Blogging Like I've Never Blogged Before

Friday, October 15, 2004


OK, so my first day in Colorado, it was suggested to me that I drive up to Estes Park, home of Rocky Mountain National Park and the hotel where Stephen King wrote The Shining. Apparently, they also shot the lobby scene there, but I'm not sure about that. I didn't go into the hotel. I drove by it.

I did, however, go into the park. It was pretty nice, what with the mountains and shit. I love mountains.

Anyway, here is one of the first pictures I took. I was afraid these would be the best sites I would see, so I took a lot of pictures. Turns out these were some of the less scenic of the trip.

I was hiking up this trail, which was a three mile hike. I thought I'd start off easy because I wasn't acclimated yet to the high altitude and all. I felt like dying about 3 minutes in. My heart started racing, I would breathe, yet air wouldn't enter my lungs, my back got sweaty, but I thought to myself, It will all be worth it when I get to the top to see the magnificent view from the summit.

I soon got a bit more used to the altitude. I trudged on to the summit. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't all that difficult. Every time I would feel tired, I'd say to myself, "Some blind guy climbed Everest. Some blind guy climbed Everest." And then I'd go, "No wait, maybe it was a guy with no legs. Was he blind and had no legs? That'd be fucking hard. I'm sure he had a sherpa. I need a sherpa. Maybe it was a retarded guy who climbed Everest? Damn this mountain air."

Things turned out all well and good when I met this little guy. I named him Tiny Nervous Little Dickhead. He followed me around for the rest of the hike, once saving me from falling of the mountain and once giving me mouth to mouth. I didn't even need it, but he's just that nervous. Our story is actually being turned into a Disney movie. The title of the movie is called Hiker and Tiny, the Nervous Little Dickhead. In the movie, we save the Rocky Mountains from being hijacked by terrorists who want to crash them into the White House. I've lost all creative control. Except for the fact that they took my suggestion and Willie Aames will play the president.

The biggest bummer about this hike was that there was no real summit. All of the sudden, it started going downhill. Usually there is some sort of clearing and angels going "Aaahhhh" and there is a view of heaven and earth, but here there was nothing. So I felt kind of gypped. I cheated, went off the trail which is apparently a no-no in a national park, climbed to the top and stood there for a while. It was awesome and quiet. So quiet in fact, that I began to write a song called the "Sound of Silence". It starts off "Hello darkness, my old friend..." That's all I've got so far.

In case you are not aware, what I did was fly to Denver, then my plan was to drive around by myself for a few days, then go visit my friend Dave in Telluride. And that is what I did. The first night I planned to stay in Boulder. My mother called me to make sure my plane didn't crash (you know how the news doesn't cover those stories anymore), and when I told her I would be in Boulder, she said, "You should call your cousin Mark."

I totally forgot my cousin lived in Colorado. So I called him and he answered and he was like, "Holy shit, you should stay at my house," so I did. We went to dinner and had some beers and talked about our dysfunctional families. Good times. I didn't take a picture of Mark, but here is the Foo Fighters official web site. Something about Mark reminds me of Dave Grohl.

Getting back to my hike, I did see some wildlife, which was pretty cool. I'm not all that into the Discovery Channel or shit like that, so I'm not sure exactly what I saw. But here is a picture of what I think are some velociraptors. And then I saw an elephant.

So that was basically my first day. I'll be back to talk about future days.
All material © Mike Toole; 2003 - 2006