OT fraggles wonderful crazy story of his plot to take over the world, i mean his trials and tribulations on his recent trip

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ok, here is yer fair warning.....this is the boring tale(as far as my wee brain

can recall anywho) oh my recent adventures across the southwest US and such...

lotsa folks have been asking, so, thought i'd just bombard once and run

sorry fer all the cross posting ..

so, delete now, while you have the chance!!!!

 

ahem

 

so..anyways...if you are still here, you must be really bored, sadistic, er are

just curious about my lil trip

We just came back from the Great American Beer Fest in colorado...first time i'd

been in,...umm....3 yrs i gather...twas fun

first off...we were going to get one of those EV type rental cars, but the cost

was prohibitively expensive, and you can't take some of em long distance, and

the hybrids charged extra fer this and that and..anyways..we decided on a

pickup(cuz it was cheeeeeep)..so, sunday(sept 29th), we call and make sure it is

ready .. " sure " , sez the cheerful salesclerk, ok, he wasn't cheerful, but...

so, we bop on down to the local rental place, and first thing " oh, i don';t have

a pickup " ..

so much fer reservations....

well..his choices were...

A. an SUV the size of rhode island, with a smidgen of delaware tossed in

B. a minivan SUV space shuttle looking thing...

C. or we could drive across town and hope the other rental place had something

we went with the soccer mom choice of B....

so, drove the monster home..me hiding my face from complete strangers and

wailing.. " i'm in a bloddy SUV, i'm in a bloody SUV "

lucky fer us(sorta), it wasn't absolutely horrid on gas..not great, but not as

bad as it could be...i think we only drained 10 % of the nation of Kuwait's

reserves..

next morning..suppose to leave at 5am..of course we don't get going til after

6,a nd then have to go to the store fer last minute things(wot vacation ever

starts on time???)

and we are off..

you learn all sorts of things about yer partners on vacation, ya know that??

like, ya knew they were afraid of heights, but never thought they would wig out

on a freeway going thru the sierra nevada...

so, the morning started off well...i wasn't paying attention, and carrie took

the I-50 instead of I-80 in sacramento, oh well, added about an hour, but we

were gonna get on the I-50 past reno anyways...and then there was the " i have to

pull over i'm freaking out cuz you never told me there were dropoffs " while we

drove thru the sierra...ummmmmmmm

hit tahoe..stopped so carrie could gamble(she had never been to tahoe noe

gambeled)

my...she was hooked....tahoe is pretty ugly imo....toooooo many malls, tourist

shops, plastic houses, traffic..its SoCal with a few trees and its

colder....but, she had fun, tho she bemoaned the fact i only gave her $* in

change to gamble with..(hey, it was the start of the trip, and i didn't want to

blow everything in one hour....)(and , yes, i held the money...why? am i a pig?

well, maybe, but it was more due to the fact that i actually wanted to leave the

state without having to spare change in gas stations)(carrie admits that she

can't hold onto money, and happily hands it over to me to worry about...)

still morning of day one...sun is up, sparkles thru the mtn air as we leave

tahoe..which brings us to the next..tale...

so, we stop on the eastern side of the sierras fer breakfast..carrie had this

big sandwich she had gotten the day before at whole foods...big old soggy thing

of tofu, veggies, guacamole(eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwww!!) and such..and she was

ignoring the world as she mumbled something about she needed a beverage and

stared at her sandwich with something akin to lust..so, happy me bounds outside

in the chill air and skips to the back of the evil environment destroying

vehicle and gets her a tasty beverage..as i pull out her juice, a yellow jacket

flies in the back...i pause..have i mentioned my partner is bloody well insanely

crazy about bees..they terrify her...so, i looked,a nd kinda begged and pleaded

with the lil flying friend to leave, watching carrie in the front as she took

her first bite of her sandwich, eyes apparantly glazing over, drool forming,

etc..so, took the chance and shooed the yellow jacket out...and used the paw

with the juice in it, which then went flying and bouncing across the parking

lot..soy magarine fingers...

" wot was that? " is mumbled thru a mouthful

oh nuthin

as i see the yellow jacket fly away

phew

walk back up, open the door, and hand her the juice...

and another yellow jacket flies in the front

" oh my god ohmygodclosethedoorclosethedoor!!! " as the yellow jacket sorta flies

in and out

so

i close the door

and just before the door closes mr yellow jacket flies i side

screeches

 

screams

 

mad scramble as carrie attempts to flee the car, while still buckled in securely

with seatbelt, sandwich tornadoes everywhich way...i open the door, yellow

jacket flies out..look at remains of carrie's sandwich scattered across the car

and road and

oh..this ain't gonna be a good day

another hour awaiting the mood to simmer...can't throw away garbage(wrappers,

sandwich bits, etc) as there are bear warning signs everywhere...no garbage

cans...and watch yellow jackets do kamikaze runs on window ...

*sigH*

2 hrs later, we are in the nevada desert...partner scowls and sez " ugly "

did i happen to mention that about this time, our soccer mom vehicle decided

that the 6 CD changer it had was going to give up the ghost?? yup...it ate all 6

CD's...

another half hour begging it to give us our Cd's back...

wow....ID's do have a use besides giving them to noisy police...

on the road

day one consisted of wot is called the lonliest road in america..a long stretch

of highway 50....up and down mtn passes in nevada, with stretches of playa, and

sagebrush in betwixt...the partner didn't like nevada much

thoughts of one of us being left in the desert abounded

lets see ..highlights...sand dunes at sand mtns...run down lil semi ghost

towns.....no cars...anywhere.....

toward evening...the clouds built up..and it began to rain...in the desert..of

course...outside ely, on the border with utah, we head toward the campsite i had

picked out...and after the drive down a dirt road, rain sputtering and

spitting...we hit..and carrie doesn't like it..the campsites are too rocky..and

she definately didn't like the other campers..the ones with the jacked up

pickup, rebel flag on the antenna, ATV's, and big cases of budweiser...oh, and

the p[lace was called Cleve Creek...another gurlfriend in the past didn't want

to camp here because she didn't like the name..guess the place is just cursed to

me...

so, we head out

darkness...

and head into Utah..the beehive state....and have to coast, as we are almost out

of gas....i know there is this gas station just over the border..so, just a

little further...and we are coasting..downhill, at 70mph...when the deer decide

to cross the highway...right in front of us....brakes brakes

brakesbrakesbrakes........miraculously,,a groggy carrie misses both deer, who

look at us with big brown eyes, and scamper away

this is followed by the suicidal bunny 5 minutes later..who carrie also avoids

and then the " warning, yer an idiot and are almost out of gas light " comes

on..luckily..i see the lights of the gas station ahead.

phew

so, we add the blood of the earth to the beast..and head into the nite..where

are we going?? no idea..finally about 11pm, as carrie notices vague shapes on

the side of the road..we stop at a hotel

end of day one

luckily..it gets better from here...

next day...after carrie freaks out over the beehives on the highway signs

" no no, its ok, its just their symbol, its alright, no bees, its a sign of

industriousness " , we had a pleasant day..mostly...

went to capitol reef national park, which was beautiful, carrie had never been,

and she luved it...drove down some backroads, sunny day, nice scenery..headed

into moab, had lunch at a brewpub(mmmmmmm beeeeer)(even if it is only 3.2%

beer)..and camped along the colorado river

and then the clouds rolled in....

and the thunderstorms started....

carrie sat in the car, as they rolled past..as i set up tent, made a fire, hiked

around, walked along the river, fell in, etc

saw a beautiful rainbow...good sign..right??

nitefall..bats everywhere...my, they do get close don't they??? billions of

stars...followed by another thunderstorm..

here's a place that gets 10 " of rain a year..and here it has rained 3 times in

one day while we are here...

nite..tent...curl up...listen to wind...night noises...thunder rumbles..not

again.

i have my paw out braced against the tent, cuz the wind is so strong that its

making the tent hit me in the head....

had i mentioned carrie hates camping???

wake carrie up, rush her into tent as lightening flashes and thunder shakes

everything..wind is whippin', rain is coming down...welcome to fraggle's

vacation of biblical plagues...i squint up thru the rain looking for the

locusts...

toss carrie into SUVhellmobile(the gods hate us cuz we are driving this

obviously), and run back to tent, toss cooler inside tent so it doesn't end up

in Wisconsin, grab sleeping bags and blankets..and slip..the ground is covered

in hail

luverly

sit in the vehicle..watch the storm rock and roll over head

smile weakly at carrie

sleep

morning

sun peaks over the horizon..birds chirp...

the ground is dry

damn deserts

drive along the canyons...head to colorado...

sun is shining

we sing, act jolly, giggle....i think the insanity had set in...

hit colorado...spend an hour in grand junction searchin fer coffee fer carrie...

head out and up into the rockies...storm clouds..not again...

rain spits at us..snow surrounds us in the mountains...eeepppppp!

nice drive overall tho..sun intermitten, beautiful mountians, canyons, snow

capped peaks, lotsa wildlife...had lunch at a brewpub ..walked around a bit....

headed past idaho springs, last pass toward denver...and socked in

fog..visibility less then 20'..really...

get into denver...last weather report i saw said 70's and sunny..

its 38 and cloudy...

ummm....

ah well.

find hotel...in one of the more wonderful parts of denver..not...but..it was

interesting

we obviously got the punk rock room...broken fixtures, and a written in bible...

denver is ..strange...been there a bunch of times..but...

i've never seen more fast food resturants in my life....we made a game of how

many pizza huts, kfc's, and tacobells you could see in 5 blocks(3 of each was

the record)...lotsa of homeless, just milling about...

and...lets just say, the vegetarian resturant selection was lacking....severely

unfortunately..carrie had been spolied over the last 2 yrs in the bay

area....where its easy to find nummy veggie food..not so out over the hills

yonder..and she finally saw the lite...if you see a resturant with SOMETHING we

can eat, go fer it, cuz, it's scary out thar!

i thought i was smart, and got lots of listings fer veggie resturants online,

and got lots of recommendations

the places i remembered where closed

almost none of the listed places existed

amd, so, fell back on recommendations....

so, linda, remember talking about Gemini's??

well, we went a lookin, tracked it down, all excited like....

and found it, with a big banner under the sign " prime rib dinner! "

uh oh

went inside...all the menu's had new stickers on the outside touting meat filled

dishes..underneath were all the old veggie delights...under new management....

