- Two Bros + Pandemic = Road Trip

What Happened to My Bucket List?

The weather was against us. I had no desire to drive home in the snow, so we checked into a Hampton Inn near the Denver airport, ordered pizza, and called it a night.

Next morning, I was up and out the door by 6:30, greeted by these warnings on the highway. Mark had to wait until 4 pm to catch a flight to PDX, then rent a car to drive to Salem.

We both got home about the same time. As I look out the window this morning, I'm glad for the choice we made.

The radar weather today from Denver to Minneapolis would not have been fun. It took me 14 hours with good roads. I've driven bad roads as a field sales rep, it's nothing to take lightly.

What was accomplished this trip? (In no particular order)

I spent two weeks with Mark, my brother and my best friend, one of my few friends in decades.

That taught me a bit about why I don't have more friends, I'm not easy.
We both learned what impact our fucked up childhood still has on us today.

I got to see the West!

Cutting across the route we took was a first for us both.

The original route through Mesa Verde would have gotten me home the 30th.

What we ended up driving, due to weather warnings.

Day Three

Woke up Snake Lake by Quincy. Got up, packed up, and got out of there. No time for coffee so I was crabby as hell for night at least.

Just saw the weather forecast. Instead of getting home the 30th I’ll be getting in late on the 24th. Dropping Mark at Denver airport, spending night at my cousins Glenn, if he’s home.

My dreams are shattered, no Mesa Verde for me. Pardon my French but #FUCK!

Day Two

Day 2

Got up to 45° but no wind and quick packing to go to Reno.

Then we saw one sign that said Burney Falls. With the lighting that time of day it was some great shots!

We were going to climb Lassen Peak. Too steep for old guys like us. We went a third of the way up and I searched for obsidian.

I like me some big lime cones, uh huh.

Mark at the sulphuric springs. He said it smells like thousand year old eggs.

That shit is 212°

Mark got his way and we camped off a lumber road in the middle of nowhere. Nobody for miles. Then a pickup with a couple guys in cammo drove by slowly. After hearing Mark’s horror stories of what could happen out here in the middle of bumbfuck where nobody can hear you screaming, I didn’t like these passerbies. “Oh yeah, watch out for bats,” Mark said, to quell my nerves.

Day One

Day 1

Camping between McCloud and Burnie, on a PGE reservoir. 77° no wind, mostly sunny, dusty as hell. Campsite has a Biffy, so my digestive system shut down, I won’t shit for days. Whether it’s in the Boundary Waters or California, I can’t use those things. And only once did I look down in one. (You have to make sure there are no critters. )

No showers so we took a dip in the water that Mark figures is 60°. Like a 3 hour nap.

As dusk approached Mark suggested a hike. Before long he said to watch out for rattlers. From there came the warnings about wild boars, cougars, rabid packs of dogs, and roving bands of armed teens who are looking for hippies.

People are seen still poking through the rubble, long after the news crews close up shop.

This place had some great antique vehicles here, I remember eating there.

The darker the trees, the hotter it burned.

This could be an advertisement for a vault company, if they could open it.

Those creosote soaked guard rails didn’t fare too well in the fire.

Fire humor. Too soon?

Mark’s forestry question: what do they do with The small 10 - 15 year old trees this size? Can’t really plant new trees and digging these out and burning them would be exorbitant in cost?