Around Colorado In Ten Days

2006-05-20T13:01:00.000-06:00

Day Nine: WE'RE FINISHED!

We pulled into Nick's driveway in Boulder at 7:20 PM on May 19th, after visiting every county seat in the state of Colorado! Ryan celebrated with this battle cry (70KB WAV file). Here's photos from the last day on the road:

Last night, after traveling further than we expected, we stayed at a condo owned by a coworker of Nick's dad's. It was incredible! Thanks for letting us stay, Dave.

We watched the classic film 12 Angry Men, to help get us in a justice-y sort of mood for the last day of visiting courthouses.

Ryan looked like some sort of larva in his sleeping bag.

Our first stop was in Leadville, where we saw this strange house with an eyeball for a window (in the upper left).

We drove up around Leadville's historic mining area and looked at all the old, abandoned mines.

There are all sorts of abandoned mining buildings in the area. We hiked up to this one, although we had no idea what it was for.

Leadville's altitude is above 10,000 feet, so there was still some deep snow. Hiking in this snow is hard, and we all sank in past our knees every other step we took.

Ryan decided to jump off this ledge into the deep snow below...

...and promptly got stuck up to his waist. I'm not quite sure what he expected to happen, but the outcome was humorous.

We spent a good part of ten minutes digging him out. You can't tell here, but Ryan was wearing shorts, and his normally-pasty legs turned a bright shade of pink.

This was the method of choice for sock-drying. We got some very strange looks from passers-by.

And this - Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs - was our sustenance following the mine-hiking. The pizza here is so thick, you feel like a mountain man when you eat it. It just makes you want to grunt.

We crossed the Continental Divide another two times today, marking our 7th and 8th times overall. Here's number seven on top of Fremont Pass...

...and number eight, inside Eisenhower Tunnel!

After a long day of driving, we finally reached Nick's house, and were faced with the daunting task of unpacking the car...

The Bradleys had these balloons waiting for us, though! Thanks, Bradleys!

And thanks to everyone who's been following this blog. It's been a kick and a half. I'll post a couple of final statistics and whatnot later on.

We visited 8 county seats today! Here's the proof:

Leadville, Lake County

Georgetown, Clear Creek County

Gambling on the steps in Central City, Gilpin County.

Picking our noses in Golden, Jefferson County.

Littleton, Arapahoe County.

Attempting to lick our elbows in Denver, Denver County.

Brighton, Adams County

Rocking out! Our last county courthouse in Broomfield, Broomfield County.

We felt like we had to return to Boulder, for our last photo. Huzzah! 64 counties in nine days!

Our progress so far:

DAY NINE STATS:
Miles Traveled - 269
Total Miles Traveled - 3434
County Seats Visited - 64
Percent of counties done - 100%
Leadville (Lake County) 5/19/06 8:39 AM
Georgetown (Clear Creek County) 5/19/06 11:02 AM
Central City (Gilpin County) 5/19/06 1:24 PM
Golden (Jefferson County) 5/19/06 2:15 PM
Littleton (Arapahoe County) 5/19/06 2:55 PM
Denver (Denver County) 5/19/06 4:01 PM
Brighton (Adams County) 5/19/06 4:58 PM
Broomfield (Broomfield County) 5/19/06 5:57 PM

Albums listened to:
Rilo Kiley - Rilo Kiley
Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Rush - Chronicles
The Mars Volta - Frances the Mute
Ben Folds - Songs for Silverman
Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams

2006-05-19T07:41:00.000-06:00

Day Eight: On the Road Again! We're ahead of schedule, and plan on finishing the trip tomorrow evening. Stay tuned tomorrow for the exciting conclusion! But first, today:

Last night was our second and last night at Dan's house. Thanks, Mary and Pete, for having us! ...why is that mayonnaise on the front porch?

We got up early this morning, so we did a lot of this in the car today. Note: Kristina does not like this photograph.

When we got to Meeker, Ryan and Nick woke up enough to have a shoulder-touch fight. They do this a lot. Whoever gets their shoulder touched is the loser. (In my humble opinion, they're both losers.)

Another shoulder-touch fight action shot. I just can't look at the expression on Ryan's face without laughing aloud.

Later, Kristina woke up for an excellent game of Hey Cow! (Right click and click Save As... 500KB WMV file)

This is another one of those photos where I'm not sure what's going on. I think Nick is getting trampled by some iron sheep, and we're encouraging them.

Another nice day of driving in the mountains: This is the view from Rabbit Ears Pass in Northeastern Colorado.

High altitude! There's still more than enough snow for a snowball fight on Rabbit Ears Pass.

These two rocks, which apparently look like a rabbit's ears, are the namesake of Rabbit Ears Pass. I think they look like two square rocks next to each other, but I suppose that name isn't as catchy.

At the top of Rabbit Ears Pass, we all piled out of the car. Ryan ran off into this forest, and we wondered if he was making some sort of attempt to commune with the woods. He eventually returned though: he'd received a call from nature of a different sort.

