my step-bros' dad died over the weekend---which resulted in me driving to denver on Monday then flying to St. Louis and doing the reverse on Wednesday. It seems I am hitting that cliche stage of life where you mostly see family around weddings and funerals. Strange how real those cliches can be.
Strange also how many kiwis I have been running into. My son is being coached by a kiwi (shoot don't we have any Americans who can sail?---well if you look at the America's Cup roster it would seem not).
Anyhow while walking the dogs Monday morning prior to driving to Denver I ran into some kiwis. I gave them some hiking advice-suggestions (get below the tree line by 2 pm etc). They were very appreciative, and thrilled that my son was lucky enough to have Kiwi Carl Evans coaching him---he is the shit according to what I overheard as they walked away.
Onto the drive. As I passed through Leadville I picked up a hitchhiker. Yes he had an ax, but it was an ice ax, not a battle ax so I figured I was safe. He turned out to be another kiwi (are there any left in country?) He started hiking in Mexico about 50 days earlier and had gotten off the CO trail for a couple of days rest and relaxation and was hitching his way back to the trailhead in Silverton. He had some good stories but man if that is how you smell after two days of showers and laundry I can't imagine what he was like 48 hours earlier. Anyhow good deed done.
A couple of quick observations--first the drive over independence pass is really beautiful right now--streams are flowing with a ton of white water, the greens are very green and there is still a lot of snow. However, if you pay the price to own a pain in the butt porsche this is the road you want to turn it loose on. How come whenever someone is driving painfully slow they speed up when you decide to pass them? I swear the number of minivans with 6 bikes on the back, 2 boats on the roof and 12 people in the car going 18 MPH who decided to crank it up to 60 MPH when I move over to pass was uncountable. Good thing my porsche is faster than a fully loaded minivan (but I swear one of em was being driven by Dale Earnhardt jr).
Now that mini-road trip is out of the way I head to Tahoe on Saturday --1 daughter, 2 dogs, 1 hockey bag and record setting heat. I can't promise much, but I can promise my car will stink--I might even think the kiwi hiker smelled ok.
No comments:
Post a Comment