May 29: THE VAN IS BACK! We are mobile.

Del Norte, CO. 7650 ft, 75 deg., sunny and dry

Hello friends. Let me offer you a bouquet of apologies for not blogging in so many days. We’ve been stranded in the greater Denver area on bikes while a local Aamco fiddled about with the Van. After much frustration and waiting, we got the Van back yesterday (Friday). The schmohawk had had it since Tuesday---of the previous week. Son of a bitch took his sweet time!

On the plus side, our homelessness allowed us to make another new friend and visit old ones. We couchsurfed with a girl from Richmond who had relocated to Golden, CO. Golden gave us a great reprieve—almost a vacation—from our Denver vagabonding. How do the homeless do it? Visiting parks and biking around the city had gotten old to us. Golden, known for being the Coors HQ, reminded me of Lexington. A hilly little town, surrounded by mountains that each have giant letters marking them. The Colorado Mining College sits on a hill just up from downtown, and there seemed to be a student presence. We found Golden’s second-largest brewery (a little kitchen and garage brewery), where locals sat at tables in the yard with their dogs. Since we had a lot of time on our hands we ended up spending quite a few hours there.

We met with Claire, our Golden host for the evening, at the brewery. She’s an ex-East Coast resident who moved to Golden for a job in alt-energy research. Had a spacious house with nice views of the mountains around the town. Clear Creek ran through the center of the town, providing a natural recreation area for kayaking, walking, and lounging. Plus, someone had the excellent idea of providing a trail along the creek, connecting Golden to Denver in about 7.5 miles. So it was an easy and scenic bike ride to/from Golden.

Before that time we spent a night in Denver with my old friend Tom Hunt and his wife Margaret. They let us join them in their home for dinner, some of his home-brewed beer, and the evening. Prior to the Colorado Springs weekend, we were treated to an evening hanging out with Angela Young and Amy Karwan at a restaurant near Amy’s house. Amy generously let us spend the night at her apartment that evening. On three nights during this period we got motel rooms too. Not what we wanted but Aamco had our hands tied.

The people here have been very friendly, the towns and cities are clean and attractive, and the land beyond developed areas is breathtaking. I’m pleased to see that besides the ubiquitous suburban sprawl, tourists and residents haven’t trashed the land yet. Another great part of life in CO is that its roads are filled with antique cars. VW Beetles, Vans, American muscle cars, campers, trucks, old Lincolns and Cadillacs are everywhere. They must hold up better in the dryer climate. Lots of fun looking at those.

Coming up: An afternoon on Colorado’s Sand Dunes, pictures, and more.

Just can't wait to get on the road again.

So this is day 18 of the trip, and 8 of those days (so far) have been without the van. A little over a week without our home on wheels and we've managed to only rent a motel room once, not too bad. This week there hasn't been a single day where I woke up and knew for sure where I was going to sleep that night; a little unsettling at first, but once you get into the swing of it, no big deal. Thankfully we've had our bikes the past week and can ride around. Lots of cruising thru parks, hitting some good breweries, finding random entertainment like a band playing Neil Young outside their "medical" marijuana dispensary to advertise, and some good tacos too. As fun as Denver is, this past weekend we got pretty tired of it and took the bus down to CO Springs for $11 and a change of scenery.

High on the rocks at Garden of the Gods.

You end up meeting a lot of people travelling around this way, without your own spot to sleep. And not just meeting people, but meeting them and then immediately depending on them directly for a place to sleep, shower, etc. With money, you can spend zero effort and energy and just check into a motel room. Without money, you have to be flexible, spend time and energy rather than dollars, and rely on complete strangers to help you out. My liver is pretty tired because when you meet people, whether it's a friend of a friend, a relative of a friend, or a complete stranger, there's alcohol involved to break the ice. I've also experienced more of other people's showers in the past week than otherwise in the past few years. How often do you shower in someone else's house? All kinds of different soaps going on, clean girls' houses and apartments, gross college places where you decide it's better not to shower, the whole range really. Whole range of people too, as diverse as their soaps: Air Force reservists, college kids, professionals, stoners, families, and combinations of it all too. Some great changes of perspective on things.

I'm also starting to look like a bum. I brought one pair of pants and 2 t-shirts for the "2-3 days" the van was going to be at Aamco. The pants are ready for the trash, full of bike grease, grass stains, beer, but I can't take them off to wash them because I don't have any other pants. I was mistaken for a drug dealer sitting in a Denver park for a few hours, "What you got, man? I need a dime" "What? I'm just sitting here dude, really." "I'm warning you man, the cops are coming thru here! You better get out of here or you're going to end up in jail!" "Thanks anyways..." I guess that's a fair assumption that someone in dirty pants with unwashed hair sitting in the park for 2 hours on a Wednesday afternoon is probably holding (or at least smoking) something. You'll know I've arrived when people just start handing me money when I'm sitting in a park. (I did get a free cinnamon roll this way)

Hopefully it won't come to that and the van WILL be fixed tomorrow and we can get the hell out of here and back on the road.