We hit 3000 miles on our trip odometer today!

One of many, many shots of Ryan with his head out the window at high speeds. At some point, one has to wonder just how much human DNA he actually has.

We crossed the Continental Divide another three times today, marking our fourth, fifth, and sixth times overall. Here's our fourth, at the top of Rabbit Ears Pass...

...our fifth, at the top of Willow Creek Pass...

...and our sixth time, at the top of Hoosier Pass.

We also saw this Continental Divide sign, and came within 50 feet of it, but we turned just before crossing the line, so it doesn't actually count.

We visited 7 county seats today! Here's the proof:

Meeker, Rio Blanco County

Craig, Moffat County. (Ryan? I'm not even going to ask.)

Steamboat Springs, Routt County. We're upside down! Note: we tried doing handstands, but this was the best we could manage.

Dead on the steps in Walden, Jackson County.

Hot Sulphur Springs, Grand County. For this photo, we tried to get all of us in midair. Out of more than 20 attempts, this was the best photo we got!

Breckenridge, Summit County

Fairplay, Park County. It was the end of the day, and we were getting a little goofy.

Our progress so far:

DAY EIGHT STATS:
Miles Traveled - 432
Total Miles Traveled - 3165
County Seats Visited - 56
Percent of counties done - 87.5%

Meeker (Rio Blanco County) 5/18/06 10:09 AM
Craig (Moffat County) 5/18/06 11:21 PM
Steamboat Springs (Routt County) 5/18/06 12:27 PM
Walden (Jackson County) 5/18/06 2:19 PM
Hot Sulphur Springs (Grand County) 5/18/06 3:44 PM
Breckenridge (Summit County) 5/18/06 5:34 PM
Fairplay (Park County) 5/18/06 6:23 PM

Albums listened to:
Badly Drawn Boy - About a Boy Soundrack
Bishop Allen - Charm School
Josh Rouse - Subtitulo
Tapes 'n' Tapes - The Loon
The Libertines - The Libertines
Loose Fur - Born Again in the USA
Nada Surf - The Weight is a Gift
The White Stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom
Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus
Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall (1957)

2006-05-18T08:41:00.000-06:00

The Great Travelogue: Day Seven! Note: I've turned off the thing that made you have to register before commenting. Sorry, I didn't know it was on.

Today, we took it a little bit easier and hung out in the Roaring Fork Valley most of the day, visiting only three houses. It was nice to have a day to breathe before heading out at breakneck pace again!

Our first stop was at the Pitkin County Clerk and Recorder's office in Aspen. Dan's dad used to do a lot of work at the courthouse in Aspen, and we visited his old friend, Lyndee.

Across the street, we found the new record high gas price: $3.72 for regular unleaded in Aspen!

Next on the agenda: we went over to the playground on the Aspen Mall to play on their spectacular spinny things. We all got dizzy and sick, and enjoyed the strange looks from the moms and little kids.

For our next sidetrip, we drove up to Ashcroft, an old ghost town 11 miles outside of Aspen. Everything was going well, and we were all enjoying the scenery, when this happened: A very large bird left us a very large present on our windshield. Ryan shook his fist and vowed to get back at birdkind.

The drive was still quite scenic and gorgeous, as long as we looked out the side windows.

Here's Ashcroft! A sign informed us that "Ashcroft was established early in 1880 as a mining camp. It was abandoned in the 1890's when the silver boom ended. The town was a stage station on the old Taylor Pass Toll Road." The sign also commanded us to "HELP PREVENT FOREST FIRES."

The town was still in amazing shape. This is Ashcroft's old hotel, restored in the 1970's, which you can now walk around inside!

Ryan played in the river.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the Garfield County Courthouse in Glenwood Springs (see photo below), and saw Dan's Aunt-but-not-really Judy! We also found that Glenwood Springs has quite an overabundance of helicopter seeds! (Right click and click Save As... 500KB WMV)

Next, we went to Eagle and saw Dan's friend Jamie. We didn't get a photo of her, but we got a photo of her car, which is nearly as good.

At the end of the day, we hiked up to Hanging Lake, near Glenwood Springs. All the snow was melting, and the water was really high!

Here's Nick watching... something?

At the top, we saw a cool lizard! Ryan was going to touch it, but chickened out because he thought it was poisonous. Wimp.

Finally, we reached the trail's namesake: Hanging Lake! This incredibly blue lake is perched hundreds of feet above a canyon, it's like a little oasis.

Ryan climbed up the rocks to get a closer look at the waterfall.

Here's the canyon the lake is located in. We hiked late in the day, so the canyon was all shaded. What a day!

We visited 3 courthouses today! Here's the proof:

Aspen, Pitkin County. We're all being Aspenites and talking on our cellphones!

Glenwood Springs, Garfield County

Eagle, Eagle County. Note our eagle poses (and Ryan's monkey pose?).

