Colorado and the Rocky Mountains were an easy choice for a stopping point along the way. We loaded up the car and headed for Aspen. We figured it would be a quick trip to Aspen and from there we could grab lunch and reassess. The boarder between Utah and Colorado was the most defined state boarder we had seen on the trip. Almost instantly after crossing the state line water began to flow alongside the highway and pine trees grew in increasingly thicker groves. The once straight highway began to weave in and out alongside hills and eventually mountains. The sky was bright blue and the rushing water was crystal clear. I felt outdoorsy and athletic simply for being there...even if I was just sitting in my car.
We pulled into Aspen and began to look around. The town was dead, too late for summer visitors, too early for skiers. We were incredibly out of place walking around in our jeans and sweats. Even on this sleepy weekday afternoon women were bustling in and out of stores like Cartier and Zegna wearing Burberry jackets and fine leather boots. Aspen left me unsettled. It was a town desperate to have an identity but torn between being high end and hippie. I know these fashionably dressed women tell their friends back in Manhattan that they moved West because the East Coast was too stuck up for them, yet they still spend their Octobers desperately searching for the perfect ski jacket that will never see the slopes. Our overpriced roast turkey and avocado sandwiches came from a place dedicated Jerry Garcia. As charming and beautiful as it was I felt myself getting angry at the town, it just seemed a little too fake for a state that prides itself on sticking to the basics of nature.
Chiz and I chose Colorado Springs as our stopping point for the night and plotted a route through the mountains to get us there. It was Ch'nel's turn to drive which turned out to be a life saver because as we drove higher and higher into the mountains I started to experience altitude sickness. The air truly is thinner up there and as more and more breaths were required I definitely felt a bit dizzy. The ground became more and more snow covered as we climbed into the clouds. Incredibly weird considering we had been in the desert that morning. We pulled off when we saw a small settlement of houses in a clearing. A sign told us that it was a ghost town, left over from the mining days. I've spent a lot of time on Wikipedia and ghost towns are one of my favorite subjects to randomly learn about. While this town is visited by plenty of visitors each day along this popular route, I was excited to actually see a ghost town up close.
Standing along the side of the road I was able to follow the path of the road up the mountain and into the clouds. At that moment it hit me, we are going to the top of the Rockies. We are going to drive thousands of feet in the air. This is happening. As Ch'nel began to drive along the narrow twisting road I started gripping the door (heights have never been my thing). The guard rail along the side of the road was a joke, a cruel taunt that one wrong move would be the end. I stared out the window down into the valley at my ghost town, which grew smaller and smaller by the second.
Ch'nel was still in desert mode and was not prepared for the mountain top.
We headed back down the mountain and continued along our way. I have some great videos to post of that part of the trip but Blogger won't let me post them right now. I'll make them a separate entry later.
We pulled into our the Colorado Springs Howard Johnson later that night and checked into our room. The desk clerk had her family in the lobby, each of them trying to coax a smile out of their 13 year old sister/daughter who was heading off to a school dance. The 13 year old stood by the lobby fireplace for pictures claiming that, as she is 13 and all, she had nothing to smile about. We got our room key and the clerk smiled and said she had upgraded us to a mountain view room. We felt special although when we woke up in the morning we would realize that the entire city is surrounded by mountains and really all of the rooms had a mountain view.
We grabbed our bags from the car, a task we had gotten quite good at, and were just about to head to our room when disaster struck. My camera battery had died earlier in the day and I was itching to charge it up as soon as possible. I dug around in the car looking for it but couldn't find it. What followed was our biggest fight of the entire trip.
Me: Ch'nel, do you have the camera charger?
Chiz: Nope.
Me: I...think you do.
Chiz: I don't
Me: I think you have it
Chiz: I. Don't. Have. It.
Me: I. Think. You. Oh wait, here it is.
What lasted no more than a minute almost ended the trip. To this day we still laugh about the biggest fight we've ever gotten into. Luckily the Golden Oreos were not lost and we settled in for a night of showers, Oreos and cable television. Just another day of memories to last as lifetime.
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