Day 18, still 2515mi...

Redneck in Colorado, and the Transmission...

So we got into Boulder the other day and met up with our couchsurfing hosts Becky and Caleb and their friend Ashok at the Avery Brewery where they were having a release party for their 17th Anniversary beer. So we got the first taste and it was good. This place was full of what you'd expect Boulder to be. Or really more like you'd expect a coffeshop in Amsterdam to be. Lots of dreadlocks on white people. After dropping the van off at Becky and Caleb's, we headed to the Dark Horse, a Boulder bar full of shit hanging from the ceiling (wagon wheels, weird art, sleds, basically anything that could be nailed into place) There was a solid 3 to 5 feet of junk hanging from the ceiling everywhere. Becky ordered some Oysters... Rocky Mountain Oysters which everyone partook in except Robert (probably a wise decision). He asked if that counts as meat for a vegetarian. Yes, I think is the obvious answer.

We got up at a reasonable hour the next day, like 8:00 instead of sleeping until the afternoon like we both did in Denver, and went to the Farmer's market. A really good one too with actual farmers. Then we met Kylee for brunch; lucky for us she was in town still (I thought she may have been flying back to Charlotte with the beer mile money for the bachelorette party, but it turns out that's next week) so we went and got some crepes and got the candy tour. The rest of the day we spent wandering around Boulder gathering maps and camping supplies and doing laundry. After some late night festivities with Caleb and Becky involving a recently legalized cure for his insomnia and a deerskin drum that took about 2 hours to not build, we went to bed ready to get up early and head into the Rockies on foot/snowshoe in the morning.

Waking up around 6 we drove up past the foothills and into some serious snow pretty quickly. Once we got where the road wasn't paved and was full of ice, the van started slipping pretty quickly so we had to park it and continue up the road to the 4th of July Trailhead 4 miles on foot. After about a mile, there was not visible road anymore. At the trailhead, there was probably about 5 feet of snow, so no trail was visible. We decided to drop our tent and some other stuff and go for a day hike from there. This was a serious hike in the snow. I'd like to go back in the summer and it'd probably be a piece of cake comparatively, but we basically just followed the treeline towards the ridge we wanted to head towards. Check out my Facebook pictures in a few days (I left the memory card in the van at Aamco) for more. Anyway, it was a great hike and some beautiful scenery even tho we didn't make it to the Continental Divide or any of the lakes up there. It's also weird how everything looks so close but it takes forever to get there, especially in the snow. After hiking for a good 8 hours we both crashed before sundown. As you can see, I got some wonderful sunburn on the underside of my face and neck (the top was protected by my hat) A real redneck.

So the unfortunate news as Robert said, is that coming down the hill, the van's transmission started acting up. We took the thing to Aamco and now we both have a bike and a backpack, really drifting primitive style. It's under warranty from the rebuild in January still, so it should only cost us in time (apparently needs a rebuild again, after only 7,000mi and 4 months, WTF Aamco!?) so until then we're hanging out in Arvada, CO. Also I took a "shower" in the sink at a Mexican restaurant the other day (first shower in 5 days), and I'm really thinking about getting a haircut maybe. First detour or many!

^ This is bad news.

Day 12, 2515 miles.

5-18-10: A Slice of Denver

Living high-hobo today. Man, it’s been a few days and I’m percolating with the history to reveal. We’ve covered a lot of ground yet we’re still in the Denver area. See, the van’s transmission is doing this thing in which it won’t shift out of first gear. Haha! So we drove from the Boulder mountains thru Boulder to the Denver outskirts to an Aamco shop. Well, we drove to two Aamco shops and the first was booked. At least the scenery is strong enough to keep one content while puttering 27mph down the road. Of course, the second Aamco was booked too, so I did what I’m best at. Thumbing through the paper at a laundromat I came across an ad for a local bar with smashing happy hours and wi-fi. Perfect! We passed the evening there and slept in the van, waiting for Aamco to open at 7:30. It did, and I directed the limping van there via back roads. We dropped it off and biked to a nearby Starbuck, where we’re camped out. The weird thing is the father behind me is rattling on and on about Justin Bieber. Go figure that one.

