States: Kansas, Colorado
Miles driven: 475
Miles hiked: 0
Slept: Sofa surfed at Jerome & Lisa’s in Denver
10 words or less: Kansas storms. Denver artwalk streets littered with vinegar sangria remnants.
As good a way to wake up as any
The day started out abruptly. I spent the night sleeping in a rest area in my car. Of course my tiny bladder decides 5am is the most perfect time to threaten complete failure. Groggy, I made the mistake of simply opening the car door – the locked car door. Holy crap, Kansas is not ready for my car alarm. Who makes a car with an alarm that can be tripped from the INSIDE?
The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, including taking the obligatory whore’s bath in the rest area bathroom and driving through the flattest of the flattest Kansas and Eastern Colorado landscapes, though the storms made the skies the show-stopper of the drive. I arrived in Denver a bit ahead of schedule and made friends with the neighbor of the friend I was staying with. He and his roommate were very nice Mexican men who were experts at fashioning pot pipes out of beer cans. We had a nice chat on the porch, they smoking pot, me waiting for my friends Jerome and Lisa to arrive home. Before long I was politely asked to leave when the roomies wife shouted at me “He? He my hosban. You? You go.” I don’t believe I’ve ever seen nostrils flare to quite that extreme. I go.
Luckily Jerome and Lisa welcomed me into the safety of their home a few minutes later. I’d traveled with them a couple years earlier, visiting the canyons of the San Rafael Swell in Utah and falling madly in love with its beauty. It is them I thank profusely for opening my eyes to the jaw dropping beauty I find at every turn in the canyons. The three of us had a lovely evening catching up, talking travel, work and their upcoming wedding plans and wandering through the streets of downtown Denver during Artwalk.
Girl on a Ledge 