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Pictures from Day 3

27 Apr

I can’t believe the incredible day I had. In the morning I started to wonder, the drive through Utah was really amazing. Can I have another great day like that? Sure enough. Going through the Rockies was spectacular. It’s almost May and I couldn’t believe how much snow there still was. I really love roadtrips, because all I really know is where I’m going to end up at night. But I don’t try to plan every detail of the day. I simply let it happen and enjoy the adventure. Along the drive you’ll see something which you like and you check it out. Those funny things which happen along the way are incredible. I thought it’s like a mini-life. You complete the mini-life in one day. :-) You really can’t plan every detail of your life. I like to write out the details, because I love to share them with you, but I will be able to remember more of it if I check it out in a year again and all those memories will come back up. All those little details you can’t remember. There are many other fun/interesting things which happen which I can’t even write all down.

I didn’t have time to write about Vail, CO. It was the first stop. It’s a big ski resort. Right now they are closed so there wasn’t much going on except for the part that I had to have a snowball fight. You can see that in a picture. I saw a guy dressed in shorts and t-shirt. The temperature was 50F (10C). I guess he thought it’s summer. :-)

For some reason I’m quite tired now. It’s midnight around here and I still have a few things to do before I can go to bed. So I’ll keep this short and post the pictures. There isn’t much to talk about North Platte. There are 11 restaurants according to TripAdvisor. Starbucks is listed as number 8 and Coldstone (an ice cream shop) as number 7. So that tells you there are even fewer places you can actually have dinner. Went to Applebees (never been to one before). I was trying to have something without meat, but that’s like impossible in small towns. So I ended up with Grilled Shrimp & Island Rice. It was good.

I also forgot to mention that if you haven’t seen Food, Inc., then you should watch it as that will explain to you what I was talking about “meat producing facilities”. For the Europeans, I don’t think Food, Inc is available there. Don’t feel like checking up on that right now. Now I think the air here has that smell everywhere. Not as bad though. It really was horrible. I’m not sure if my words can really describe what it was like. I even saw one cow standing on a huge mountain of manure.

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Posted in Colorado, Nebraska

Bathroom Story/Nebraska Smell

27 Apr

Entered Nebraska at 7:07pm CDT (Central Daylight Time) I feel so tired an hour was stolen. Ha Ha. Still around 30min to go. Had too much fun in Colorado.
But I have to tell the bathroom emergency story. There is usually at least one with me on a roadtrip. Ok in Denver the Interstate 76 went really north of downtown. It wasn’t pretty. Mostly industrial facilities. There were no signs for places to eat or anything. Remember I said I’m hungry and I have to go. 5 minutes after that I see in the far distance a home depot. That’s all I could see. I said: let’s go there they have at least a bathroom. The only problem with home depot they usually hide them and you have to walk a mile in there to find them. I wasn’t sure I was going to make that. :-) Turns out as you get closer it’s a huge brand new shopping center. Lots of stores. Really pretty. There was also a Super Target. Target usually puts the bathrooms close to the entrance. Perfect so I got taken care of. I saw on the way into the mall a Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli. Never been to one or what it really is, but I felt good about it. Ordered a fresh tomato mozarella sandwich. Finally I could eat a non-meat meal. You also got a cookie and a choice of chips/potato salad/cole slaw and a pickle. The sandwich maker girls were really nice. At the cash register there was a funny sign and a cute sign on the tip jar which said “Karma Insurance”. I have a picture later. I put two bucks in it. On top of that they had free Wi-Fi. We sat outside. Absolutely gorgeous day. There were not a lot of people either. That was simply amazing how everything unfolded into such an incredible happy experience. I had no idea what my bathroom emergency was going to create. :-) Loved it.

Ok I have to mention that as I’m really laughing here. As I was about to write (finally no meat). I had my nose stuck in the phone and all of the sudden there comes this smell. I say like: Who in the hell shit in the car!? Sorry about the language but that’s the only way to really describe the issue. Right next to the Interstate there was one of those meat producing facilities. You can’t believe the smell. I tried to cover my nose, but nothing helped. Imagine dumping a lot of fresh shit inside a car and you might get the smell. The fact about the poor cows is not funny. Only my experience is funny as I had no idea what was going on. It felt like you got shit dumped onto you and you had no idea how or why it happened. That was a really nice welcome Nebraska!

Many times you see though happy cows which are grassing in big open fields.

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Posted in Colorado, Nebraska

Denver, CO

27 Apr

Going through Denver right now. Looking for something to eat and I really need to find a restroom soon. :-) On the I-76 now.

