Day Three: Illinois to Colorado

Our hangovers came at different times. Nick was oozing around like an abused animal of some kind, but became alert and clearheaded as he drove. I was uppity and eager when I woke up, but felt my stomach churn on the road.

We had squandered time. This was evident. We both wanted a full day in Colorado and we had serious distance to go. I had never been more west than West Virginia before this trip, and although I was fascinated by much of the scenery, and later, lack thereof, but I was especially anxious for Colorado.

We finished up Illinois, went through Missouri, and Kansas, and reached Denver late at night. Nick drove the day and I the night and I can sum up the day's trip in one image.


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That's it. The rest is just superfluous details, like cruise control, eyelids collapsing, Coldplay, and how Kansas City is tugged by two different states. The main focus here is the unwavering straight line that we followed, and followed, and followed, until we, or at least I, was sure it would be over soon, and then realizing there were 100 miles left. Just one road, like a beam. We could have rigged the steering wheel into a fixed position and probably would have been ok, except that we got pulled over for going 88 in a 70 anyways.

Nick had to hide the half empty beer in the back, and I got slammed with a $186.50 ticket. I had a nasty feeling that the cop just came up with a random number, possibly through some sort of game or pieces of paper in a hat.

We made it to a Comfort Inn, spending much less money than the Econolodge, and I annoyed Nick while he chatted with his girlfriend, who encouraged me to make Nick pay for half my ticket. The hotel was nice, although we couldn't help but laugh how the note-from-management sign by the bathroom mirror was glued to the wall upside down.

One thing I forgot to add. My friend Mary mentioned once how amazing the stars were in Colorado. "The stars!" she wrote years back. As I drove, it was extremely difficult not to look through my open sunroof, into which Nick was gazing, and just watch them. They were so many and so near it didn't look real. It was as if the sky had been lassoed and yanked closer to the ground. They covered the sky, and if I wasn't driving I probably would have reached my hand out and grabbed them by the cluster. It was better than any concert lightshow or Media Player visualization. It was terrific.