Day 15 --CO

Day 15—
Today was driving in the mountains day. There really were some spectacular views – probably more majestic and much larger than in Utah. Colorado looks very different than Utah. Southern Utah is red. Colorado is gray and green. Utah has spectacular formations – Colorado has immense panoramas. I believe that I have driven to Colorado from Ohio four times before. The furthest west I drove previously was Vail. This is many, many years ago – I was in my twenties I think. My recollection of driving I-70 through the mountains near Vail and of Vail itself was entirely different from today. Think the roads maight have been inproved in 30 years? That and the fact that it was snowing in Vail then and I could barely keep the car on the road. I pretty sure that I once drive out to Colorado in the middle of summer with Leah, the school counselor at the school where I taught science, in a Mazda GLC. Of course it had no air conditioning so driving through the entire width of Kansas was like being in a blast furnace. I distinctly remember that the air coming in the windows made you hotter but it was too suffocating to close the windows.

What brought this to mind today is that I can remember at least a hundred times wondering what was on the other side of Vail. At that point I had never been any further west, and even though I have since flown to many cites west of Denver later in my career, I still couldn’t picture what was beyond the mountains of Vail. Now I know and it is incredible country that I could drive for quite a while before I became oblivious to it like I am to I-75 -- from Flint to Miami. I think the west suits me.

The drive was very stressful as well as beautiful. Descending the mountain passes at 75 or 80 mph in traffic can be a little overwhelming, especially when there is a little thought in the back of your head that there is something wrong with the steering. How ironic to being driving a car that was engineered for high speed, stable cornering and being worried about the safety of that very thing. For anyone thinking “Stop and get it fixed, dumb ass.” let me reassure you that the car is driving perfectly. And the seats are amazingly comfortable.

I took 22 pictures today. Eighteen were of my feet, the ground and the interior of the car. Four were of the scenery that I was pointing the camera at. Photography is a learning process.

So 4800 miles from home I arrive at the Barcelona’s house. It’s been my good fortune to see (my brother) Jerry and (my sister-in-law) Cheryl four times this year and Christmas will make five times. Jerry has been in Colorado for 30 years and it’s long ago become home to him. It’s quite a contrast going from the solitude of a different motel each night to the comfort of being with family. This is a big change for me from the days of my cynical youth and early middle age when I was too cool for my family.

Aw, yes, Leah the school counselor. We met at Watts Middle School in Centerville, Ohio where I taught 6th, 7th and 8th grade science. I was in my second year at Watts and Leah was new. She was very pretty in an earthy way and had very long straight dark hair. I was fairly recently divorced and Leah and I struck up a very brief, very tumultuous affair. Leah was very smart and had some issues – particularly some big issues with her demagogue father. What I remember most is how she got her first name. Her first name at birth was Janet. I had assumed that she changed it Leah as an act of defiance toward her father. When I asked her how she came to be called Leah she said “I was in the mountains and the wind told me to call myself Leah.” . . . My, oh my!

Tomorrow, golf and a picnic.