the day i left sioux falls was cold. it took me a while to say good byes and various other salutations and when it finally came down to my last order of business, before seeing my mom one last time and hitting the road, i was having some challenges. i needed to strap my bike down on top of my truck. it should have been simple enough, and indeed would have been, except that it had started to sleet. now i had to maneuver my bike up to the roof trying not to damage the paint job that i just spend so much money on. after successfully resting the bike on the roof and between the ladder racks i needed to use some cam-straps to secure it. normally this wouldn't pose any more than a 3-5 minute inconvenience. except that the temp was continuing to drop and now my truck was covered in ice. it was near impossible to find any purchase with my feet that i could trust and this whole process of simply putting the bike on top, strapping it down, and driving away took over half an hour.
by the time i arrived at Simply Perfect, (insert fawning son comment)just the cutest store you simply must go, the wind had picked up, the sleet turned to snow, and i remembered why i hate midwest winter.
that night i stayed at the badlands, getting in just as dusk was settling. i proceeded to have one of the two coldest nights i've ever slept outside/vehicle. i was really looking forward to seeing the badlands but it had gotten so cold that the state health official warned against looking out your windows for fear of retina frostbite. add to the fact that my ever so clever cooking system ideas weren't so fucking clever at all. i had many meals of cheese, crackers, and homemade beef jerky.
after days of pissing away my time out near the badlands and waiting for the weather to clear i went to rapid city and spent two glorious nights in a hotel room with a working heater. the stay was a two point endeavor of meeting up with one of my longest friends and giving me the ample time i needed to contemplate the failure of my badlands stay and ensure such foolhardiness did not further plague my decision-making.
Mike's son was unfortunately ill when i came calling but we were still able to go out to lunch and had the good fortune of a wonderful, sunny, warm spring day. our lunch-out turned into a vehicle tour of rapid and the surrounding area. i have never really spent any time in rapid city. in fact, as i told Mike, i don't know that i have seen it in the daylight. everytime i come into town i'm just passing through. i get in late, meet Mike, crash on his floor, and get on the interstate first thing in the morning. thankfully he had some time and the three of us (Mike, his son, myself) drove around a bit and made it up into the hills. i also got to see his house and he showed me something called Bain Cat.
i left rapid city the next day and made my slow way across nebraska and then down wyoming. the weather was nice (raining, not snowing) so i slept at a rest stop just south of cheyenne. at first it was a pretty miserable attempt to drift off but after about 3 hours i remembered i had some earplugs stashed away and after applying those i was able to sleep until 11am.
next i entered into colorado. goddamn, what a beautiful state. each time i see CO i realize that i've forgotten just how fucking gorgeous it is. the state has a lot of variants as well: plains (bah!), mountains full of conifers with their streams cutting back and forth to form up the colorado river, and then the western side with clay covered hills in a multitude of colors as the state line approaches. this latter section i was wholly unaware of until i entered into it.
i was, from previous times in the rockies, mentally prepared to be emotionally overwhelmed with the grandeur (i hate that word, but it fits) and immensity of the mountains. i've hiked in the mountains, camped in the mountains, snowboarded down mountains, yet despite all that and owning a red flannel shirt i make no claim to being a "mountain-man". i've never lived in the mountains. this means that it's still a very curious place for me and as i drove through CO i had to keep all my concentration on not pulling over and finding a place to camp for a few days. as much fun as that would be, it was not my destination and i knew that i couldn't take side trip indulgences or i'd never get to my destination because of course: side trips breed side trips. i did however pull over a few times for some quick photos so that i could remember to get back there someday and really check it out.
what i did not expect out of CO was the drier western side. while living in thailand i saw many things but i have very much missed the american landscape and as i moved closer and closer to grand junction, the land started to look more familiar until at one point i had to get out and walk around a bit because i needed to make sure i hadn't been teleported to the river canyons of northern california. i don't know how much they have in common when other folks look at them but in my eyes after so many years abroad it was a warm familiar feeling being in those canyons. it reminded me of all the journeys taken traveling from the redwoods and portland. sure the trees were different and the chaparral is drier but the hills and rivers just felt the same. it was a very pleasant experience and i pulled myself away from it with great difficulty so i could make an important appointment.
that night i stayed in grand junction in a hotel with a friendly desk clerk who shared a similar passion with me. we were both geeks. she saw my comic book shirt. she told me of making a spiderman outfit for her grandson, i informed her that as a child i lived no less than one complete summer in a batman costume my grandmother had made me. then i told her my reason for staying at the best western: they had advertised HBO. this was important because that night was the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 4 and it was of the utmost importance that i witness this great event live. anyone who knows me knows that i have a tendency to allow pastimes to fall into addiction. Game of Thrones is one of my healthier ones, and that is how i justified spending $50 for a night in a hotel. yes i needed a shower and yes it was nice to sleep indoors but these reasons were not compelling enough. Game of Thrones was.
utah was in the morning. i had never been to utah. it's the only state west of the mississippi i haven't been to. it also happens to have some impressive canyons. a lot. big ones. i was happy to be in utah finally.
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