Rain, Snow, and Red Bull

My mom had told me that I wasn't allowed to leave Boulder until my phone got fixed so she could call if the need should arise, so last Sunday my phone finally got fixed so now it actually recognizes incoming calls. I'd been feeling a little antsy staying in one place for an entire week, so I decided to leave. Now, before I go any further I should mention that I had a plan when the day began, I was going to go to Golden, Colorado and stay at a campground in the Golden Gate State Park. I had called ahead and gotten directions and was all set to go. Unfortunately, I misjudged how long it was going to take to get there and I wound up getting to the campground, which closed at 6:00, at 6:10. Shit. So i kept on driving hoping to find another campground that wasn't closed, nothing. I could feel the rock solid plan I had formed earlier inching closer and closer to the window. With the small worry of not having a place to sleep that night growing bigger and bigger as the sun got lower and lower in the sky, I kept driving, having no idea where I was going. In retrospect, driving into the night in a direction I hoped was leading me South away from where I'd come from hoping for a magical free campground or a comfort inn holding it's annual "guests stay free" night may not have been the best plan, but there I was. It was pretty though, snow capped mountains, sunset kissed clouds, expansive vistas, the works. So at least i had a view while I was lost, until it got dark at least. I kept driving, hoping to come to some town where I could park and, at this point, sleep in my car. I finally came to the town of Nederland around 9:00 at night. The problem with this is that I had already been to Nederland, about 2 weeks ago and that was north of Boulder, where I had come from. I had managed to get turned around drive in the opposite direction i had intended, good job Jamie.

One of the things I had intended to do while in Colorado was go to Crestone, which I'd heard was beautiful, and the "Great Sand Dune National Park" which was very close to that. So I took out my map and GPS and figured that it was about 150 to 200 miles away. Having nothing better to do I said the hell with it and immediately starting making preparations for my overnight drive to Crestone. Preparations = buying two Red Bulls. And off I went. The drive to Crestone takes you over a mountain range and then down into the San Luis Valley. I'm sure it would have been an amazing drive if it hadn't been for two things, it was night, and there was the most ridiculous storm. Lightning illuminated the mountaintops around me, occasionally reminding me that I was indeed in Colorado. Also It starting raining, kind of. It seemed like rain but the water droplets were so small they didn't stick the windshield and  just flew over it like snow, then it started actually snowing, and the wind was actually blowing my car from side to side the whole way. It was pretty cool. Once in the San Luis valley it's as flat as you can imagine, I mean there is nothing, just land and the occasional jack rabbit crossing the road. I finally arrived at around 2 in the morning. The town of Crestone is located at the foot of 14,000 foot mountains and  is TINY. If you know how big Wendell is, its about a quarter the size of that. Yet it has two liquor stores, interesting. So in the dead of night I explored the area, and tried to find an area to spend the night. I found a small back road up  into the mountains, my first choice was a trail-head with a big round clearing, I was thinking this would be a good place to sleep when I noticed that there was already a guy in a hippy van already sleeping there, so i decided to find a different place. I finally found a small clearing off the road parked it. Ready for bed at this point, I put my seat back, crawled inside my sleeping bag and slept right there in my car. Relatively freaked out by how perfect a setting this was for a horror movie.