Fresh 35 Soaks Up the Sun

I have reached the valley of the sun. The trip was a long but successful journey starting Tuesday morning when I said my "fare thee wells" to my parents and headed off to see what was in store for me.

It didn't take long for that smile to fade...trust me

The drive from home to Estes Park, Colorado took 13 hours if you count the time change. The car was filled with clothes, a computer, a few odds and end, a cooler with food and drink and an increasing feeling of boredom.

The reason I chose to leave at 7am and drive through colorado was so I could see the sunset behind the mountains. First of all I have never seen a mountain range in person before and coupling that with a sunset is a sure fire way to pump some energy into a long, drawn out drive, among other things. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and cloud cover prevented me from seeing the rockies until the following morning. So, I, in fact, did think the rocky mountains should be a lot rockier than this...damn you John Denver!

Damn you cloud cover!

Even though I didn't see the mountains on my approach, it wasn't long until I was in them, driving through a twisting canyon in a light snow. After 12 hours of driving I was ready to be done with this leg of the trip, but all the sharp turns and lack of light kept me on my toes as I slowly, but surely, made my way into Estes Park.

I met a friend from college at the Stanley Hotel where she was working behind the bar. I ordered a beer and a burger and started to wind down. We caught up over my dinner and I even socialized with the locals a little bit. One of them suggested that I take the southern route the next day because I-70 through colorado had a few closings on Tuesday. I had thought by the time I leave late Wednesday morning, the roads through the mountain should be clear enough to drive through since the weather Wednesday was supposed to be much more favorable. We decided to keep an eye on the situation and I would make a decision the following morning.

During the process of catching up with my friend, I inquired about the Stanley Hotel and was surprised to find it had such a famous back story. Apparently, Stephen King stayed there for a brief time and the hotel became the inspiration for this book The Shining. I read through a pamphlet about the hotel and Mr. King wasn't the only famous guest at the Stanley, there was a list dedicated to celebrities who stayed there.

The Stanley Hotel pamphlet

The trip had finally started catching up to me and my friend was nice enough to let me crash at her place while she was still working. I headed to her place with every intention of waiting for her to get back before going to bed, but it wasnt happening and I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The next morning we got breakfast at a small, local diner and said our goodbyes. After investigating the road conditions that morning, I figured it would take longer, but would in all likelihood be safer. The new route took me south through colorado into new mexico, where I'd eventually head west into arizona. The southern route was about 100 miles longer but all I had to do was drive, so its not like I was in any real hurry.

After breakfast and before I hit the road, I stopped at a safeway to grab a couple sandwiches to throw in the cooler for lunch and dinner. I finally got a good look at some of the mountain peaks in the parking lot...

Some cloud cover but it was beautiful to me

This portion of the trip was easily the best. I drove out of the mountains and into Boulder, Denver, and Fort Collins, smiling all the while at the majestic scenes out of my window. I am thoroughly convinced that I would love to live in colorado now that I've seen it with my own eyes. Words simply don't do it justice.

Driving out of Estes Park

The rest of the trip through CO, NM and AZ was rather uneventful. I saw a grass fire in New Mexico and was actually really surprised and how gorgeous NM was. The sun set as I was nearing the NM, AZ border which somewhat made up for not seeing the sun set the previous day, though I'm sure the sun setting over the few mountains in NM had nothing on the Rockies, but it was cool all the same.

Perhaps the worst part of the trip was when I reached into my cooler for a sandwich and found that the ice from the previous day had melted even though it had spent the night in below freezing temperatures which left my sandwiches water logged. If it wasn't that, it was that I had to drive through the state of Arizona in the dark which wasn't difficult, but I would have loved to see how it compared with CO and NM.

I finally arrived at my destination roughly 15 hours later which sets the entire time behind the wheel at 28 hours. Turns out that extra 100 miles made a difference. I was glad to have finally arrived and showed my appreciation by passing out on the couch. I never knew sitting behind the wheel of a car for so long could make you so tired.

Now its me and Biasotti, the basketball manager who I worked under back in college, living together and doin our thing. We play racquetball, work out at the white sox training facility and have a few tv series we're starting to get into - Boardwalk Empire anyone? The weather out here is fantastic, the scenery is gorgeous and the town is new. What a phenomenal place to live.

The road through my neighborhood to the house

Now my search for a job begins, but that's a post for another time.

More Later