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...