Saturday 16 June 2007

"I've been to Colorado where the mountains touch the sky...." 333 miles


"So waddya think of Blair?" said the thick set guy with the faded teeshirt and baseball cap, occupying the corner seat at the bar. (Thinks: "he looks like he is perhaps a Republican...."). Back to Doug in a moment.

Set off from Cortez and I realised that I had crossed a timezone so was now only 7 hours behind the UK. Drove up into the San Juan Mountains - part of the Rockies. The scenery changed from hot and dry to lush green with spruce pine, waterfalls, rivers and snow capped peaks. A DJ called "Cheeky Monkey" on KOTO in Telluride had a caller on asking for volunteers to help remove a fallen tree from a creek, "It could be kinda fun". In Montrose some hours later, another DJ (I think he may have been on KPAW: The Bear), was talking about "the big chili cook off" this weekend; away from the major cities you make your own entertainment.

A few hours later I was down the other side in the heat of Canon City sitting in a bar with one other customer.....Doug.

"Tony Blair?...well erm....fudgety fudge fudge fudge...erm good and er not so good....fudgety....(Don't mention the war)...erm WMD (damn too late you fool)....45 minutes erm not sure about the erm intelligence...fudge fudge....however Saddam Hussein didn't seem like he was a very nice man....erm fudgety"

Doug: "That French guy was a bad man too!"


Me: (Brain: Skkreeeeee... halt!.) You honestly can't believe that Jaques Chirac was as bad as Saddam Hussein just because he disagreed with the US??? Think of it this way you two are very similar: No one tells the Americans what to do...the French do what they like as well. On this occasion you disagreed. The French were on your side against us in the War of Independence!! "


Not sure Doug was entirely convinced, but he did buy me a drink which was kind of him.

Staggered, several hours later, back to my room and at 06:30 all hell broke loose. A spectacularly loud noise rent the air and made the walls shake. I had failed to spot a sign on the back of the door which read "A railroad runs the entire length of Canon City...the law says the train must sound its whistle at every road crossing...we can do nothing about it and we apologise for any inconvenience. I had heard that lonesome whistle blow!


Enjoying the blog? Check my (totally accurate) route so far- the map can be accessed via my showpage at: www.bbc.co.uk/radio2

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really do hope your going to write a book about this trip....

have a safe journey

dellla

Cheryl Annette said...

Alex..

Have missed you in the mornings to chat to...Glad you enjoying the scenery...Drive Safe and Have Fun.

Cheryl

chriswov said...

we stayed at Casa Grande just outside Phoenix before going to Tombstone in2003. Luckily we took a couple of rooms in a cheap and cheerful motel and not the massive Holiday Inn next door and we were entertained by slow moving trains all night and the sound of their horns and they are really loud when you're "up close and personal"

Anonymous said...

RE:I had failed to spot a sign on the back of the door which read "A railroad runs the entire length of Canon City...the law says the train must sound its whistle at every road crossing...we can do nothing about it and we apologise for any inconvenience. I had heard that lonesome whistle blow!

The Runaway Train (Massey/Warren/Robison)

"The runaway train came down the tracks and she blew,
The runaway train came down the tracks and she bleeeeeeeew,
The runaway train came down the track, her whistle wide & her throttle back
and made sure " Long Locks: was wide awake (RESULT!)
and she blew, blew, blew, blew, blew.......

Loved this song when I was a kid

LOL

Anonymous said...

i thought the noise was going to have something to do with a chilli cook off LOL !!
i suppose no one gets to have a lie in in that town. not much to stay up late for by the sounds of it. :)

Anonymous said...

Keep the flag flying Dark Lord.

All the best Gonorr

Unknown said...

What next - north or south?

If you are now heading for Kansas City, you still have the option to take the southern route - drop by here for a rest on the White River (4 hrs from Kansas City) and then pick up the I-40 south of here to Memphis, Nashville and then Virginia etc.
The hike to Kansas City looks a bit grim - 9 hours (580 miles)

Anonymous said...

don't think I could cope with the whistle. Keep going