Our progress so far:

DAY SIX STATS:
Miles Traveled - 186
Total Miles Traveled - 2733
County Seats Visited - 49
Percent of counties done - 76.6%

Aspen (Pitkin County) 5/17/06 10:56 AM
Glenwood Springs (Garfield County) 5/17/06 2:11 PM
Eagle (Eagle County) 5/17/06 3:07 PM

Albums listened to:
Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
Pink Floyd - Obscured by Clouds
Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour of Bewilderbeast
Best of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Thelonious Monk - Riffin'

2006-05-16T21:29:00.000-06:00

Day Six of the Colorado Journey That Just Wouldn't End!

Last night, we ate at Ryan's grandparents' house in Cortez, Colorado. It was great! Not only did we eat real food, Ryan's grandma made us strawberry shortcake! Unfortunately, I don't have a photo, because the shortcake's awesomeness blinded my camera. Oh well.

Another successful night of camping at McPhee Reservoir, north of Cortez. We got in late and left early, so we didn't get to truly enjoy the site. We did, however, have another great, if small, campfire.

This is what Ryan does every time we stop for gas. I think he enjoys it a little too much, but thanks Ryan.

Today, we drove through Ouray, Colorado. Wow! The scenery in all the mountain towns is neat, but Ouray is incredible.

Ouray is located in the middle of a box canyon with huge walls. People call it "Switzerland of the Rockies."

After leaving Ouray, we went over Red Mountain Pass, which has some very cool tunnels. This one is just a hole, bored straight through the mountain.

This one's even cooler: It's slanted so that sliding rocks and water can go right over it.

When we got to Silverton, it was also beautiful. However, not everything was pretty. Like this: $3.34 for the cheap stuff. It's the most expensive gas we've seen so far!

In Montrose, not only do they have a Sheriff's car, they have Sherrifs' Posse cars. They really say posse on them! The County Trip is kind of like a posse.

For awhile, we weren't sure where to eat lunch. However, we soon spotted a Sonic. Wow. This made the day. Here's Nick on the SonicPhone!

And Kristina enjoying her burger...

When we got to Grand Junction this afternoon, we had some time to kill, and went to a park to be lazy for a little while. What a nice day.

Dan's enjoying the fresh air: None of us has showered for three days, so the inside of the car is getting a little... ripe.

Ryan jumped over this table, 'cause he's awesome like that.

After a long day in driving, we arrived in El Jebel, near Basalt, at Dan's house. Dan's parents greeted us with this huge sign on the lawn! Yay for parents. A house to stay at means good food, apple pie, and most importantly, showers! Stay tuned: tomorrow, we're taking a short break, visiting only three courthouses and wandering around the Roaring Fork Valley.

We visited 6 county seats today! Here's the proof:

Telluride, San Miguel County

Ouray, Ouray County

Silverton, San Juan County

Montrose, Montrose County

Delta, Delta County

Grand Junction, Mesa County. That's our West Side Story snapping pose.

Our progress so far:

DAY SIX STATS:
Miles Traveled - 423
Total Miles Traveled - 2547
County Seats Visited - 46
Percent of counties done - 71.9%

Telluride (San Miguel County) 5/16/06 8:50 AM
Ouray (Ouray County) 5/16/06 10:21 AM
Silverton (San Juan County) 5/16/06 11:22 AM
Montrose (Montrose County) 5/16/06 1:09 PM
Delta (Delta County) 5/16/06 2:56 PM
Grand Junction (Mesa County) 5/16/06 4:08 PM

Albums listened to:
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Elliot Smith - Either/Or
The Who - Live at Leeds
Engineers - Engineers
The Elected - Sun, Sun, Sun
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
Death Cab for Cutie - Plans
Iron and Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
Dave Matthews Band - Crash

2006-05-15T21:06:00.000-06:00

The Great Counties Trip Travelogue: Day Five! Click on any photo to see a larger version.

We've decided we have way too much fun reading comments, so today in the comments: What's the coolest road trip you've ever been on?

Last night, we stayed at the Heart of the Rockies campground near Salida. Not only were we the only tent campers there, the campground had free wireless internet! We broke out the camping stove for the first time this trip, and grilled us some burgers. Ryan likes his a little too much.

We also had what were, quite possibly, the world's first eggrolls grilled on a camping stove. They were awesome.

We also built a killer campfire, and I got to try out the long exposure feature on my new digital camera! The campsite next to ours had some abandoned firewood, which helped. (Nick is behind the fire.)

We didn't tell ghost stories, but Ryan... um... shared this story about boils (477KB MP3 file).

This morning, we ate a real, superhearty breakfast at the W Cafe in Gunnison.

We ate with Emily, an old friend of Nick's mom's. Nick's mom taught Emily's first grade class while she was pregnant with Nick, so for a while, Nick and and Emily were in the same classroom! Emily was really nice, and she even bought us breakfast. Thanks, Emily!

Finally, we left, and spent our first day driving in the mountains. As expected, it was quite a gorgeous drive, and a sight for sore eyes after all the time on Colorado's eastern plains.

Here's some more natural splendor, pretty trees, purple mountains' majesty, and all that jazz. Colorado is great!

