Day Five - Interesting People Day

Again with the no exercise.

Today, I woke up kinda early again, a bit before 7 or so, and while I dozed in and out for the next half hour or more it occurred to me I should finalize the plans with my cousin, Lance, for breakfast which was right around the corner.  So, rather than wake him with a crazy-early phone call, I think I woke him with a crazy-early text, to which he responded rather quickly much to my surprise.

A few texts back and forth and we had nailed down breakfast at King's Chef at 9:30.

That gave me enough time, I thought, to shower and cruise down I-25 to the next exit (where the nearest laundromat was) to do the piled-up laundry.  So, I hustled into the shower, and leaving the kids with their computer time and a TV remote, rushed down there by 8:10. I knew that was pushin' the time-table a bit, but better to do it then than to cut into our day's adventures.

I got three loads going, then ran down the street to get an americano before coming back to wait for the wash cycles to finish.  There was one other person there, an older woman, who, after some exchanges about which machines were faulty and how to operate those that weren't, felt comfortable enough to say the following: "I know it is none of my business, but I was wondering who you thought you might be voting for. I'm hoping you can give me a little hope."

When I said that Obama was my man, it became clear that I'd eroded her hope rather than added to it, and she launched into a handful of things she saw wrong with Obama. Exactly why I don't enjoy talking politics. She was quite clear, at least, that his being black wasn't one of the issues, but she outright called him corrupt and that he'd just make promises to the "gimme, gimme" folk and plunge the country into deep trouble, deeper even than the trouble we're in right now.

I did what I usually do when presented with conflict of this sort and tried to find the common ground between us, because I'm not about to defend my position, nor try to convince any one else out of theirs when it comes to politics. It is a game I don't play, like pinochle.

Anyway, this conversation took us well past most of my clothes being dried and folded, save one damp sweatshirt that just didn't want to let me a) get out of this conversation, and b) get back to the hotel to pick the kids up and get them to breakfast on time with Lance and his girlfriend.

Finally, when 9:25 rolled around, I plucked the goddamned still-damp sweatshirt out, politely excused myself with a "nice talking to you" and a "good luck with the election", then bolted out to the car and rushed back up to the hotel.

I texted Lance to let him know we were late, but we got there finally around 9:50 or so and enjoyed a great breakfast, both in the quality of the food and the conversation -- Lance is always good for a great convo.  His girlfriend was great too (first I'd met her), and we all had a good time I think.

After breakfast, we went to see Garden of the Gods which is just on the western edge of Colorado Springs.  It is a series of monstrous, intricate red rock formations protruding from the ground.  It was freakin' beautiful, but just about everywhere they wanted you to stay on the paths and sidewalks, which was counter to the boys instinct to run up to and conquer every single formation by means of climbing.

On the way out of the park, the boys stopped in the single-stall restroom together, and I waited a few yards away against a fence.  It became clear after only a few minutes from the giggles and moronic sounds coming from the bathroom that they were in there fucking around AGAIN, exactly what I'd been harping on them for for days now.  I was getting pissed, but as a line of men formed waiting, I saw this as an opportunity for a powerful lesson, so let them carry on as they would naturally.  In fact, after a few minutes, I walked away into the parking lot and got in the car out of sheer embarassment, since everyone there could hear everything they were doing. Out of the rear-view mirror, I watched guys get fed up and walk away, and saw some pacing around, clearly agitated at having to wait while two kids fucked around in there.

Some 15-20 minutes later, they emerged prancing like idiots until they realized I wasn't standing there anymore.  I could see Cole looking around for his vanished father, concerned, and saw Cory had left his sweatshirt yet again, in the bathroom.

Eventually, they found the car running, realized I was in it, and opened the doors to get in.  Cory was met with a, "Cory, where's your sweatshirt?" and after an "awwwwwww crap", he ran off to retrieve it again.  Cole was met with a "What were you guys doing in there?"  When he started to fill me with some bullshit, I corrected him, and asked if he noticed all those guys waiting outside the door, because they, and I, could hear everything they were doing in there, and it wasn't innocently waiting for Cory to finish pooping.