Some momentous times have transpired prior to the Aamco van deposit, though. We got into Denver Thursday and stayed with family friends, who treated us to their nice home, food, and showers. Before that time we were fortunate to get let into the Omaha YMCA where we showered twice and worked out once. Good times. Anyway, the 23 year-old daughter took us out in Denver to meet some of her amigos. At her suggestion we hit up a spot called the Cowboy Lounge, on a main Denver nightlife strip. The place was slammed with people, young, elderly, cowboys, cowgirls, regular-appearing people, and various other Caucasians. DJ would play 3 or 4 terrible country songs then revert back to ubiquitous party-rap. While the music alone was enough to inspire homicidal thoughts, the sheer volume made it impossible to function. Our party wasn’t dancing (thank Yoshi) so I first tried to talk with the friends. The ladies essentially had to shriek to be audible, so the talking didn’t last long. I resorted to plan B, which was to blend in with a column for the duration.

Next Up: Two Nights in Boulder with the Bongo-Making Hippies & Back-Country Snowshoeing/ Camping at 11,000 ft AND new photos!

Made it to Denver & Boulder!

Spent last night in a nothing Colorado town, camped out in a motel parking lot. That worked out well. The best surprise was waking up to sunlight after days of drizzle and rain. The sun felt good on my skin as I pushed the van down the highway pointed toward Denver.

We made great time and bypassed Denver for Boulder, where we got lunch at Snarf’s, self-proclaimed home of the world’s greatest sandwiches. But then we drove out into the mountains to Rocky Mountain National Park, where we picked up a 12-month pass to all parks. Only $80!

Anyway, as we climbed elevation the evergreens began to show snow on their limbs. Then a dusting leftover from the last storm appeared on the ground. We drove to Bear Lake, which was almost fully frozen over. By this time the place was deep in snow. Seriously, I haven’t seen that much snow since I was at W&L.

We set off hiking along a trail through the pines which skiers had packed down. The goal was to get to the crest of Flat Top Mountain, where we hoped we’d find views of the frozen lake and surrounding mountains. As I climbed and walked, my New Balances sinking into the packed powder, the thin 10,000-foot air had Matt and me both breathing as if we were running up the mountain. We kept up until we reached a clearing after 2-3mi, where the only sound was snow falling around us.

Headed back to Denver, where we’re staying with friends of Matt’s family. We’ll be in the area for a few days.

Made it to the Rockies

Finally made it thru Nebraska and into Colorado. Iowa was a very nice state, nicer than it really needed to be as Robert said. Very clean well kept up cities, wireless even at their rest stops, beautiful rolling hills and farmland. The main problem with Iowa is that nobody lives there and it's in the middle of nowhere. Nebraska, on the other hand was about as boring as a place can get. With the exception of Omaha and the University there, it was flat, shit brown, and full of giant cow feederies and slaughterhouses that smelled like shit. Shit was kind of the theme of the state of Nebraska. They did have a wildlife safari drive for some reason that we took, outside of Omaha. Now, driving along 76 into Colorado, we should see the Rockies soon.


It was clear yesterday, unlike the past week or so, and we headed to Rocky Mountain National Park for some hiking. Turns out Robert didn't bring a coat on the trip (wonder what his mother thinks of that...) but it didn't matter because I had an extra one and hiking uphill at 10,000 feet or so heats you up pretty fast anyway. (I measured my pulse above 180 at one point) So after drying off we headed into Denver to the house of some family friends where we stayed last night. Erika, their daughter, took us to some Cowboy bar which was packed for a Thursday. I got hit on the head with a bucket of ice, but it all worked out because I got a free shot of tequila from the bar for it and I had had enough beer that it didn't really hurt anyway. (After this, Robert was trying to follow the ice guy around in hopes of getting hit) More Denver today, then Boulder tonight sometime.

Day 7, 2153 miles

#1: Pittsburgh to Chicago

Hello everybody. Pleased to see you! How are you? Oh I’m fine, a little tired but no worse for the wear, you know? Sitting in my aunt/uncle’s basement, which they carved this basement down to create some playrooms. It’s a living piece of art, the Frank Lloyd Wright prairie house, plus an awesome place from which to explore Chicago.

Day one went as planned, getting the last of my belongings in DC and fleeing before Friday afternoon traffic kicked into high gear. Pittsburgh really is a mountain town, with swaths of pre-war development nestled from river valleys into its steep hillsides. To get into town from any side you’ve got to climb up some serious hills on the interstate until town appears. It appears at once and strikes a note of cognitive dissonance, this hard, rusted American city that delicately straddles a European-like river valley. Bridge after bridge crisscross the rivers and elevations, creating striking views of town. Driving along one of these river plains we found some restaurants (the "Strip District"), and a row of desolate warehouses in varied states of disrepair. We had no luck finding the strippers.

