From: cjackson@adobe.com (Curtis Jackson)
Subject: Re: A Denizen's Excellent Adventure (trip report)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1992 04:56:12 GMT

Cool trip report! Brought back some memories for me, too:

}North to Montrose, then East through Black Canyon to Gunnison.  I stop

It is, well, it is more than ten years ago. My buddies Geoff (DoD #334)
and Wayne and I have just graduated college in Mississippi. We drive
20 hours straight after almost over 80 hours of no sleep and lots of
partying (for me, at least) down to Miami in Wayne's pickup. After some
sailing in the Keys in a little 22 foot sailboat of Geoff's dad's, we
drive non-stop up to Wayne's house in northwest NJ. Do lotsa waterfall
hunting and trout fishing. Then Wayne says his cousin is getting married
in Montrose, Colorado, and invites us along.

I say, "Sure!" Geoff says he'll go as far as Lincoln, Nebraska, where he'll
stop to see his brother and take a bus or plane back. We set off with
a bunch of fresh bagels (those are militarized donuts), a bunch of good
homemade venison kielbasa, and a case of beer. We spend about an hour
with Geoff's brother in Lincoln, then Wayne and I continue on. By the
time we hit North Platte, Nebraska, we are down to 20 minute driving
stints and decide to pull into a rest area. We freeze our butts off
(this is in June) for four hours until 4am, then get up and make it
to Denver for breakfast, then along I-70 all along the Colorado and
down to Grand Junction. It is 48 hours since we left NJ.

Wayne's uncle meets us on his tricked-out Suzie 1100, and takes us
back to the house for a soak in the basement hot tub and proof that
altitude does get you drunk faster, especially when you're a college
sprat. Between the altitude and the lack of sleep and the exhaustion
and the hot tub and the beer, Wayne and I are buzzed on only one six
pack between us. At least it's cheaper that way.

The next day Wayne wants to ride up to Ouray, but the only other bike
his uncle has is a little 100cc job. I have only piddled on dirt bikes
almost ten years earlier, but I know how to shift so we take off. Just
as I finally groan the thing up to 65 mph (this is before the incline
starts up to Ouray), we hit a swarm of bees. I'm only wearing a T-shirt,
but at least the extra helmet I was given is full-face. Later I find
nice bee-suicide bruises on my chest.

We make it up to near Ouray and notice a bunch of people swimming in
the snow!?!? There is a double-Olympic-size or bigger natural hot
spring in the middle of all this snow in June. We decide the hell
with Ouray, and pay our $3 each for the day and hang out there.
On the way home it is extremely windy on the mountain pass. I have
the bike leaned way outside towards the cliff while my body is upright
just to keep going in a straight line. Just as a semi comes the other
way, we round a rock outcropping and the wind, just as ferocious, is
coming from 180 degrees the other direction. Amazing I didn't get
killed; Wayne said he damned near lost it on the 1100 -- I took his
word for it as I was kinda busy at the time. When we got back his
cousins new exactly the place where it happened before I could
tell them; there have been several nasty bike accidents right there.

The trip continued from there, but it doesn't involved bikes so we'll
leave Wayne and I safe in the hot tub back in Montrose.

I gotta make me another road trip soon. Last one I did to Colorado
and Nevada was in my van, and it just ain't the same!
-- 
Curtis Jackson		cjackson@mv.us.adobe.com	(415) 962 4905
USPA #A-10080 (lapsed)				DoD #0721  '81 Maxim 650
  "They that can give up an essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
   safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin (1759)