Tuesday, June 3, 2008

7500 some miles

Wow, it has now been a couple weeks since my return home and I have yet to recover. Honestly, I have, I just don't want to. I want to get back in the car and go explore America some more. The last part of the trip with Pete was excellent. We hit Nashville for a night of live music and some drinking. Then on to Missouri where we crossed the big muddy (the Mississippi) and the Ohio rivers to see massive flooding of farms. Up to St. Louis for a baseball game and the Arch. We then ventured over to Kansas City where at the 75th St. brewery, we met a guy who we chatted with for about 4 beers. He invited us to sleep on the floor of his new condo that had little if no furnishings. A great night sleep, albeit after a few beers. Then we traveled across Kansas, stopping in Abiline for $3.45/gal Diesel (it should have been $4.45, but the system was misconfigured.) Then on to Hays, Kansas for lunch and a beer at Liquid Bread Brewing. I wore my Vote, F*cker t-shirt the whole way through Kansas. That night we ended up in Boulder, CO to spend the evening and night with Pete's friends who took us to Walnut Brewing and Moutain Sun. Mountain Sun had the best IPA I had tasted so far. After Boulder, we ventured over the Rockies with stops in Breckenridge and Vail (both a little to hoytie toytie for our tastes.) Then through Glenwood Canyon where the Colorado River snakes through to have lunch in Glenwood Springs at their local microbrewery. Our trip from there to Salt Lake took us off I70 into rural CO and UT. Beautiful country. Evening and night in Salt Lake. They have f'ed up liquor laws, but at least they have a microbrewery or two. We hit Squatters downtown which was pretty much a meat market, but we didn't care. No one sat next to us because we probably stunk a little. They couldn't sell their IPA on draft due to the law that says any beer over 4% must be served in a bottle. How messed up is that? After Salt Lake City, we ventured west on I80 through the salt flats. Again, beautiful in a desolate way. As we got close to Nevada, we came upon the Boneville Salt Flats where they race the rocket cars. We drove out, checked it out and took it all in. Then Nevada. Wow, I80 through northern Nevada is sparse. Beautiful, yet sparse. Some of the best driving and scenery (other than Wyoming) was found there. Winnemucca didn't really do much for us. We hit the three casinos to find blackjack on a Sunday afternoon to no avail so we moved on. Just outside of town, we picked up a partial tank of diesel for $4.59. In hindsight we should have filled up. Our drive north tooks us NW into southern Oregon towards Lakeview. If you have a few days, you must check this area out. Stunning views and vistas, hills and valleys. We even came upon a small herd of wild burrows. So cool. We slept on the ground that night - our last night of the trip - drank whiskey and played cards till the sun went down. Morning brought us up through central oregon and home over Mt. Hood.

Some parting photos: