I got through the passes and onward 344 miles today to wind up in Green River Utah. The thing about I-70 is that it goes nowhere. You wind up in the middle of Utah and have to take secondary roads to anyplace important. It was bright, sunny, light traffice. The trip was easy but cause much trepidation over the warnings about snow. I’m in the rain shadow area now, so the worst is over.
I drove around north Denver to avoid the city and started uphill toward the [Eisenhower] tunnel. I glad I waited the extra day for the roads to clear up. Evidence of snow is everywhere. Being careful not to let the tank get below ¼, I stopped at three places for gasoline. Georgetown, Glenwood Springs, and Fruita.
Incredible scenery, a geologist’s playground. Clearly the mountains are upthrust and sedimentary. But I’m running late, so no souvenirs. After the tunnel, it is pretty much downhill all the way into Utah.
Lunch was in Vail, at the McDonalds. I don’t like Vail. Like many newer Colorado towns, it is 99% condos and overpriced hotels. That’s an atmosphere I associate with stereotyped people, or let me put it another way:
1) I don’t like snow and I don’t care for people who like snow. They tend to be boring.
2) I don’t like skiing or golf. Tried ‘em. Boring. I fully understand how these “sports” appeal to the extremely weak-minded. You’ll never find a famous scientist or author or inventor whose hobby is skiing. There is a reason things are that way.
3) I judge a resort by the number of young, pretty women it attracts. All you see in Vail are plain-looking old people.
Grand Junction was one massive road repair, so I drove through it and stopped twelve miles past. The gas attendant said there was an all-night truck stop at Green River, which the map says is just another hour. I made it slightly after dark. What a moonscape is southest Utah. This is only the second time I’ve seen the state, the last was when I cut across an upper corner in 1999. Yuck, what a nothing place.
Google locked me out of this blog. Without being asked, they took it upon themselves to track the computers I used to log on and informed me my blog was “stolen”. They’ve been trying to get something they can use on me since they took over blogspot. They finally succeeded in getting a phone number. But if they ever figure out how I got the number, they are going to be pissed. Or how I intercepted the incoming call for my new “security code”. It’s called spoofing.
But, I could not find a repair shop that would check my laptop, so I kept logging on at libraries. The shops wanted $70 or $80 up front, a policy which eventually bankrupts them all. It is an old computer repair tactic that only worked back when labor was cheap and computers were expensive.
ADDENDUM
The TSA shooting is on the news everywhere I stop. Firstly, I’m not buying any theory that somebody who shoots airport security personnel is automatically insane. I want to hear the other side of the story. While few people deserve to die, some TSA people are really pushing the envelope. Aren’t those the ass-clowns who arrested that 9 year old girl the other day? In my universe there would be no security agents of this sort because nobody would take the job.
Now you just watch the Feds use this as an excuse to take away more privacy rights. The solution is simple, but the Feds are too chickenshit to make a stand. Everyone knows the terrorists are Arab Muslims. It would waste but a fraction of the “security” budget to make these ragheads fly on their own airlines. Then the mad bombers would just blow up more of their own kind. Funny, how the facts make anyone who states them a “redneck”. I’m just sayin’.