The Hinsdale County Courthouse (see photo below) in Lake City, Colorado, was the site of the famous Alferd Packer trials. Packer, often called "Colorado's favorite cannibal," became lost in a snow storm in 1874 while guiding five men from Utah to Colorado. He showed up in Colorado, alone. Packer claimed that, as each person died, they began to eat each other. This page from his testimony says "When I came back to camp after being gone all day, I found the redheaded man who acted crazy in the morning sitting near the fire roasting a piece of meat which he had cut out of the leg of the German butcher (Miller)."

But Packer was lying! He actualy killed all five men himself and ate them. We visited the site of the massacre, where a memorial now stands.

As an interesting sidenote, at CU in Boulder, one of our cafeterias on campus is named the "Alferd Packer Grill" in honor of Packer.

Like this view? We were stuck with it for 30 minutes after traffic stopped due to construction on Wolf Creek Pass. Ryan passed the time by annoying Kristina, and Nick passed the time by saying random phrases aloud. It was like a big dysfunctional family road trip!

Later on, we passed through the very first tunnel of our trip. Ryan and I held our breaths through it, and Kristina yelled "Hi Brooo!" She claims that, when she was little, she unexplainedly screamed this whenever her parents drove through a tunnel. No, we don't understand it either.

This afternoon, we stopped in Pagosa Springs, which has a natural geothermal hot springs.

All in all, a good, quiet day of driving in the mountains! This double rainbow came at the end of the day, during our drive to the last courthouse in Dove Creek.

On our first day in the mountains, we crossed over the Continental Divide, the line which separates the country's Eastern watershed from its Western watershed, three times! The first came this morning, on Monarch Pass...

...here's a second time on Spring Creek Pass...

...and a third time on Wolf Creek Pass.

We visited 7 county seats today! Here's the proof:

Gunnison, Gunnison County

Lake City, Hinsdale County

Creede, Mineral County

Pagosa Springs, Archuleta County

Durango, La Plata County

Cortez, Montezuma County

Dove Creek, Dolores County. (Thanks for the pose, Jenny O!)

Our progress so far:

DAY FIVE STATS:
Miles Traveled - 443
Total Miles Traveled - 2124
County Seats Visited - 40
Percent of counties done - 62.5%

Gunnison (Gunnison County) 5/15/06 9:11 AM
Lake City (Hinsdale County) 5/15/06 10:37 AM
Creede (Mineral County) 5/15/06 12:18 PM
Pagosa Springs (Archuleta County) 5/15/06 2:35 PM
Durango (La Plata County) 5/15/06 4:14 PM
Cortez (Montezuma County) 5/15/06 5:33 PM
Dove Creek (Dolores County) 5/15/06 6:16 PM

Albums listened to:
The New Pornographers - Electric Version
Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike
Guster - Lost and Gone Forever
Spoon - Kill The Moonlight
The Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever
Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Devendra Banhart - Cripple Crow
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
The Ditty Bops - Self-Titled
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People

PS: We're in the parking lot of a Budget Host Inn, borrowing internet access. Yay for wireless!

2006-05-14T19:47:00.000-06:00

Today, Sunday, May 14, was our fourth day on the road. Hmm... wasn't today something special? Oh yeah...

Happy Mother's Day, Moms! Thanks for all you've done for us over the years. This sign was taped to the Chaffee County Courthouse in Salida, look for it in our courthouse photos further down.. Don't worry, we took it down! (Also, thanks Dad, for teaching me how to make these paper signs when I was little! -Dan)

We camped last night at Trinidad State Park, outside Trinidad. It's quite a pretty place! Somebody took the spot we reserved, but we got this cooler one anyway.

In the morning, we stopped at the Ludlow Massacre Memorial outside Ludlow, Colorado. The memorial comemmorates the death of a bunch of mine workers (the exact number is disputed) who, after striking in 1914 against unsafe working conditions, were killed at this site by a militia put together by mine owners.

This creaky metal door leads down to an underground room where women and children hidden from the battle were killed by smoke from the burning workers' camp. The memorial is pretty poignant; we've definitely come a long way since then.

In the next town, we found that the Pueblo Chieftan fancies themselves the number 1 newspaper in the nation! Keep dreaming, Pueblo. (Not that Boulder's Colorado Daily could really put up any competition.)

On the eastern plains, there was lots of dust, and lots of wind. That meant lots of these: dust devils! They're really neat to watch, like miniature tornadoes.

We visited the Sand Dunes National Monument today! Here, you see the cool, soft sand in our toes. What you don't see is the same sand in our ears, eyes, noses, pants, underwear, pockets, and pretty much everywhere else.

Here we are trudging across the dunes. Walking in sand is like walking in deep snow: extremely slow-going. You can walk for ten minutes and hardly get anywhere!

It was a windy day, so the cool footprints we left were gone in only a few seconds. The dunes are amazing, and look pristine!

Lots of dunes are quite steep. Here's Ryan rolling down.

Kristina, preparing to roll, waiting for the wind to subside.

