One year of ownership - cross country drive

[Mr9146]

the "ex-curt" thing is a tribute and an appreciation of that.

I'm surprised you admitted that in public. I wouldn't have...

ZING!!

[karlusmagnus]

Yale, when we were coming back in '09, we were on highway 50, the loneliest highway in America. Stopped at Ely and stayed the night at a former brothel, now a BnB. Love the snippets of conversation. Keep the story rollin' ....

[yale]

TUESDAY
To Leadville Colorado
The next morning I went to the hotel’s coffee shop.
“Can I get a bacon and egg sandwich on a roll please?”
“What’s a roll?”
I told this story to a NYC friend of mine; he said what planet was this?
“We have white, wheat, and sour dough and I can give you eggs and bacon but you’ll have to make your own sandwich.”
I love bacon and egg sandwiches, even when I make them myself.
After breakfast I drove over to a local garage to get an oil change.
“Where do you take the oil out?”
“Oh actually I don’t know, I just bought the car.”
“Must be this nut here.”
After adding 6 quarts of oil off I went, all be it at a much slower pace then the evening before. My destination was Leadville Colorado. Many years ago I worked with a girl whose family came from Leadville and it always sounded like a neat place. I realized at this point that theme of my trip was visiting places I have heard about but never been, Yosemite, Leadville, later on Lawrence Kansas and that Basque restaurant. After about an hour or so of driving I passed, once again, that California Toyota pick up with the surfboard on top!

The state after Nevada is Utah. Have you been there? I had driven around Utah before so, on one hand, I did expect the dramatic moonscape that was passing by my car window. Nonetheless, it was fantastic. I had brought an iPod full of audio books, but California, Nevada and Utah were so entertaining visually I found I never thought about listening to them until Colorado.

I am sure Colorado can be a dramatic looking state. However after Utah, seeing ski chalet housing developments, endless chain restaurants and chain stores cluttered up my viewing from Interstate 70 and was quite a let down after what I had seen before.

At 6pm I left the highway and started to climb up to Leadville. I didn’t realize it but Leadville was perched on the side of a mountain, 10,000 feet above sea level. Driving down the main street. I saw another old hotel. Nice, I love those. I pulled over and ran across the street. Hmm, no doors seem to open, guess though it looked functioning it was not open. Back in the car driving down main street a bit more I see the Treeline Motel. I pull in and ask at the office how much for a room. $45. Sounds good. The Polish accented guy behind the desk tells me it’s his last one. I ask what is going on, it seems to me to be a between season so I am surprised they are busy. He tells me there is a mine opening and a lot of folks are in town to start it up again. I ask him where do you eat in Leadville? He says there is a burger place next door, a Chinese restaurant, an Italian and a couple of steak places. I ask for a recommendation and he says Quincy’s, “They have steak in different sizes.” Ok, whatever that means I think.

As I walk around town - well - back down main street, I notice I have a headache, I’m breathing heavily and I’m dizzy, oh yeah, 10,000 feet up! My cousins used to live in Vinylhaven Maine an island 1½ hours off the coast and this feels just like that. Very cut off, beautiful and ugly at the same time, an imposition of man over nature. In Vinylhaven it was fishing, here it’s mining. And though you don’t see the mines (and you didn’t see them fish), the way people live when you are here to do a job is, for lack of a better word, rough. I couldn’t imagine living here year round. It was May and there was snow all around us though not in the town itself. And just before spring had fully sprung the trailing effects of hard winters remained.

I walked into Quincy’s. Before being asked or asking about a seat I was told by one of the waitresses in the back of the room, “We only have steak, filet mignon; 8 oz, 10 oz, 12 oz, and 14 oz, it comes with a baked potato, and a salad with our house dressing. Will that work for you?”
“Um sure” I say, and I’m shown a seat.
“Do you know what you want?”
“How much is a 12 oz?”
“12.95 and comes with a baked potato and a salad with our house dressing.”
“Fine I’ll get that and a gin and tonic”
The steak was fantastic, cooked fairly rare as I like it and with their own special sauce and special salt the baked potato was great as well.
I had what they called Philadelphia style cheesecake for desert, I commented that in NYC we call that a NY style cheesecake. The whole bill was $18! The drink was $1.75! Wow, maybe I could live here.

Photos:
1. Hotel Nevada
2. The road in Utah.
3. Leadville, CO.

[blucille]

been to leadville....but the better question, why'd he only put six quarts of oil in? I'm guessing he only drained the sump, not the oil tank....hmmmmm hope you only paid for half of an oil change

[yale]

Exactly, didn't drain the sump.

[Type911]

Been to Leadville a few times, in the 911 and for a 100 mile mtb bike race (not for the faint of heart...or lung!) Too bad you had to slog east on I-70 in Colorado...so much more off the interstate.

Great narrative of your drive home, looking fwd to more...!

[John Fusco]

Indeed , Yale - keep it spinning !

[yale]

WEDNESDAY
To Kansas
The next day on the road again. Kansas is a long state. Wider then Utah at any rate and not as interesting looking, well nothing new in that observation is there? In fact it seems that there are so few pretty roads that the state of Kansas announces from the highway when you are about to pass one. “Scenic River Road this exit.” My destination was Lawrence, Kansas, a college town that I always heard about because writer William Burroughs choose that place to settle down. Had to be a reason for that and I aimed to find out.

Driving off the highway and into town I pass a Bosch Parts sign at a place with a signal yellow 1970’s 911 in front. Duly noted I thought as that noise I had heard at the beginning of the trip was getting worse and worse.

Lawrence Kansas was a really wonderful town. A buzzing main street with an old hotel and quite a few independent stores and resturants. It was also the first place the car got a lot of admiring looks, (hey, that’s a good sign!) I drove around looking for parking which seemed hard to come by. I found a space a block or two from the old hotel and some guy with a kid and carrying a pizza ran up to me.
“Great car!”
“Thanks” I said.
“Are you looking for indoor parking?”
“No, it should be ok here shouldn’t it? But do you have a suggestion for dinner?”
“Well the Freestate Brewery is where you will see a lot of the locals, you should go there.”
I checked into the old hotel and had dinner at the afore mentioned restaurant, well, the hotel was nice.

Photos:
1. Old hotel in Lawrence, Kansas.
2. Main Street (and it still looks like this, with newer cars of course.)

[Gumby]

WEDNESDAY
.
do you have a suggestion for dinner?”
“Well the Freestate Brewery is where you will see a lot of the locals, you should go there.”
I checked into the old hotel and had dinner at the afore mentioned restaurant, well, the hotel was nice.

)

That says volumes about the restaurant!

[mohrgan]

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