^%$^ & & ^* & % & *@#@% & *(!!!!

found a wild oats market....ate

the beer fest..the reason we were here

it was only a mile from our hotel, easy to walk to, and just as easy to stumble

back

was great...

first day was scatter hit or miss..we just skipped around and looked at all the

breweries, talked with folks, and drank a lot of beers which interested us...

second day we tried the scientific approach...try one beer from each brewery..we

made it halfway across anyways....

third day was 2 sessions..the first one was great small crowd, they handed out

awards, ran into lotsa folks who knew me from yrs ago, got interviewd fer

papers, skipped and generally froliced

the 2nd session started an hour later, so we went to a brewpub(what? what?) and

had dinner...came back..and the line to get in circled the building!!! never

mind!!!

so, we toddled off to find more beer!!

in between bouts of beer festivities, we went to brewpubs(what?), walked around

denver(it finally warmed up later in the week), went to boulder and golden, etc

walked by some little show one nite...some band called Mest, and homegrown from

San Diego...we almost went in, but it sounded horrid from outside...

looked crowded tho...lotsa colored hair...

all in all, it was really fun..and carrie hasn't travelled much, so it was all

new fer her....

my father finally came down (he had just moved away from colorado the day we

left to go to colorado!) on sunday..we hung out fer a bit, he hasn't changed

much, well, besides lookin older and thinner..

" so, do you eat fish? "

no dad, i've been meatless fer 13 yrs

" well, how about chicken? "

*sigh*

well, its nice to know some things never change!!!

we were gonna head back thru wyoming and utah via I-80

but, at the last moment, we got all spontaneous and headed south past colorado

springs and headin toward new mexico.....

stopped at the ludlow massacre memorial...sad...they had the graves of the dead

miners and union workers

pretty countryside....

hit new mexico..were thinking of swing over to oklahoma and texas(the " how many

states can we cram in " tour) but decided against it...went to taos...wasn't

that impressed...the countryside was nice, but, the town itself was waaaay tooo

touristy...tried to go to taos pueblo(inhabited by natives fer 800yrs and

counting!), but it was closed fer a ceremony..oh well..

drove thru the mountains, beautiful...saw lots more wildlife and trees and

nature and such...hiked around

started to get dark

nowhere to camp

kept driving

and driving

at 11pm in a groggy state we hit rte 666(really) and it tried to derail us and

send us the wrong way..luckiuly my demon sense was tingling and i was able to

convince carrie we were heading the wrong way!!!

got turned around and on the right road...still driving

saw a huge meteorite plunge down..never saw anything like it before!!! i've seen

shooting stares, but this was magnificent!!! this huge green ball burst right

along the valley in front of us, you could see it break up along the hill range

in bursts of orange and yellow, looked like it burned up less then 10 miles

away, just before hitting the ground..it made a whoosin thump sound and

crackled...was totally neat....

huge trail behind it....neat-o keen

finally crossed into arizona

stopped in the navajo reservation and slept fer the nite

woke up..drove thru mesas and canyons....hit the grand canyon..again, carrie had

never been..walked around about 4 hrs...danced on the edge, clambered

about..have i mentioned we are both terrified of heights???

hit lots of construction(we hit this everywhere....)

went past flagstaff, down across arizona...hot, ....

into las vegas nevada...carrie was in luv

me..i hate vegas..its all of america's bad points rolled into one place...but,

carrie was enthralled...she was a gambling machine....

we got a room at the luxor (the pyramid one)..nice room..only $60..not bad fer

last minute...huge room, all wood...huge bathtub..heck, the bathroom was larger

then my house...

wandered the casinos..ran into 'thena(hi shadowboo!!!!!)..wandered here and

there, looked fer food(always a thrill in vegas, the land of spray painted

lettuce and wax fruit...)..found a chinese resturant in..umm..NYNY i think..they

could make things vegan....ate,,wandered some more..got free drinkies...did

touristy things...pulled carrie away from the slots....

 

next day, headed home...

crossed death valley....construction again!!!

got turned around...(hey, the map was wrong!! )(really, it was!!!! i can show

u!!!)

showed carrie my fave place to camp (saline valley)

went up along the back side of the sierras

crossed into yosemite...and just to drive it costs you $20!! you use to be able

to go along tioga pass, but not anymore...oh well..

it was nice, but, we couldn't see much cuz they were doin controlled burns, so

the valley was covered smoke......smelled like a giant BBQ....

headed home..watching the deer come out....hoping and praying they stay off the

road....

hit oakland, homestretch!!! went to Great Wall Vegetarian Resturant at 9pm fer

a quick dinner...

and came home to find the abode still standing..always a nice thing..

and thats about it..

probably a lot more to tell..but, i actually have some work to do!!!!!!

ok..those still with me, wake up!!!!

teehee

cheers

fraggle