Day Two: Mom, I'm home!

Day 2:

 - Distance = 630 mi

 - Elevation = 8800 ft

 - Song of the Day = "Brown Eyed Blues" by Ben Harper

I drove across western Kansas to my parent's house in Colorado (dropping off the fur kids... no way am I taking all of them on the road trip. Except for Iggy, the blind navigator - he's pretty chill but I doubt he'd be excited about hiking with me. What with all of those cacti and rocks to run into...)

Oddly enough, Western Kansas was kind of pretty. Maybe because the corn is still too short to block the view, but I was kind of digging the drive.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!

Eastern Colorado

I've always believed that once you cross the border into Colorado, you will suddenly be surrounded by snow-capped peaks and flower filled meadows (despite having lived there). In reality, eastern Colorado looks much the same as west Kansas since, amazingly enough, they are geographically related. You don't actually get your first glimpse of the mountains until 150 miles into the state (somewhere near Limon). I tried to get a picture of the far off mountains, but I was so feverish about the 75 mph speed limit that all off the pictures turned out a bit blurry. Because of the speed. So I pulled over and took this...

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. I also stopped at the Circle K for some gas. The attendant, I'm fairly certain, was tweaking out of her mind. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K, indeed.

Almost there - entering Glenwood Canyon (the entertaining portion of the trip... I would NOT want to drive a semi through there!)

Getting closer...

Mom, I'm home!!!

Anyway, the roads were straight for the first part of the day, meaning that I didn't pay much attention to where I was going. It didn't matter - there are no rocks, ditches, mounds, or other crash-enabling impediments. If I ran off the road, I would gently glide to a stop in the middle of a corn field. So I spent time thinking about all sorts of nerdy things (and some non-nerdy things, but nerdy things tend to predominate). One of the great geological mysteries is why the Rocky Mountains formed so far inland. Generally speaking, mountain ranges form at the location where two plates collide, such as with the Cascades or the Himalayas. Yet, there does not appear to be a meeting of tectonic plates anywhere near the Rocky Mountains. I read that the best explanation is that there was a "weak area of crust" that caused the mountains to form farther inland, instead of along the California coast where the Pacific and North American plates meet. Imagine a bunch of geologists sitting around a conference table, trying to come up with the weakest possible explanation: "Well Jeff, while 'the giant goblins digging for gold and pushing up the ground explanation' is good, it's still a little too believable. What else do we have?" I can even imagine an older, balding, slightly portly academician wearing a pilled, green cardigan sweater and horn-rimmed classes circling a big area in red on the Proto-American continent and carefully labeling it with the script "Weak Crust Here". In fact, I can do that too...

The best part is that you can't prove it, or disprove it. It simply is. 

So tomorrow (or in a few days)... a discussion of the physiologic adaptations (acute and chronic) to altitude. And the fact that at 11,000 feet (Eisenhower Tunnel), I can only hold my breath for 17 seconds because I am not conditioned to altitude. I designed that little experiment while driving today.

Aren't you excited for me to head to Moab and stop posting this stupid stuff?