get some food. Come out with muenster cheese, lettuce, tomato. Cheese sandwiches are the best. Go up to Chris’s house. Nicole drops us off. We make sandwiches. Meet Chris’s housemate Alex, his dog Murdoch, and their kitten Zoe. So fun. They live on an enormous hill with priceless views. Chris has band practice before his show later that night. I stay at the house, thought I might nap. Instead I go for a short walk up one of the trails near Chris’s house with Alex and Murdoch. So amazing. Alex shows me the house on the hill that he’s closing on this week. Great house, great location. So jealous. We go back to the house. Get changed. Go pick up Russ. Stop at Bob’s beer distributor. 6 pack of FAT TIRE. So siked. Go into Colorado Springs to Benny’s to see Chris’s band, Pale Room, perform. One Fat tire, I’m wasted. They say it’s the altitude. Must be. Get my ass kicked in foosball by Conner. Play southpark pinball with Alex. Meet up with Nicole. Meet the infamous Janine, and Andrea. I’m drunk, hungry and exhausted. Stay until Chris finishes his DJ interlude. Ask Alex to take me to get something to eat. Russ, Alex and I go back to the house. I make a cheese sandwich and have a Fat Tire. We sit on the couch and talk about our sororities and fraternities. They want to go to the Mariner, then to Larasce’s house. I can’t get up. I’m beat. 2 hour time difference makes it 3am. I’ve been up for almost 24 hours. They give me a huge guilt trip, then leave so I can go to bed. Sleep on the couch with Zoe. So adorable.
Sunday September 25, 2005.
10 am breakfast reservations at Adam’s Mountain café. Nicole works there. We wake up at 9. Shower and get dressed. Chris, Alex and I walk down to town to Adam’s. Meet Nicole and Ryan there. Order the Runner’s special. Whole grain pancakes, fresh fruit and potatoes in some amazing sauce. So yum. Best breakfast ever. Coffee with honey. We get invited to go camping for the night with Nicole, Alex and Ryan since Larasce backed out last minute. We think it should be a good adventure. We sign on. Get back to the house, pack up some stuff, Nicole comes. Load her jeep with firewood and warm clothes. Food, cooler, cameras, tents and blankets. On the road by 12:30. I volunteer to sit bitch, I figure I’m the shortest. Ugh. 3 and a half hours Southwest to The Great Sand Dunes National Park. Go through some cute towns. See a sign advertising an Alligator Farm and UFO watchtower. Get siked. The dunes come into view. I can’t even describe. Rolling sand dunes that separate the mountain from the valley. Strange sight. Gorgeous. Get into the park. We have to go down a sand road, bumpy, and curvy. Stop at a sign that tells us we need to drop our tire pressure down to 15 to 20 psi’s because of the soft sand ahead. We all get out and grab a tire. Back to offroading. About a mile in we get to a parking area. We get out and are faced with climbing a 700 foot sand dune that appears to be straight up. I can only make it about half way. Can’t breathe. Combination between altitude and my inability to breath through my nose. Everyone else gets up, eventually. I try an alternate root. Get a nose bleed. Have to rely on strangers for some tissues. They were very kind. Wait at the bottom for the rest of them to come down. The wind is outrageous. I have sand everywhere. My ears, my hair, my skin completely exfoliated by it. It hurt. Once they get back down, we head further on the sandy path. Get to the National Forrest camping area. We seem to be the only ones there. Driving through streams and bumpy terrain to find a site. Find one, unload, only to find we don’t have the posts for the 6 person tent. We do, however, have a 3 person tent also. Pitch that tent. Eat some veggies and wheat thins. Walk down the creek. It’s getting cold already. Still daylight. Nicole, Ryan, Chris and I decide to take a ride further down the trail to see some more. Alex has already been there. He stays at the site. We find a better site, much further down the trail. Go back, pack up, and move camp. By the time we move everything to the new camp I need to put on all of the layers I have. I’m freezing. Alex starts the fire. We sit around the fire, drink fat tire, make smores, eat pb & j. Nicole goes into the woods to pee, see’s green eyes, freaks out, freaks us all out. Turns out to be dear. No bears. No Mountain Lions, No worries. Put all our food in the Bear locker to be safe. Sit around the fire. It’s about 40 degrees. We’re cold, and tired. Chris and I retreat to the tent. Nicole wants to sleep next to the fire. So does Alex and Ryan. Chris and I goof off in the tent, try to stay warm, try to sleep on the hard, cold, dirt ground. Toss and turn all night. Hardly any sleep. Alex comes in halfway through the night. Provides a little more warmth. Still freezing. Awoken by a coyote cakling and howling. Keeps it up for what seems like the entire night. The tip of my nose is frozen. Morning comes.
