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As I was driving out of Colorado and towards Utah, I decided it was time to stretch the legs. I took a favorite pit stop of mine. I always go right off this exit. I went left this time. I came upon a kiosk. Never heard of this area. Went back to the car and did a little googling. Found out this area has the second highest concentration of arches... in the world. Second only to Arches National Park. Sold. Not going to Utah anymore.
Read MoreI’m not a huge fan of I-70 in Colorado. Especially near Vail. But it’s a near necessity to use it to get here from my neck of the woods. Even though it was late May, I left my snow tires on just in case. My brother from another mother, Mr. Jacob Hanson, and I left my house late into the evening and hit the edges of Vail around 9 pm. I could look up the exact time if I wanted to look at my speeding ticket again. But I don’t want to. I should have known better. But it happens... sometimes you let your vehicle gain speed on the way down a hill. I got caught this time around.
Read MoreAfter spending 4 days and 3 nights here, I got to know the place. It became familiar. I had some routines. I found a spectacular rock in the sun that doubled as my dinner table as well as my lounge chair. There was some paint on it. That’s cool, someone was painting. Had a couple of bird bombs too. To make up for it, there was this other little rock someone put there that was square and perfect to put under your head. Like a pillow. I arranged it so it covered the wet paint. I took a nap. After who knows how long, I woke and started stretching and moving my arms about. Then a bird flew off and scared me. And I got pooped on. Crap.
Read MoreWe went in without much of a plan. All we really knew was that we wouldn’t be taking the normal jaunt from the backside of the visitor center. We decided to grab a backcountry permit to spend a couple of nights in the dunefield and go from there. At some point while filling out the paperwork, the ranger warned us that April is their windiest month. Perfect, I thought. Just what I was looking for. We were also told that the sand gets twice as hot as the air temperature. It was going to be in the 50s and 60s and I’m good at math so I didn’t think that would be all that hot. We got deep into the dunes and set up camp. Shot sunset and sunrise the next day. Just how Colorado likes it, we were treated to blue skies and a warm sun in the late morning. Make no bones about it: this was sweet. Excited, we packed up and got deeper into the dunes for the second day of our adventure.
Read MoreMy trip to the Palouse started well right off the bat. At the car rental counter in Spokane, somehow they decided to give me a name change from Tim to Tony. That sets off some sort of alarm that takes 45 minutes to resolve. Tony Canfield was not about to rent a car that day. When the guy finally came back, he thanked me for my patience and gave me a free upgrade to from Economy to Luxury. Whoo. I honestly didn't really want it but I didn't want to prolong the pain for the lady waiting behind me. I took the keys that were in front of me, headed to the lot, and find out it's a Chrysler 300. It looked more like a boat. Whatever.
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