Officially a Darma Bum!!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
So this is my first post to the entire vacation blog. Mostly everything that Shannon spoke about, I agree with. If you check out my answers to her questions in the last post you will see how I felt about some of our experiences. Overall, a two week driving vacation is very long. It is something I have always wanted to do, but the hectic pace required for this trip seemed less like a vacation and more like a sporting event. I have always been intrigued by Jack Kerouac's description of cross-country travel in On The Road. That was a different time, and the pace was much more leisurely. I would do this trip again if I had no time contraints so that I could spend more time in places that interested me like Ouray, CO.
We experienced some great hospitality all over the country. I am glad, because I have been getting increasingly crappy service in my day to day activities. It's good to know that great service and hospitality aren't dead.
Tomorrow is back to work for me as well. I am actually excited to get back in the swing of things. Also, its Penn State vs. OSU this week, and I am in the middle of enemy ground. I can't wait to talk football all week. At the end of this post you will see Shannon's answers to my interview questions. It was a great way to pass time on our very long drive home yesterday.
D: What was your favorite or “best” of each of the following?
S:
State: Colorado
City: Telluride
Hike: to Delicate Arch
Food: everything in Telluride – loved the rice milk with my chai & it was the best breakfast
Lodging: Cali Cochitta in Moab, UT (loved the ambiance)
National Park: Rocky Mountain NP
Non-National Park site: St. Mary’s Glacier
Drive: Independence Pass (Aspen to Leadville, CO)
Purchase: Pueblo pottery & Rebuild NOLA tee
D: What was your least favorite or “worst” of the following?
S:
State: Arizona
City: Amarillo
Hike: to Landscape Arch
Food: Ramada breakfast
Lodging: the Stanley (though it WAS lovely), and Amarillo is a close 2nd!
Drive: tie between AZ and TX (Dallas area to Amarillo specifically)
D: If you could change one thing about the trip, what would it be?
S: More time overall – though more likely I’d narrow the focus and spend more time in fewer places
D: What wildlife were you most hoping to see? Did you see it? If not, what was the coolest wildlife you did see?
S: I wanted to see alligators, but I didn’t. I loved the rutting elk though!
D: Which place would you most like to return for a future vacation?
S: tie: Colorado for Rocky Mt. NP and San Juan Skyway area OR Utah for its numerous National Parks
D: What was the most surprising part of the trip?
S: the art fair we stumbled on in Santa Fe
D: What was the biggest letdown?
S: another tie: I thought Austin and Aspen would be different
D: What was the oddest thing you saw?
S: Coke-heads/hookers dressed for sunny LA or Vegas, but in a tiny CO mining town’s convenience store restroom
D: What city could you most see yourself living in?
S: None; they are all too dry or too cold, but if I had to choose then I’d summer in Telluride.
D: Overall what was the best part of the vacation?
S: Seeing new places, but also sharing places I’d been before with Donnell.
D: What was the worst part?
S: Two things that were always in the background of our trip, that I often had to work to ignore were 1) neck & shoulder pain - even after a massage and 2) the historical, political, and socio-economical issues surrounding the many inhabitants of the areas we visited (human & animal)
posted by Shannon @ 17.9.06,