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Posted in Colorado

Vail Summit, CO

27 Apr

10400 feet! Look at all the snow. 40F (4C)

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Posted in Colorado

Somewhere in the Rockies

27 Apr

I slept like a baby last night once I finally made it into bed. I don’t feel sore from my waterslide adventure. No emergencies this morning. Left pretty much on time after a quick breakfast. Found a Starbucks inside a safeway. I think my coffee tastes so much better than the one yesterday. Going to North Platte, Nebraska. New state for me. Now going through the Rockies. Went through a cool gorge. Very tight. Train tracks, Colorado river, a bike path, and the Interstate. The westbound lanes they actually built elevated. Quite some engineering. Impressive. Also went through a few tunnels. Not as long as some of the ones in Austria though. Will be hitting the mile high city in 3 hours or so. Also an hour will be lost again today. I’m curious how Nebraska looks like. From what I hear it will be boring and very flat.

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Posted in Colorado

Pictures from Day 2

26 Apr

Wow what a day! It was filled with amazing beauty/joy/fun. I’m going to share some pictures below. Hope everyone enjoys them. They really do not do justice to how things really looked. I hope my blog entries are able to share some of the joy I had.

After the post “Pictures along I-70”, the road got more and more spectacular. Then there was an exit sign for a viewing area. Wow the view was incredible. Really amazing. The whole area is called the San Rafael Swell. As you can see in one of the pictures, I overstepped and I had to hold on for dear life on one of those rocks. It went down quite far. I would not have made it, if I hadn’t managed to grab a hold of the rock. Then I had to wait an agonizing hour or so for the search & rescue team to arrive with the helicopter to pull me out of this misery. I sure was able to build up the muscles in my arms in that hour long wait. Hey I got a free helicopter ride out of that. Not too bad. Ha Ha ha. You know I’m kidding? From the look of my face in the picture, it doesn’t look so serious right? It’s all an illusion. I won’t tell you the trick though. :-)

Ok then made it into Glenwood Springs, Colorado. I was starting to get tired and really starving. Those 2 calories tic tacs just don’t last long. I wasn’t in the mood to be adventurous with dinner so a quick easy dinner at Pizza Hut was just perfect. Filled everyone up and tasted 1000 times better than the horrible hamburger. Green River was like the first town after 100 miles or so. Well Glenwood Springs is definitely a mountain town. Interestingly enough it’s even smaller than Cedar City, but people are not as friendly. I think it has something to do that it’s more of a tourist town. The front desk girl really had an attitude. What’s cool is though right next to the hotel there is a Gondola which takes you up the mountain to Gleenwood Caverns. They offer cave tours and you have to crawl through very tight spaces. Looks like fun. Your clothes may even get torn apart. Follow the link above to see how you could look like in the end. There is also a sling shot which shoots you out over the Colorado River around 1300 feet above. That looks scary. I’d do it, if someone else were brave enough to do it with me. :-) I don’t have time this time so I might have to come back someday. Sure looks like it could be fun.

So after dinner, back at the hotel I had to go check out the slide. The room is ok for one night, but the waterslide makes up for everything. Oh my I had so much fun! Around 9pm I went into the pool area and there were two small kids in the kids pool and their parents were watching them. The little ones said Hi to me. I turned the water on for the slide and I first checked the water temperature. It felt cold. Who cares. So going down the first time, I like froze to death as the water felt cold. I figured that’s not going to work. I went into the jacuzzi. I knew afterwards going back the shock would be really bad, but it usually warms you up and then you are fine. I was warm enough and yeah it was fricking cold to go down on the slide. But only the first time. Afterwards, the water temperature felt perfect. I don’t know how many times I did it, but I think at least a 100 times. I was training to be like in the Olympics. :-) I had it all figured out. In the 2nd curve you really had to keep your body extremely tight, because you had some serious speed and you’d hurt all kinds of things, if you didn’t. At the end you had to lift up your legs or you’d hurt the right ankle and as soon as you went into the water you had to make sure you blew air through your nose. There was also another way and that was to turn your body to the left at the end and you’d slide across the water with the belly. That was more fun than having to lift your legs and blowing air through your nose. I left like around 10:30pm. Pretty much the whole time I went up and down. For a few minutes I sat in the jacuzzi, but that’s it. It was so cool as I had like my private pool and waterslide. There was no one there anymore. You could run up the stairs for the slide and there was obviously no wait. I had so much fun with that. But I knew I would. Where I pulled all that energy from? I don’t know. I didn’t sleep much the night before and I thought I was tired, but that waterslide woke me up. I actually don’t remember when I have been the last time on a slide. It’s been a while for sure, but it woke the little kid up in me. I felt like I was 10 years old or so. :-)

Enjoy the pictures!