Hurlshort

Yeah, I-5 is not fun. I will be driving it in two days as the home stretch. Speaking of driving... Day 16 - The drive along Highway 70 West from Denver into Utah is probably the most scenic one I've ever experienced. You climb into the Rockies, passing Veil and Aspen, then transition into the mesas of Grand Junction, and then it turns into another world as you go through Capitol Reef and Goblin National Park. It was fantastic, here are some pics, somewhat in order. I'll put Utah in another post...

I have never been outside of North America. I want to travel the world, but I have never had the time, money or opportunity. I have been to 25 states. I hope to see them all eventually, but the east coast is a long drive. I like that I have seen most of them from the road, I do not think you get a full measure of a place if you just stay in the cities.

It actually has made slightly curious about the movie. Could it really be that bad? Maybe I should go and watch it. There have been a lot of bad comedies made in the last decade, I don't remember there ever being such a stink about it. Hangover 3 never made me laugh, the most recent National Lampoon's Vacation was a bomb. I also don't remember people freaking out when Will Farrell desecrated I Dream of Genie. The vitriol is way out of iine. Also, all these reviews were popping up before the embargo was lifted, so that means 1 of 2 things: 1. The review is BS and based on trailers. 2. The reviewer is willing to risk their status as a person who gets early copies just to 'expose' this comedy. We can safely disregard 1, but even 2 seems a bit sketchy. This isn't some powerful civil rights movie or a documentary on a major moment in history. It's a comedy about hunting ghosts.

Day 16 - We lounged around the RV until lunchtime, then headed over to Coors Field to watch the Rockies play the Phillies. Coors Field is a very nice ballpark. I am used to trying to find midday games because that is the best time to go in San Francisco, but I might need to change that strategy. It was extremely hot out at the park. We had a bit of shade for the first 6 innings, but ended up leaving after the 7th due to the sun. We headed across the street to Breckenridge Brewery, and of course tasted more beer. Actually I got a bit teary eyed as I finished my last sips of this: It is one of the best IPA's I've ever had. I'd put it on the level with Rogue's 7 Hop IPA. Alas, it is small batch and I may never taste it again. This was our last real vacation day. I will spend the next three days driving 1300 miles to get my wife home in time for her cheerleading camp. I may or may not get any more posts up.

I know we had a locked thread about it, but I am getting pretty tired of hearing how bad Ghostbusters movie is. It isn't even out yet. Everybody just relax. It isn't a sacred cow, it is just a comedy and it will be funny or it will not.

As I said, I was not a fan of New Belgium until I hung out at their place. Fat Tire is not a good representaion of what they can do. I would recommend picking up the Abbey Ale sometime. It would make a better flagship for them.

Day 15 - We drove up to Fort Collins, making a short stop at an impressive RV superstore to ooh and aah over some bigger models. The kids are getting pretty big for our current rig, but financially we have bigger priorities so it is more daydreaming than actual shopping. We arrived at New Belgium and I immediately fell in love. It is a beautiful campus with food trucks, games, and multiple bars. The kids got some fancy corn dogs and I ordered 6 tasters of different IPA's. I have had New Belgium beer before and never been much impressed. But everything is different when fresh from the tap, and I fell in love with a number of the beers I tried. It was Sour Saturday, so they had one bar set up with just sours. I am not normally into sours, but these were all pretty crisp. We went on a great tour and by the end everyone was asking for job applications. It's a very interesting company, employee owned and all. I handed off my keys to the wife and passed our for the drive home. It was a beautiful night in Colorado as well.

Coors is closer to water than alcohol. Regarding the Lakota and other tribes of the Black Hills and Great Plains, I will say I was somewhat impressed by the reverence that many people I met in SD have for Native American culture and the awareness of how badly they were wronged. This was a major contrast to my trip to the south, where I had tour guides who tried to rationalize plantations and slavery.

I'd say the odds are pretty good you will get more Shadowrun games.

That's fun with numbers, you have to look at the percentages to get a full idea of these statistics. Plus given the fact there is no central database kept that compiles these numbers, they are all estimates instead of cold hard facts. Which is ridiculous, we should mandate that police departments report these things. The government tracks every shark attack, but not shootings. https://action.aclu.org/secure/we-need-data

So will Kim Kardashian be his running mate? You know, since twitter popularity is obviously important in the election.

The picture is a peanut butter chocolate stout. Had a bit of a PB smell, a nice creamy flavor, but not overpowering. Personally I cozied up to a double IPA, but my wife dug that one.

