Day 12-14 Colorado

My Kansas epiphany was not meant to be such; it was really just necessary land to trek to reach Colorado to visit my friend Tim and see the Rockies. I guess there is some truth to "things never go as planned."

Late Friday night, after driving through rare storms and increasing my elevation with each beautiful passing town, I arrived in Denver. My fellow writer friend and brother from another Tim had been out at a jazz show, and we were both ready to catch up.... and throw down.

It's almost needless to say that we made short work of some tall glasses of Jack Daniels. He also had some 11 year-old Czar stout in his fridge, and we put that to pasture as well.

We discussed our pasts and our futures, philosophy and sports, religion and music, reading and writing, ying and yang. Fairly late into the night, we decided to hit downtown's Colfax Ave and publicize our debauchery. We wrapped the night at the notorious Pete's Kitchen, where all the dregs of Denver's nightlife populate to eat breakfast in the middle of the night. We saw some real characters, including a whole new class of slutty club-goers, several mohawk-rockers--one of whom was 7 feet tall--and a hippie with holes in his ears the size of chips ahoy cookies and a beard the size of Tim's torso. We wrapped the night just before the sun rose.

The next day, we stopped by Tim's grandfather's house, where I met the realest old man I have ever met. As he drank his Beast Light, he dwarfed my entire trip with a story about his trip to California with his buddies in 1946, where he ran out of money on the way back, and he had to walk through Texas because no one wanted to pick them up as they hitchhiked.

Afterwards, we went downtown to the 16th Street Mall, which is more like a European old town square than any mall I've seen. It's a long strip of outdoor stores and taverns with their storefronts facing a tree-sprinkled cobblestone pedestrian street, only allowing for shuttle busses, trolleys, and horse-drawn carriages to pass. We kept dodging quick but torrid rain showers as we took in the local scenery, which had sprung up from the dilapidated warehouse district after the Rockies became a baseball team.

Once the torrential downpour became steady, we took refuge in a brewery nearby Union Station and met a friend of Tim's. We drank the afternoon away only to get caught in the rain several more times in our long voyage back to the car.

This adventure made us tardy to the birthday kegger in Aurora. I met Tim's friends and family, including his forever young Uncle Bill, and we ate cake, watched basketball, and drank awesome beer for the rest of the night.

Sunday morning, it was time to get back on the road, and I took west to the Rocky Mountains. Unfortunately, I was caught in the rain several times, which made the drive at times dangerous and stressful. I was able to witness some terrific views of the mountains and lakes. Particularly interesting were the snow-capped peaks, especially since they seemed so close to the road. I spent a wonderful afternoon winding through the mountains, seeing some amazing sights and recording them all with my camera.

Photographs