Here's Kristina rolling down the dunes. She ended up with a pound of sand in her hair.

Dan's rolling. He forgot to close his mouth, and got a mouthful of gritty sand. Yum.

Wandering around aimlessly. Getting lost out here would be tragic: all the dunes look the same.

When you've spent four days in a car, a gigantic sandbox is incredibly fun to play in! If you ever get a chance, check out the dunes. On the right, you can see advancing stormclouds; we couldn't stay long!

Kristina made sand angels before we left.

Out on the eastern plains, we hit a crazy, but short rainstorm! Click here to hear what it sounded like (80KB WAV file). It was almost deafening.

In Salida, CO, we stopped at Wal-Mart to get supplies. Kristina has never, ever been in a Wal-Mart. She opted not to break her streak, and stayed in the car.

Kristina missed out! The boys got bouncy balls. Frickin' sweet.

Today was our last day of flat driving for a while! Plains, we hardly knew ye. Tomorrow, it's back into the mountains of the Southwest, where we'll spend a few days.

Before we get to the county photos, here's a contest! We're running out of ideas for creative poses in front of courthouses. If you've got any ideas, post them in the comments. If they're good, you can bet we'll do 'em.

We visited 7 county seats today. Here's the proof:

Walsenburg, Huerfano County

San Luis, Costilla County

Conejos, Conejos County

Alamosa, Alamosa County. Ryan's such a bully.

Del Norte, Rio Grande County

Saguache, Saguache County

Salida, Chaffee County. Happy Mother's Day!!

Our progress so far:

DAY FOUR STATS:

Miles Traveled - 352
County Seats Visited - 7
Percent of counties done - 51.6% (Past Halfway!)

Walsenburg (Huerfano County) 5/14/06 9:08 AM
San Luis (Costilla County) 5/14/06 10:30 AM
Conejos (Conejos County) 5/14/06 11:26 AM
Alamosa (Alamosa County) 5/14/06 12:06 PM
Del Norte (Rio Grande County) 5/14/06 3:44 PM
Saguache (Saguache County) 5/14/06 4:49 PM
Salida (Chaffee County) 5/14/06 6:16 PM

Albums listened to:
KBCO Studio C Volume 17
Lou Barlow - EMOH
Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Dulcinea
Weird Al Yankovic - Running With Scissors

2006-05-13T21:12:00.000-06:00

DAY THREE of our journey began with Blind Melon's brilliant "Three is a Magical Number." To see a video of Ryan's interpretation of the song as we pulled away this morning, click here and click Save Target As...(1MB WMV file).

Last night, we stayed in Colorado Springs, at Nick's aunt's house.

They have the coolest dog. They call it Sammy. Nick calls it "a pathetic wisp of life."

Here's us, with Nick's uncle Bill and aunt Linda in the back. Thanks, Bill and Linda! It was so nice to have a real bed and a shower!

Our travels today took us past the Colorado State Prison near Canon City. That's where Nick's fourth grade teacher is!

Ryan thought this man had a neat mustache/beard combination. We saw him outside Canon City.

We traveled to Bishop's Castle in Beulah, Colorado! It was just so cool that we felt we had to give it its own page. Click here to see the Bishop's Castle gallery! It's amazing!

Pueblo, Colorado, has a public restroom problem. Here's Kristina after her third attempt to find a bathroom.

I'm not sure what this photo means, but I think it's hilarious.

Ryan got a bloody nose between La Junta and Las Animas. It lasted nearly ten minutes.

In the windy plains between Lamar and Springfield, there's a wind farm, with huge wind turbines. If you're really quiet, they make a strange whining noise, which I imagine would be greatly amplified on windy days.

In Eastern Colorado, everything is different! Where I'm from, Subway calls this same sandwich a "Steak and Cheese."

We finished the day with our longest single leg between two county seats: US 160, between Springfield and Trinidad, is 121 miles long! Thats a lot of this in front of us...

...and a lot of this behind us.

Ryan got bored, so he stuck his head out the window. This is what he'd look like in 75 mph winds!

We visited 9 county seats today! Here's the proof:

Canon City, Fremont County

Westcliffe, Custer County

Pueblo, Pueblo County

Ordway, Crowley County

La Junta, Otero County

Las Animas, Bent County

Lamar, Prowers County

Springfield, Baca County. Note: In case you hadn't noticed, we're spelling BACA with our bodies!

