Ely - Denver

Monday we left Ely at 4am, rolling east on the US-50. We entered Utah at dawn and had some spectacular scenery as we crossed Panoramaland before connecting with the I-70 and crossing the continental divide. Including numerous photo and leg-stretching stops it took us about 13 hours to get to Denver, a good 3 hours over-schedule.

On arrival in Denver, I dragged Anderson down to East Colfax Ave, the wickedest street in America, to follow in Kerouac's footsteps and see some of my old stomping grounds. We attracted a following of coke-riddled bums as we walked east, apparently they thought we were going to start dropping dollars. On the way back we had dinner at the Rock Bottom Brewery outside on the 16th street mall. I ate buffalo for the first time ever, in the form of buffalo fajitas. Anderson thought he would eat light and order a salad... the resulting huge plate that arrived loaded down with greens and chicken, croutons and bread rolls was the proof that if you are eating out in this country, you are not eating light. One to one and a half meals is calorie sufficient to last an entire day. On that note, high fructose corn syrup appears to be the magic ingredient which is in almost every food and drink I have consumed in the last 8 days.

Tuesday went down to Littleton to visit some more old stomping grounds, go to a mall and do boring stuff like washing at the laundromat I used to frequent called 'All My Suds'. Got a bit lost getting back downtown after taking a wrong turn, and ended up skirting around south Denver and getting on 3 freeways before finally figuring out where we were. Then just when it was all good and we were pointing in the right direction the freeway split and we were dragged east again because I was in the wrong lane! Visited the obligatory downtown sites, the state capitol, civic center and US Mint, then met Cindy for dinner at Chilli's on 16th Street.