Spring break - Day 2 - I hate Colorado

I spent much of my day today in Colorado. This is the first time I've ever been in Colorado. (When I tell people -- or more likely color in states on a map -- what states I've been to, I always include Colorado. But honestly, the only previous time I've ever been to Colorado was a twenty-minute stopover to change planes in Denver.) And, yes, I did not like my time in Colorado. The highways I drove on were either rough or scary (or both) -- or expensive (see below). I thought it would be much prettier than it was. The mountains behind Denver looked nice, but I was so intent on driving through an unfamiliar metropolis that I didn't have time to really appreciate them.

(I may have neglected to mention that yesterday was my first time ever in Nebraska, though I now realize that Omaha is only a four-hour drive from my place. I wonder if they have a comic convention there sometime.)

I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, right now at a Microtel Inn, a much nicer place than where I stayed last night, and correspondingly more expensive. I'm on the third floor and there's a cool view of the lights of the city outside my window (I'm on the western edge of the city).

I'm not maintaining a very regular schedule. I drove 530 miles yesterday, and about 725 today. Spent a little under nine hours driving yesterday, and about 12 today. Here's my random thoughts for the day:

After hundreds of miles of very flat land in Nebraska (and I was using my powers to detect slope; there was none), when I got to Colorado, it was only a few miles before the landscape changed to gently rolling hills. It was a long time until I saw mountains, though.

Favorite sign seen today: "Correctional Facility. Don't stop in this area to pick up hitchhikers."

(The above sign beat out both the moose crossing and elk [I think it was an elk] crossing signs, and a bunch in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico that said "Gusty winds may exist." Well, yeah, Bigfoot may exist.)

They allow bicycles on the interstate in Colorado. I saw quite a few, both on the interstate on and on nearby frontage roads. (Maybe those escaped prisoners need to find themselves a Schwinn.)

I drove on a toll road around the outskirts of Denver, which cost me $7.75 to go 32 miles. Much.

I take back everything I said about Nebraska. Northern New Mexico is barren. I swear I drove about 100 miles with the same unchanging, undulating landscape without coming across any towns. However, I-25 from Las Vegas, New Mexico, to Santa Fe is both smooth and has lovely scenery. Santa Fe to Albuquerque is also nice.

There's a lot of interesting and varied radio out this way. The music is more varied. There are also a lot of Christian stations, both music and talk, but I skipped over those pretty quickly. I picked up a jazz station in southern Colorado ("smooth jazz"; I don't think Mo would've liked it much), a folk station around Santa Fe, lots of public radio (which is also much more varied than MPR ever is), and something called "Twist" in Albuquerque, which is "gay friendly" radio (music, news, advice). Interestingly, the U.S. Navy advertised there.