Chicago

So after Richmond and a quick stop in the D.C. to pick up Robert's bike, we were off down Route 70 to Pittsburgh for the night. Maryland is kind of a leftover state. Also it's shaped like a spoon with a lot of noodles hanging off of it. We passed what used to be BP Solar in Frederick Maryland (they laid off 300-something this spring and shut down their MD plant), then headed into PA, the "state of indifference" as according to Robert's un-aided eye. (You always forget something, he left his glasses and passport, crap.) And I saw 6 windmills in PA, woohoo.

Pennsylvania likes these "travel center" plaza stops in the middle of the highway with gas stations, Starbucks, and a few restaurants, so you can actually travel thru the entire state without ever seeing any of it. They also charge you $14.50 to fly thru their state at 80mph. So we took smaller state roads a lot of the way (tho I will admit to stopping at at least one "travel center"). Finally hitting Pittsburgh around dinnertime we ate at some seafood restaurant which turned out to be pretty mediocre and expensive (tho I did bag some leftover pizza for breakfast), and wished we'd tried Primanti Brothers' instead. A friend of mine, Sarah, was in town just finishing up a grad program at UPitt, so we met her for a few pitchers of Yuengling at a nice cheap college bar. After the obligatory van tour, we kept our nice parking spot in a student neighborhood to stay overnight. College towns are great to park in overnight because nobody really cares if a big ugly van parks outside; they just assume it's a visiting friend of a neighbor.

When the sun comes up and you're sleeping in a van, you wake up. The greenhouse effect also makes sure it gets pretty hot in thee shortly after dawn also, so my days of sleeping in are over (at least when staying in the van). I washed my hair and face in the sink and took off walking down the street brushing my teeth. Oddly enough, nobody seemed to think this was anything out of the ordinary. So we took off pretty immediately towards Chicago.

It was pretty rainy in the morning and very windy too, blowing the van all over the road. For all they do to help my power needs, the solar panels aren't very aerodynamic going at highway speeds. We went down Ohio route 2 right next to Lake Erie a lot of the way until we got to Toledo, then stuck to the highway mostly in Indiana. Ohio looked about like I thought Ohio would look. At one point we got out to go see Lake Erie and it was freezing cold outside with gigantic wind and waves bigger than I usually see in the Atlantic. Not the greatest day for boating to say the least.

I completely forgot about the time change until Robert remembered. That's nice driving west, you always get that extra hour, like eternal daylight savings time (until we come back east again...) Anyway we were staying with Robert's Aunt and Uncle, Mark and Sallie, in Chicago so we went to pick up a bottle of wine as a thank you. We get to their neighborhood, and they live in a Frank Lloyd Wright house west of the city in Oak Park. There are literally people walking around the block taking pictures of the houses and we pull up in this beast of a Chester Van with Palmetto 200 paint still on it, "Crazy Legs". This is our style. The house is just amazing, and they have done a lot of work to it restoring and remodeling the interior. Mark gave us the tour of the house and all the work that had been put into it and some of the mob folklore too, and then I gave him the tour of the van. He was impressed. We went and picked up a Chicago-style deep dish pizza and that thing was really deep dish. Like 2 inches thick from a place called Edwardo's. We witnessed a high-speed police chase outside while waiting for the pizza, and never figured out the whole story there, but about 15 police cars went speeding down the wrong way on the street chasing a truck that had smashed into a few cars in the escape.



That was Saturday night. Sunday we took a long bike ride around Lake Michigan (not all the way around). It's a huge city, and strange to see a beach right there in the Midwest. I like Chicago. After lunch it's off into Iowa and Nebraska before spending some real time in Colorado; first stop will be probably somewhere around Des Moines. I'm looking forward to some good camping soon.



Day 4, 932 miles, next up, the Great Plains. Glad I have another driver with me.

PS - gas is insane in Chicago (good thing it's Robert's turn to buy) seems to be around $3.30 to $3.40 in the city...

Departure

After struggling to pass inspection, the van is finally ready to go! Some minor brake and suspension problems that should have taken 1 day to fix took about 3. Frustrating sure, but the advantage of not having any plans means we're not late for anything either; I'm just ready to get on the road!

So this is my last night in Richmond. Also the last night in a bed, last night with air conditioning, last night with a bathroom anywhere nearby, last day with a shower for who knows how long... I'm sure there's more, but I'll find out soon enough. Oil changed, new brakes, suspension good to go, passed inspection, and some finishing touches (minus a well overdue washing). Packed some clothes, tools, camping gear, various other "supplies", and my passport. Tomorrow morning I'm picking up Robert and we're headed to Pittsburgh. The drift is on.