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Trip Start Nov 21, 2007 Previous
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  Denver, Colorado, United States
Friday, November 30, 2007

Important things are being worked on. I'm sitting in the customer waiting area of a Toyota dealership in Denver. They service folks got a kick out of my frank retelling of the 120mph incident. Nothing seems to be wrong with the car but they're going to reset the computer and change oil, fluids, etc.

Kaya's repairs, unfortunately, aren't as simple. She's currently recovering at the animal hospital after some minor doggie plastic surgery. Turns out she had tiny warts in her ear, which caused her to shake her head often and violently, which had the effect of deepening the existing (and chronic) wound on the tip of her ear. The skin was split so far that surtures/staples wouldn't work. So, they had to actually clip off the end of her ear to allow the skin to stretch across the cut and properly heal. She just woke up and is doing fine. She's going to require quite a bit of care for the rest of the trip and will have various contraptions on her little head so that the wound can heal undisturbed.

All that said, the last 2 days have been great. I've found my Circadian Rhythm. Grand Junction was kinda dingy, or at least in contrast to the vibrance of Utah. My will was tested as I drove through town looking for food after 10pm. Applebee's appeard to be the only option. Summoning strength, I pressed on through town and came upon the beautiful GJ Ale House. Local brew: ahhh. Had two glasses of the 9.75% IPA. I took no pictures, which in the mediated world, means I was never there.

wi-fi, whew

Poof.

Leaving town, I had a truckstop diner breakfast and rapped with the busboy about my planned route over the Rockies into Colorado Springs. Oh, blessed serendipity. Turns out the 50 is not regularly plowed, filled with deep, dark canyons and curious wildlife. With sunset at 430, I had no desire to tempt fate and made the safe decision to head northeast towards Denver along interstate 70 instead.

I'm pretty sure Aspen was closed - the mountain looked like oreo cookie ice cream, dirt and trees poppping out of the snow all over. We stopped at the Vail Summit for about an hour, played in the snow, fell in the ice, froze and loved it.

This entry is kinda dragging but I've got to tell this story about last night. I found a La Quinta Inn 1/2 mile from downtown through hotels.com 800 number (so easy. thanks, Dave), settled in and took a cab into Lower Downtown (LoDo - feels kinda artificial) to watch the Cowboys game. There's a string of sports bars and pubs right around Coors Field. Cool area. Bellied up at a nice, full big bar called Jackson's.

So, here's the interesting part. The guy I sat next to, Mark, was 25 days into a cross country trip which began in, yep, Raleigh! His destination was SF, then back again to NC. We traded tips - his from the East, mine from the West - and proceeded to put down a few $6 Coors Light pitchers with the help of his local buddy, Randy. To boot, we ended up winning the bar-wide trivia contest and a $25 gift certificate (Lee Havery Oswald was a Marine, Master P's son Lil Romeo got a USC basketball scholarship, Onomatopoeia is how you spell it). We thought this was a great reason to order cocktails and shut the place down. Good night! Kaya no doubt smelled the booze, ignoring me on my way in.

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through the rockies	healthier times	trivia GODS	no name exit
hospitality	I-70	mtns	vail

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