Trinidad, Las Animas County

Our progress so far:

DAY THREE STATS:

Miles Traveled - 478.3
County Seats Visited - 9
Percent of counties done - 40.6%

Canon City (Fremont County) 5/13/06 8:18 AM
Westcliffe (Custer County) 5/13/06 9:37 AM
Pueblo (Pueblo County) 5/13/06 12:16 PM
Ordway (Crowley County) 5/13/06 1:35 PM
La Junta (Otero County) 5/13/06 2:34 PM
Las Animas (Bent County) 5/13/06 3:30 PM
Lamar (Prowers County) 5/13/06 4:14 PM
Springfield (Baca County) 5/13/06 5:27 PM
Trinidad (Las Animas County) 5/13/06 7:58 PM

Albums listened to:
Blind Melon - Blind Melon
Radiohead - OK Computer
Dispatch - Silent Steeples
The Verve - Urban Hymns
Blues Traveler - Four
Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
Wrens - The Meadowlands
Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See A Darkness

2006-05-12T23:31:00.000-06:00

Day Two on the road was a long, but fun one! We'll start with a few miscellaneous photos from the road. Click on any photo to get a larger version:

Here we are in front of a marker marking part of the Smoky Hill Trail, from central Kansas through the Colorado Rockies. Lots of immigrants followed this trail in the late 19th century, searching for... something. Hopefully they didn't stop here, they'd be quite disappointed. We're pointing in the same direction as the horseman on the trail marker, which we assume is the direction of the trail.

An interesting aside: in the late 1880's, a Denver newspaper called travelers who chose this trail "foolhardy and insane," due to the hard conditions and Indian wars. I'm pretty sure our parents described this trip using the same words, but for different reasons.

In Eads, the ambulance has a boat trailer! Nick claims they need it to rescue people from reservoirs that are fairly close, but I think the ambulance driver wanted a speedboat and figured he could write it off if he put "AMBULANCE" on the side.

Hugo, CO had a roundhouse! In the curved building, lots of train engines were stored. In the foreground, you can sort of see a circular shape; this used to be a circular hole with a rotating track in the middle. In this way, they could roll an engine into the circle, spin the track (using horses), and roll the engine onto whichever track they liked. Neat!

In Genoa, CO, we visited the "World Famous Wonder Tower," built in 1879. This is it, in all its 5-story glory. Disappointed? So were we, at first.

The outside of the "Tower Museum" was littered with interesting rocks, bottles, and strange knick-knacks. And inside? Lots more of the same!

Inside, this guy, Jerry, greeted us and told us about the 22-room (!) museum at the base of the tower. Here, he's holding a geode with water in the middle of it, from Brazil, up to the light.

After paying the one-dollar admission, we played a 15-minute game of "Whaddy'all Think This Thing Is?" led by Jerry. If you're ever in the area, stop by, and I'll bet Jerry can find something to stump you with. If not, he'll probably make something up.

Ryan's holding a Civil-War-era button polisher, but he doesn't know it yet.

Nick and Kristina puzzle over this contraption. After this photo was taken, Jerry informed us that it was, in fact, an Instant Chicken Killer. One side of the plier-like device was inserted in the bird's mouth, and the other side squashed its head.

An awkward silence ensued.

All 22 rooms were covered, floor-to-ceiling, with the weirdest oddities and antiques. Nearly everything is for sale, but this two-headed calf is not. I still think the two-headed calf could just be a prank played by a taxidermist, ala the jackalope.

At the calf's feet lie semi-sealed bottles containing formaldehyde and another double-head, an albino snake, and a one-eyed pig fetus, respectively.

Of course, no trip to the Genoa Wonder Tower would be complete without making the strenuous climb all the way to the top. Jerry claims you can see six states from the top, but Nick isn't sure we can see Kansas.

Regardless, the view is quite nice, if a bit windy. Kristina and Dan are enjoying it!

The brochure claims the Tower, at 5,751 feet, is one of the highest points east of the Rocky Mountains. We're pretty sure that "that silo over there" is taller.

On our way to Kiowa, we hit the 30,000 mile mark! Yay!

Here's Castle Rock, Castle Rock's namesake. From far away, it really looks like a Castle!

We also visited 8 county seats today, one of our busiest days on the trip. Here's the proof:

Burlington, Kit Carson County.

Cheyenne Wells, Cheyenne County

Eads, Kiowa County

Hugo, Lincoln County. Note: we all look very disappointed, because this courthouse is ugly. The original courthouse, which was way cooler, was torn down just a few years ago.

This model of the original Lincoln County Courthouse was inside.

Kiowa, Elbert County

Castle Rock, Douglas County

Colorado Springs, El Paso County

The original El Paso County Courthouse stood just across the street from the current one. If we'd taken the trip 75 years ago, the photo in Colorado Springs might have looked a little something like this.

Cripple Creek, Teller County. We're all making scary faces: Cripple Creek is, supposedly, the most haunted town in Colorado. Dan's face doesn't look scary, but don't be fooled, his left hand is a scary claw.

Our progress so far:

DAY ONE STATS:
Miles Traveled - 420.3
County Seats Visited - 8
Percent of counties done - 26.6%

Burlington (Kit Carson County) 5/12/06 8:19 AM
Cheyenne Wells (Cheyenne County) 5/12/06 9:04 AM
Eads (Kiowa County) 5/12/06 10:23 AM
Hugo (Lincoln County) 5/12/06 11:46 AM
Kiowa (Elbert County) 5/12/06 2:14 PM
Castle Rock (Douglas County) 5/12/06 3:23 PM
Colorado Springs (El Paso County) 5/12/06 4:38 PM
Cripple Creek (Teller County) 5/12/06 5:58 PM

Albums listened to:

Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans

Mates of State - Bring it Back

Os Mutantes - Tecnicolor

Yes - Fragile

Kinks - Lola vs. The Powerman and the Money-Go-Round

Kinks - Reservation Act

Kenny White - Symphony in 16 Bars

Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree

Minus 5 - The Gun Album

2006-05-12T09:21:00.000-06:00

A quick update from the road! Today, we'll be visiting eight more county seats, as well as the world-famous Wonder Tower of Genoa, Colorado.