Day 14 - I picked up a Chevy Malibu from Enterprise and we headed out to explore Golden, CO. The Coors Brewery was my main destination, and it did not disappoint. It was a great tour of a massive facility. I'm not actually a fan of any of the beers they produce, but they have a small batch brewer that they work with and they had some decent stuff. Still, the process and scale were amazing, and the smell of hops and barley always makes me happy. After the tour we ate lunch and explored Golden. It's a neat little town, lots of good shops and restaurants. I did find a craft beer bar too, and got to sample some stuff more up my alley.

That guy clearly ripped me off.

Was I not nominated?

Day 13 - Travel day to Denver, with a nice stopover in Nebraska at Scotts Bluff. It was a beautiful drive, and now I'm doing laundry and drinking South Dakota brewed beer. Logan got a bit nervous about rattlesnakes. What the heck is this? There were quite a few odd skulls here. Tomorrow we get a rental car and explore Colorado.

Is that Crazy Horse on the left? No, that is Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor who began the project in 1948, and his wife. This was their living area. Their ten children are still working on it, and a couple of them live on the property.

Almost 74,000 people kickstarted PoE. If every one of those people were turned off by the direction that Fallout has gone, it would still be a drop in the bucket. It sold 12 million copies in the first couple days. It had an introduction on Conan. I'm not happy about it, but the game no longer being much of a traditional RPG and the game becoming a mainstream hit might be connected. Most of us are niche gamers. Bethesda doesn't want to turn us off, but we are not the priority.

That's terrible Bart, you have my condolences.

Here is what Crazy Horse will look like some day: Here is what it looks like today: Ok, so it may seem a long way off. There is also a plan to build a University and a medical center on the land. But the place was packed when we arrived. It was just as crowded as Mount Rushmore. And something about it made me want to throw money at the project. It is epic and I hope I can go back someday and see it done, even if that is at the end of my life. There is an entire museum here that is well worth the price of admission. Without further ado, here are all my pictures: The story of the artist behind this is pretty amazing as well. Logan was getting a bit tired at this point, but he still ran with me as I geeked out over all the amazing sculptures and artwork. It was a great day. We headed back to Fort Hays for a dinner show, and now off to bed.

Mount Rushmore was interesting. It's obviously a well documented landmark, but it's hard to capture scale in pictures and video. It should be seen. They originally wanted to make it to the waist, but money ran out. Here is the smaller scale version. It was a nice hike around to see it from some different angles. But honestly I was still more excited about Crazy Horse, so I got better pictures there. After this we went to lunch in Custer State Park at a Game Lodge where Calving Coolidge and Eisenhower spent a summer. The food was great, and it was a beautiful area. I can see why a President would vacation there. We swung by a majestic looking place called Silvan Lake and dipped our feet in the water. Next up will be Crazy Horse.

Day 12 - This was a doozy of a day. I will probably need to break this up over a couple posts. I decided to book one of those travel bus tours to get to Rushmore and Crazy Horse. I typically avoid large groups of tourists, but every once in awhile it is worth it to jump in the crowd. Today was definitely worth it. We started off at a place called Fort Hays, which is built around one of the buildings made for Dances with Wolves. They gave us breakfast and then loaded us into this bus: Now this bus took us through on some crazy roads. We kept going through smaller and smaller caves. The bus was 8 feet wide, and the last cave was 8 feet and 4 inches. It was intense. The driver was extremely entertaining though, halfway through he took a break and then drank a bit of Maalox for dramatic effect. We went through the scenic Needles Highway and saw some fantastic rock formations: Yeah, we are rocking matching shirts. My next post will be about Rushmore. Here is a teaser: Yes, we got the bus through that tunnel. Interesting fact, there are 3 tunnels on Needles Highway, and they all frame Rushmore.

Day 11 - Took it easy getting out of camp, then headed to a winery called Prairie Berry for some tastings. They were a bit fruity for me, but there was a brewery right next door where I tried some nice IPA's. We ate some lunch as well. It was a very nice little area near Rapid City. After that we headed to Target. I try to shop local when we travel, but sometimes you just need a touch of home, and going into Target does the trick. They all look the same and carry the same stuff. So we are fully replenished for the rest of the trip and checked into our campground. Tomorrow we go on a tour of Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

Day 10 - Happy 4th everybody. We lazed around the RV well into the afternoon, knowing that it would be a late night. Eventually we made it to Lead, which is right up the hill from Deadwood. It's pronounced with a long e instead of short, which is a missed opportunity. The big feature in this town is a huge mining pit called the Open Cut. There was a bunch of mining equipment to look at as well, including this: My daughter asked if it was a teleportation portal. I have raised her right. We didn't get home until 11, so I'm sleeping in tomorrow.

Freedom is serious business!