Kerouac-style

Soooo many people hate hitching. You stand on the side of a road, thumb falling asleep, all the while getting baked by the sun. People play a silly game of cherades with you, trying to mime to you that they just don't have room in their car. Or perhaps they only have one more block to go, signaled by a thumb and index finger placed an inch apart. Usually those cars have an empty passenger seat, and the driver is about to pull onto an interstate with no upcoming exit for MILES.

I think all of this is quite funny, and it's all worth it when that person finally does pull over and give you the most stimulating conversation you've had in your life. I've had the classic ride sitting in the back of a truck with the grandieur of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante flying by on all sides. Dogs which shed enough hair to make me sneeze have sat in my lap and licked my face while the driver is listning to some good Neil Young. Once, a guy drove me to his house, picked up his 60's convertible, and drove 3 hours out of his way to drop me off in Kanab, AZ. He did all of this solely because my own adventure caused him to want to do something out of the ordinary and go on an adventure of his own.

Looking at this map I can't help but get excited:

From Drop Box DINOSAUR, CO!!!! is damn right. Northwest Colorado is one part of the state I have always wanted to visit, and this time it's going to happen. There ain't much out there in them parts of CO. I like to daydream about what it may look like. Huge mesas extending 800 ft into the air on either side of the road. The smell of sage hanging in the air while one thumb is extended to the sky, the other occupied with reading "The Perfect Storm". Are there little oiling operations out there with their drills bobbing up and down, without a person in sight? Will it only be rednecks driving those roads, who when seeing me, scream "damn hippies" to themselves and look the other way when passing??

And then there are the Wasatch mountains, hopefully splattered with yellows and reds by the time I get into them. A closer look at the map reveals town names that you may recall from your reading of Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven". Zooming in even closer in google shows a whole freakshow of Mormon sites to be seen in downtown Utah. I've been told there is a fine brewery in Park City that goes by the name of Wasatch; tasty, weak, and very Mormon beer to be found inside.

Starting Monday in the wee hours of the a.m., its finally time to find out...