By then, Cory had returned, and I said, "I want you to realize the impact of your behavior on others" and pointed out that those men were waiting for 15 minutes and getting pissed and leaving because they heard two irresponsible kids that should know better screwing around in there and wasting everyone's time. And I asked if they wanted to know why I was here sitting in the car. They both said "No." but I said, "Well, you're gonna know," and let them know that everyone could hear EVERYTHING they were doing, and I left because I was horribly embarassed.

A closing, "Are you guys proud of your behavior? Because I'm not at all." and I let the silence fall for them to think about it all awhile.

After enough time passed and they'd had enough time in the heavy silence, I asked them how they were going to prevent that from happening again. I got a couple good answers from Cory and prompted a couple from Cole, then said, "Alright, you're lucky because you're never gonna see any of those people again, and YOU can make sure that this stops and that nobody else sees you act like that, and we can get on with having a great roadtrip."

Then I put our audiobook back on and we listened in silence until stopping for gas an hour-and-a-half later in some tiny, barren little town, where we met the next interesting individual.

On just about every roadtrip, I can count on a great encounter with a gas station attendant, and this was our first on this trip.  I paid at the pump, but we went in to get some chips and beverages to go with the sammiches I was gonna make, and when we went up to the counter, there was a younger guy with a scrappy beard and a baseball cap to greet us with a routine, "How are you today?"

When I said we were great and asked how he was doing in return, I got a sharp-witted, "Just enjoying another day in paradise." followed by a satisfied grin when I chuckled out loud at his response.

See, that shit is just FUN.

After making the sandwiches and passing them out, we got back on the road for the last stretch before hitting the Sand Dunes National Park before sunset.

We got there a little before 5 to some of the most amazing sights I've had on this trip so far.  Literally huge, mountainous dunes of sand juxtaposed against a backdrop of pine and snow-covered mountains!  We trekked and trekked to get to the top of them, stopping along the way to mischievously modify people's messages and make our own in the sand, make sand angels, tumble down huge sand hills and more, but the highlight came when we found an abandoned snowsled buried in the sand, not quite at the top!

We dug it out and had a ton of fun barrelling down the dunes, and not as much fun climbing back up them with the sled for the next person's turn. We did that for at least another hour before the sun started to set.  Almost the whole time we were at it, we saw two tiny figures sitting on the tip top of the dunes way above us, and as Cory was bringing the sled back up for Cole's last turn, they'd walked down and were coming our way. 

Turned out to be a mother and 12-yr old (or so) son, and I talked with them a bit.  Turned out they were on a roadtrip too, but a 3-MONTH one, from New York. Holy crap was I jealous, and I told 'em so!

They were planning on heading up to Vancouver from here, then going all the way down the coast to Baja California, then cutting across Mexico and rentering the U.S. in Texas somewhere to start meandering home.  Holy CRAP that would be fun.

Anyway, we let them have the sled after Cole's turn and wished them well on their journey and they on ours, then started the trek back down, got in the car, and hit the road for destination unknown.  We wanna see Durango and get to Mesa Verde tomorrow before starting home, so the goal was to find some supper and some lodging somewhere between the dunes and Durango.

(That could be the title of a song, "Somewhere Between The Dunes and Durango")

We found both in a little town called South Fork, which is where we are now. We ate at a restaurant called The Shaft (all had the salad bar), then got a room at the Spruce Lodge, a little family-owned rustic motel by the highway.

So that's where we'll be until hitting the road for Durango in the morning.

So, in short, we met lotsa interesting peeps, had a lotta fun, and learned some important lessons today.  A GOOD DAY.

I'll really have to get the pictures I've been taking up on flickr when I gets me some reliable internets, because there's some good'uns in there!

More tomorrow!