But first, a small map to show our progress as of last night. We'll try to post one of these every day. The red line is our route, the green line is how far we've gotten so far:

Additionally, a couple photos from the campsite. Last night, we camped at Bonny Lake State Park! It was quite nice, and we were awoken by the sounds of coyotes having some sort of howling party not far from our tent. Neat!

Here's our campsite. Note the lake in the background. We didn't venture into it.

I think we were the only people in the entire state park.

PS: We're posting from a gas station in Cheyenne Wells, CO. Wireless is great!

2006-05-11T19:11:00.000-06:00

Our first day on the road! Click on any photo to see a larger version.

Things got off to a roaring start at 8am, when we packed the car.

There's room for nary an extra crumb in the Forester's trunk.

We're ready to go. And still quite groggy.

Dan is stoked to be on the road.

Ryan is equally stoked.

In Fort Collins, we realize that the Courthouse Offices were different from the actual County Courthouse. Bummer.

We passed through Brush! Brush is really excited about their town's name.

Ryan and Kristina made a sign so that random passers-by might stumble upon our blog.

Julesburg is a small town in the northeast corner of Colorado.

On our road trip, "Hey, Cow!" has been our game of choice, and involves rolling down the window, screaming "Hey, Cow!" at cows, and counting how many turn their heads.

In Julesberg, we played a variation on this game, called "Hey Julesburg!"

We took a short side trip to see Nebraska. It looks like this. The whole state.

Of course, we also worked on our main goal of photographing ourselves in front of every Colorado county court house. Without further adieu, here are those photos!

Boulder, Boulder County. (Note: from now on, we don't trust civilians to take our photos, but use a handy dandy tripod.)

Fort Collins, Larimer County

Greeley, Weld County

Fort Morgan, Morgan County

Akron, Washington County

Sterling, Logan County

Julesburg, Sedgwick County

Holyoke, Phillips County

Wray, Yuma County

DAY ONE STATS:

Miles Traveled - 400.7
County Seats Visited - 9
Percent of counties done - 14.1%
Boulder (Boulder County) 5/11/06 9:11 AM
Ft. Collins (Larimer County) 5/11/06 10:09 AM
Greeley (Weld County) 5/11/06 11:32 AM
Ft. Morgan (Morgan County) 5/11/06 1:09 PM
Akron (Washington County) 5/11/06 2:05 PM
Sterling (Logan County) 5/11/06 2:58 PM
Julesberg (Sedgwick County) 5/11/06 4:14 PM
Holyoke (Phillips County) 5/11/06 5:08 PM
Wray (Yuma County) 5/11/06 6:11 PM

Albums listened to:

Beatles - 1

Coldplay - X&Y

Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies

Violent Femmes - Add It Up

Ben Folds - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance

You Say Party, We Say Die - Hit the Floor!

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Self-Titled

2006-05-09T23:11:00.000-06:00

Here's our finalized map for the trip (we leave in two days!), starting from Boulder in the middle and traveling clockwise. Some of the points aren't actually county seats, but stops I needed to put in so that Yahoo Maps didn't think the shortest route was over an impassable trail (e.g. from Steamboat Springs to Walden). We're also stopping at the Sand Dunes.

Click here to see it!

-Nick

[Edit by Dan:]

Here is a bigger version of the map.
It's quite huge, but you can see with more detail where we'll be going. We're moving around the route in a generally clockwise direction. Ignore the letters, they don't really mean anything. We'll also be posting a smaller daily map, so you can see how far we've made it.

We leave in 5 hours. Yay!

-Dan

2006-05-08T10:36:00.000-06:00

Our nearly-finalized schedule is now here! Of course, we'll play each day by ear, and stop earlier if it gets dark, but also continue further if we find that we have more time. Our planned rest day is on May 17.

-Nick

2006-05-05T00:26:00.000-06:00

We've worked out most of the final kinks of the trip, and have a schedule all worked out. That will be posted in the next few days. Meanwhile, here are our nightly stops (which town they're closest to, if they're not in an incorporated city):

May 11 - Burlington
May 12 - Colorado Springs
May 13 - Trinidad
May 14 - Salida
May 15 - Cortez
May 16 - Basalt
May 17 - Basalt (taking some extra time to have fun in the mountains)
May 18 - Granby
May 19 - Central City
May 20 - Back in Boulder!

Average daily mileage, not counting the day in the mountains without much driving, is 337 miles.

