when we packed up our tent and campsite, we found that another car had pulled into the spot after we fell asleep. they slept in a sleeping bag on the grass - no tent. whoa.

we stopped at a truck stop for breakfast. i figured it would be gross and sketchy. but it turned out to be really good. i had sausage-laden biscuits.

nebraska and eastern colorado are nothing to write home about. so i'll skip ahead.

we drove past denver and headed north to boulder, where a friend of abie's lives (as well as lynda, but the odds of me seeing her there are probably zero...). we found the house where abie's friend lived, but aparently he had moved since they last spoke and left no forwarding address.

i thought maybe planet sub would be a good idea, but it was still early for lunch, so we decided to drive up through rocky mountain national park and then back down to boulder for lunch.

the drive through the rockies is beautiful. there was some snow and lots of pine trees. very steep cliffs with rounded reddish rocks on the sides. i wanted to go climbing really bad.

we spent so much time driving through the mountains that we overpassed lunch by a long shot. we decided to stop off at some mountain-top village for lunch but they had just closed the only cafe when we arrived. the proprietor asked if we'd like a drink instead to which we agreed.

we had possible the worst hot chocolate ever while listening to the locals talk about a piece of land that had gone up on the market for a measley $200,000.

apparently, they were all piss-rich, but spent their money just on their land. understandably, it's some of the most expensive land in the country.

abie and i wanted to avoid having to go back to boulder in the hopes that we could travel on new road. so we looked at the map and saw a small road that made a good shortcut back to highway 70 amidst the rockies.

that road was about 10 miles long on the map. we drove down about 25 miles of dirt road until we reached a sign that said "dangerous conditions, alternate route advised" and gave up. the heavily loaded minivan was just no off-road vehicle. besides, we had the wrong road somehow.

we took the long way back to the interstate. through central city, colorado - and old goldrush town that still has goldmines everywhere. much of it is now gaudy tourist crap, but the old mines and their rusty waste piles were real, authentic goldrush.

the highway proved to provide some excellent driving. we went through some great tunnels, over a mountain pass at 7000 feet, got up into the mountains where there are no trees and lots of snow. beautiful.

somewhere inbetween vale and grand junction lies glenwood canyon - my favorite piece of road ever. i'd venture to say that it is the best drive in america (though i don't remember pacific highway 1, which i understand is also exquisite).

glenwood features a split-level highway that winds through a deep canyon carved by the colorado river. the rocks are magenta and go straight up. it was magnificent. in certain points, the canyon is only as wide as the road but hundreds of feet high. there's tunnels, curvy windy road, and the best rest area in the country - No Name, CO.

shortly after glenwood, we reached a wide valley and travelled down it for some ways, heading into the southeast corner of utah. this are is barren. we went for about 7 hours without seeing any town larger than a few shacks, and there was a 125 mile stretch during which there were no services at all. no gas, no water, no people.

abie found it necessary to listen to talk radio. he loves that stuff. for awhile we caught rush limbaugh, and had a good laugh there. then this other lady, dr. laura schlezinger (sp? shitslinger?), came on - and she was horrendus. she was bitchy to her callers and gave bad moral advice. she was preachy and her opinion was the right one. period. abie loved it. it made me sick.

but that's ok, it gave me something to do during that long stretch of nothingness. we almost ran out of gas it was so long. that would have been a disaster... but we made it to some gas station on the border of nowhere - and they knew it. they charged $1.54/gallon for gas. jerks...

we pulled into moab, utah, for the night after failing to find any camping spaces at canyonlands.