Monday September 26, 2005.
The daylight wakes us up at 7am. We leave the tent. Chris goes on a hike. Alex and I join Ryan by the fire. The sun is hiding behind the mountains, it’s still freezing. We sit in silence by the fire while Nicole sleeps for about an hour. Nicole wakes up. The sun is starting to hit us now. Warms us a little. I go for a walk into a huge valley. Ryan comes with his camera (he’s a professional photographer). Go back to camp. Nicole is making toast over the fire. Peanut butter toast. Yum. We start to pack up. Get back on the road by 10. Pump up our tires, leave the park. Attempt to find the Alligator farm. Find a gas station with little kids outside giving carwashes for donations for the Hurricane victims. We can’t refuse. We leave the car with them, go to the Zip Code Café next to the gas station. Small place. About 6 tables. One lady runs it. She has one of those portable grills and a cutting board. Good meal. Eggs over easy, wheat toast, home fries. Yum. Go pick up the car and discount tickets(8 bucks) to the alligator farm. 3 miles down the road. Pull in. Mad shady, super white trashy, looks interesting. We walk in, the owner is asleep behind the counter. His 5 year old daughter wakes him up “Daddy, Customers!”. We start our journey through the stinky place. Stop to hold a baby alligator. Take a funny group picture. Get magnets made out of it. Tourist Trap. See Lizards, Turtles, Snakes, Fish, everything. Feed the Alligators. Only the small ones would eat. The large gators didn’t even move. Huge. Scary. In the middle of COLORADO. Find strange junk yard/burial ground area. Chris is the first to investigate. Lots of bones and junked cars. Gross. Rotting Ostrich carcass. We think we’re in a bad horror movie. Get out. Stop to antagonize a couple of Ostrich, some Emus, and a couple of Donkey’s. Peruse the gift shop. Wait for our magnets. Get the hell out of dodge. Very strange. 3 and a half hour ride back to Manitou Springs. I tried to sleep. Finally back. Shower!! So nice. Chris goes to practice again. I chill with Alex. We play with the cat, I convince him to go out with us later. Chris gets back. We go into Colorado Springs to play pool. Monday night football. Denver is winning. Again, one beer and I’m drunk. Play decent pool (because I’m drunk). Scratched twice on the 8 ball. Oops. Appetizer and pitcher of Oktoberfest. 10 bucks. Good deal. Get home early. Pack up to leave the next day. Allergy attack. Itchy eyes. Good sleep.
Tuesday September 27, 2005.
Wake up early. Pack up, say goodbye to Alex and the animals. Go into town for breakfast at some cute café. Chai and a bagel. Say goodbye to Nicole and Janine. See some dude with a cat on a leash. Walk over to the post office to mail postcards. Did I address them? Oops. I don’t remember. Haha. Get on the road and head north to Denver Airport. Listen to Sufjan Stevens. Chris drops me off. So sad to go. Wait. Get on the plane. Layover in Dallas. Wait. Get on the plane. Photoshop my pics. Land at JFK. 9:45pm. Matt picked me up. Got home. Exhausted. Missing Colorado already. Back to the grind.
Photo's are here.