-Nick

2006-04-11T20:40:00.000-06:00

All righty...trip dates have been (somewhat) finalized!

We will be departing Boulder sometime early May 11th, and will return late on May 20th. We are shooting for ~400 mi/day.

2006-03-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is a test of our statistics box:

TODAY'S STATS
Total Trip Distance: 3092 miles
Average MPG of Kristina's Subaru Forester: ~27
Average price of a gallon of gas in Colorado: $2.81
Estimated total gas price: $321.79

Move along, nothing to see.

2006-03-15T23:41:00.000-07:00

What follows is the story of a handful of University of Colorado students, determined to visit every county seat in the grand state of Colorado. In ten days. By car. Without getting entirely sick of each other.

In the coming days and weeks, we'll post updates about who's going, how we'll plan our route, and eventually, a day-by-day travelogue of the journey, posted from the road. Hurrah!

Leadville (Lake County)	5/19/06	8:39 AM
Georgetown (Clear Creek County)	5/19/06	11:02 AM
Central City (Gilpin County)	5/19/06	1:24 PM
Golden (Jefferson County)	5/19/06	2:15 PM
Littleton (Arapahoe County)	5/19/06	2:55 PM
Denver (Denver County)	5/19/06	4:01 PM
Brighton (Adams County)	5/19/06	4:58 PM
Broomfield (Broomfield County)	5/19/06	5:57 PM

Meeker (Rio Blanco County)	5/18/06	10:09 AM
Craig (Moffat County)	5/18/06	11:21 PM
Steamboat Springs (Routt County)	5/18/06	12:27 PM
Walden (Jackson County)	5/18/06	2:19 PM
Hot Sulphur Springs (Grand County)	5/18/06	3:44 PM
Breckenridge (Summit County)	5/18/06	5:34 PM
Fairplay (Park County)	5/18/06	6:23 PM

Aspen (Pitkin County)	5/17/06	10:56 AM
Glenwood Springs (Garfield County)	5/17/06	2:11 PM
Eagle (Eagle County)	5/17/06	3:07 PM

Telluride (San Miguel County)	5/16/06	8:50 AM
Ouray (Ouray County)	5/16/06	10:21 AM
Silverton (San Juan County)	5/16/06	11:22 AM
Montrose (Montrose County)	5/16/06	1:09 PM
Delta (Delta County)	5/16/06	2:56 PM
Grand Junction (Mesa County)	5/16/06	4:08 PM

Gunnison (Gunnison County)	5/15/06	9:11 AM
Lake City (Hinsdale County)	5/15/06	10:37 AM
Creede (Mineral County)	5/15/06	12:18 PM
Pagosa Springs (Archuleta County)	5/15/06	2:35 PM
Durango (La Plata County)	5/15/06	4:14 PM
Cortez (Montezuma County)	5/15/06	5:33 PM
Dove Creek (Dolores County)	5/15/06	6:16 PM

Walsenburg (Huerfano County)	5/14/06	9:08 AM
San Luis (Costilla County)	5/14/06	10:30 AM
Conejos (Conejos County)	5/14/06	11:26 AM
Alamosa (Alamosa County)	5/14/06	12:06 PM
Del Norte (Rio Grande County)	5/14/06	3:44 PM
Saguache (Saguache County)	5/14/06	4:49 PM
Salida (Chaffee County)	5/14/06	6:16 PM

Canon City (Fremont County)	5/13/06	8:18 AM
Westcliffe (Custer County)	5/13/06	9:37 AM
Pueblo (Pueblo County)	5/13/06	12:16 PM
Ordway (Crowley County)	5/13/06	1:35 PM
La Junta (Otero County)	5/13/06	2:34 PM
Las Animas (Bent County)	5/13/06	3:30 PM
Lamar (Prowers County)	5/13/06	4:14 PM
Springfield (Baca County)	5/13/06	5:27 PM
Trinidad (Las Animas County)	5/13/06	7:58 PM

Burlington (Kit Carson County)	5/12/06	8:19 AM
Cheyenne Wells (Cheyenne County)	5/12/06	9:04 AM
Eads (Kiowa County)	5/12/06	10:23 AM
Hugo (Lincoln County)	5/12/06	11:46 AM
Kiowa (Elbert County)	5/12/06	2:14 PM
Castle Rock (Douglas County)	5/12/06	3:23 PM
Colorado Springs (El Paso County)	5/12/06	4:38 PM
Cripple Creek (Teller County)	5/12/06	5:58 PM

Boulder (Boulder County)	5/11/06	9:11 AM
Ft. Collins (Larimer County)	5/11/06	10:09 AM
Greeley (Weld County)	5/11/06	11:32 AM
Ft. Morgan (Morgan County)	5/11/06	1:09 PM
Akron (Washington County)	5/11/06	2:05 PM
Sterling (Logan County)	5/11/06	2:58 PM
Julesberg (Sedgwick County)	5/11/06	4:14 PM
Holyoke (Phillips County)	5/11/06	5:08 PM
Wray (Yuma County)	5/11/06	6:11 PM