After fending off mosquitoes, we high tailed it to Denver, where we met with Ashleigh’s childhood friend Scotty P. for lunch. He took us through the city from his house, which gave us a good feel for it. We had not surprisingly decided on Mexican for lunch, and Scotty took us to his favorite place for this type of cuisine. His fiancé Erin met up with us as soon as she was out of class. Ash and Scotty got a chance to catch up, and Erin and I had a nice discussion about literature classics. Eventually, the conversation got around to Jack Kerouac, and On the Road. I asked them if they knew where Jack and Neil Cassidy (Sal and Dean, I guess) hung out as described in the book.
“Sure, I’ll take you by it,” Scotty said as Erin grimaced “although it’s not the best part of town”. From Erin’s reaction, I could tell it was not one of her favorite places in town, but I am a nerd, and had to see it. After lunch, we drove past the Capitol building with a shining gold dome. Scotty pointed out that on one of the steps leading to the building, there is a marker that indicates the pedestrian is exactly one mile high above sea level. Soon, we were on the strip of bars that appear in Jack’s book. Although I can see comparatively, that it is not the best part of town, but there was a line of fantastic dive bars in a row, so I loved it.
Scotty P. took us on an in-depth tour around town. His knowledge of the city was vast, considering his three-year residency, but Erin is from Denver originally, this may have added some tales and lore along the way.
After Denver, we headed up to Estes Park to visit with eight Tulsa friends that were staying in a cabin. We met in the town of Estes Park, which is home to the Stanley Hotel, which was the inspiration (and the birthplace of the story) of Stephen King’s “The Shining”. I normally wouldn’t run if I saw Jack Nicholson walking down the street, but by damn, this is different.
We met all the guys at an Italian restaurant, where we got a chance to catch up. It was very jovial and the food was delicious. They told me of the night before, where they bombarded a small bar’s open mic night. They were pretty much all musicians, so the combined bands basically played an entire show.
Once again the term “cabin” is very different from what Ash and I expected. The place was ritzy. One of the bathrooms even had a small flat screen TV over the sinks. But the best part was that a river ran about 10 feet from the back porch. We loaded all ten of us into the van they had rented and watched the sunset next to a pond. After the sunset, we moved on to an area that was great for stargazing. After an hour or so, we decided it would be best to move to the top of the mountain, where there is less light pollution. As we drove to the top of the mountain, we listened to Grandaddy’s “Software Slump”, which was eerie with no light outside and blindly climbing up. The stars were so clear and beautiful from way up on top of the mountain.
Afterwards, we went back to cabin and joked and talked. It felt like the old days, where we basically try to one-up each other on getting laughs. After a few drinks, it was good to see a couple of the gentlemen argue politics and religion as they used to frequently back in Tulsa. Some things never change, and just feel like home.
After about 4 hours of sleep, it was time to wake up to make it to the New Belgium Brewing company, where we took the tour. There was not much about the tour that was all that exciting, but those people sure do know how to make a fine fine beer. We unfortunately skipped the tasting afterwards (due to the drive ahead) and said our goodbyes from there to the Tulsa gang.
Now it was time to move a bit further West into the redness. As Gary Busey said in Point Break, “Utah! Make it two!”
No comments:
Post a Comment