i’m a pretty safe driver, but on those long trips across corn fields, past strip malls, down tree lined highways… i get tired. I usually fuel a drive with 4-6 shots of espresso at home followed by ice tea at gas stations when i’m feeling tired. Colorado was different. I was truly amazed by the state, it is so easy to disregard the beauty of where we live/come from and think to the vineyards of Italy or the mountains of Patagonia. But in our back door, a mere 12 hours from Minnesota, there is constant unrelenting natural beauty, and it makes driving a true pleasure.
I know what you are thinking, Daniel got funded by Colorado tourism, he has to say nice shit about the state. It isn’t true. Colorado has given us carte blanche to do anything (except badmouth them and make videos about weed). Its pretty rare to find a partner that understands our process (intrepid travel did too), and be open to supporting it. That beings said, with that nice relationship, we DO want to say nice things about them, and Colorado is sooooo nice.
Back to driving. We stationed ourselves mostly in Durango during our 6 week stay in the Sunshine state. As wonderful as it was to have a home base and babysitters and toys for James, it meant long drives for myself, Hunter and occasionally Mirra. 6 hours in the car in the midwest is rough, 6 hours in Colorado is a wondrous adventure through multiple climates, altitudes, peaks and valleys. There is no time to get tired, either you are paying attention to the scenery, or making sure you don’t go off the road (Million dollar highway?!?!).
The point of this blog was really just to share what a joy it was to drive in Colorado, how much I loved it – with The Grateful Dead, Kendrik Lamar, Rufus Wainwright or This American Life telling me stories through the radio, I happily drove. And you should too (just know, that whatever state you are coming from, the drive TO Colorado gets better and better, and the drive BACK gets progressively more depressing).
America is beautiful, go explore it: Colorado, Utah, The Boundary waters, Appalachia… so much natural wonder in our country, Colorado just reopened my eyes to it.
