Go West Young Man! Part Three:

We hit the road after mass on Sunday, which immediately followed an intense session at the slots. Together Dennis and I helped Lloyd lose most of his winnings and then proceeded to ask the Good Lord for forgiveness -- Lloyd was unemployed at the time so it was a pretty grievous sin. Once cleansed of our shameful wickedness, we sailed out of town -- laughing to the tune of Captain Jack Sparrow no less -- toward the hills of Northern Nevada and Utah.

Those few days on the road I will remember as the most beautiful and scenic of my life. Imagine serpentine paths cut through tree-topped mountains, and roads hugged by immense cliff-faces the color of red sand, which rise so high into the heavens that you must stretch your head out the window just to see their summit (while avoiding flying grasshoppers and stationary signposts). Tunnels carved through ashen hills pockmarked with tall pines while traffic races foaming river rapids and old steaming locomotives. You feel like a real National Geographic photographer out there; no shot goes to waste.

Unfortunately time prevented any further exploration than what bordered the roads and rest stops. We had to arrive in Chicago on Wed, so much of our itinerary for Utah and Colorado was rescheduled for a future trip, which in a way turned out well as we could spend more time exploring at a later date. We did manage to scour Denver a bit though, which I didn't find all that interesting apart from it's uncanny library (it looks like a city unto itself!) and the unusual number of bums roaming the city. Seriously, the streets appeared empty apart from the two dozen bums moving in between the Roman columns at the city's center. I think we were all relieved when we began walking (quickly) back to the car. Dennis stopped muttering "We're all going to die. We're going to get shot by a hobo and die." Of course, we were in no real danger, being all video game martial artists and having trained for years on the Street Fighter and Tekken circuits, but it was good nobody got hurt nonetheless.

Now Chi-town was when we really geeked out. On Friday and Saturday after spending several hours loading up on comics, we hauled ourselves back to the hotel and whittled away the afternoon reading Spiderman, Batman, and Hulk. I cannot remember the last time I was afforded hours of guilt-free reading with friends particularly after all the traveling. It felt good to unfold, stretch, and relax. However, with the loss of the video game competitions and many manga vendors, the convention itself felt a little thin as if they had cut out much of what made the con so enjoyable last year. The costumes were interesting though -- Dennis and I sadly did not dress up, but, after disappearing for several hours, we are in doubt about Lloyd "Transformer" Frius . . .

All in all, the trip was fantastic. The last two weeks here at the house have been quite chaotic as my time has been split between teaching/babysitting the two littlest, running errands, and helping with the construction on the house, yet even now I yearn to hit the road again. Brave the wilds and experience new things, partly out of pure curiosity, but mostly because they are so much fun to write about . . .