colorado springs.

well. this has been a long day, let me try to get it all out. i guess i need to start with last night. last night i drank too much. after leaving alamosa i set off towards salida. i didnt know anything about salida, it was just the next mid size town on the map and was kind of in my direction. it was about 100 miles or less away and i was off.

i got there and was pleased to find the nice quaint old downtown that i love to walk down. i parked promptly and got out to explore. i first came upon a hostel with some art out front, i thought it was a bit weird, but i just got here, this could be how the town was. i walked on down the road and saw some more public art and sidewalk art. i was starting to get suspicious.

once i got to the corner of 291 and f street i realized that i was in the middle of the 17th annual salida art walk. yay. i did the customary terse walk throughout the old downtown streets and eventually came upon a river. the river, i was to find out later, was the arkansas. never before i have heard of a river called arkansas. but i was intrigued, because this river was also flooding.

i didnt notice it a first, but the river drew my attention because it was moving so switfly and had such power. i first thought it was the rio grande, because i had passed it a couple times already. i walked t a bridge and looked over, enjoying the scenery and then noticed that there was a path looking thing that was covered with water. i walked closer to inspect and saw that the river had flooded over the bike/pedestrian lane. i was intrigued.

part of what i want on this trip is to experience some danger, some natural "disasters" like earthquakes or tornados, hurricances, and i guess flooding rivers. i stood for a long while and watched the river. then i went to the store and bought a beer and walked back down to watch the river more.

after finishing the beer i took to walking the streets again. this time, i wasnt being terse and i decided to capitalize on the art walk. i started walking into the galleries and perusing the fine art and, when available, draining a free glass of wine and enjoying some crackers. i went to all of the galleries on the few downtown streets and drank about five glasses of wine and enjoying a number of hor d'oeuvres.

i didnt realize it at the time, but i was inebriated. i continued walking around the downtown, enjoyed a sidewalk band for awhile, and then got a slice of pizza and another beer, went to my truck and imbibed. then i slept and int he morning awoke to a fresh young town and was happy for it.

i did the downtown loop a few more times in the morning and then set a course for colorado springs. i took 64 east to state road 115 north and got into the springs around 11:30a. i was coming here to see my old friend frances gomeztagle...unfortunately we hadnt adequately exchanged information before my arrival and when i got here i had no place to go.

as i am when i am seeing someone i hadnt seen for a long time, i was nervous. i hadnt showered since leaving the grand canyon and recently spent 4 days in the woods with a bunch of hippies. i was feeling self conscious. so, since i had nothing better to do i drove around looking for a place to shower. however, i had no real idea of places to go. i looked on my map for the local colleges.

my idea was to find a college rec center, sneak in, and take a shower. i came to my first college and drove around it for awhile and discerned that i couldnt make anything happen there. then i drove on looking for the university of colorado at colorado springs (uccs). i thought i found it, but unfortunately it was a christian college, i backed out and kept looking. shortly after that i found uccs.

i drove up and found the rec center very quickly. there werent very many cars in the lot, and i got out apprehensively. i really wanted to take a shower, so i didnt want to blow my chance. i tried some of the doors on the side and the back trying to get in, but to no avail. then i walked toward the front door. there were posted signs saying that no one will be allowed to enter without an id, i got nervous but walked in anyway. the person at the counter looked at me then looked away.

i ducked into a side room and waited a moment. then i walked quickly but deliberately to a stairwell across the lobby. the person didnt really pay attention to me and i was happy for it. but the stairs led me to the weight room and not the showers. i walked around up there for a bit and tried the various doors, but none of them led where i wanted. eventually i found a back stairwell that came down in the lobby behind the desk and i slithered down the hallway to the pool area.

i felt very successful. i had sneaked in and was ready to shower! i took one and was much happier for it. then i walked out the front door and a went to find some internet to see if frances had gotten back to me and luckily she had. i walked around a parking lot for awhile, drumming up the courage to dial the phone number and give her a call.

let me delve into the history of me and frances for a moment. not all of this i recalled on my own, some has been reminded to me over the course of our evening together. she and i met in high school, i was a freshman and she was a sophmore. we would often go out to lunch together to a pizza place on the crown point square called "chicagos." apparently we would go with other people that we didnt really identify with and the two of us bonded over that.

when the turnabout dance came around, frances asked me to it. i was 15 and had no self confidence, there was no way that i would ever ask anyone to a dance. luckily the idea of turnabout is that the ladies ask the guys instead of the other way around.

we went to the dance, and my memory of it consists of going to the dance for a moment, taking a picture, then me smoking out of a 6 foot glass bong at some indeterminate place, then waking up in my own bed. thats it. frances filled me in on some things tonight. like, we also went to a truck stop diner with some friends of hers and they chastised me for not buying her anything. then we went to lowell indiana to someones trailer home where we did copious amounts of drugs. that was where her explanation of the evening ended, and thats where i will end it.

fast forward about four years and frances and i reconnect. she is working at an all night restaurant cleverly called "round the clock." my friend steve and i are frequenting this establishment almost nightly, for many hours into the night. she and i quickly resume our rapport and we are all hanging out with each other for a few glorious months in 1998. we enjoyed such nighttime activities as visiting the rock quarry in lansing and the car statue in berwyn. good times.

then, i left for bigger places, and we communicated via mail or email a couple times but hadnt seen each other since at least 1999. until today. i drummed up said courage and dialed the number. immediately she knew it was me and gave me directions to her home where i would shortly arrive to see her, meet her husband and four year old daughter. a whole new courage drumming session begins.

shortly i arrive at her door and do a few laps around my truck, and pump myself up,. then go knock on the door. as per usual all of my fears are for nothing and quickly we fall into a nice pace. i am invited into the house and we are chatting, quick catching up chats, while she and travis busy themselves and natalie, the daughter, watches tv not wanting to make contact with me.

the scene is a bit crazy. being a generally tidy person it is amazing to me when people can live in disarray. this house was in disarray. and it was nice, it was a lived in no real concern or time for the trivial idea of tidiness. and there is a rambunctious 4 year old that is cruising all about.

we all talked for a couple of hours, frances made some breakfast,and we made a plan to go explore some things around the area. around 5:pm we left to go to poor richards. poor richards is a catch all establishment. it is a pizza joint, a kids store, an espresso bar, semi-fine dining, a book store, and a kids play area. i got lost rather quickly in the the bookstore then lost my compadres. after wandering about for a bit i found them in the back at the play area where we all talked some more (there is a lot to talk about in a 10 year gap). and eventually left for manitou springs.

the way it was being talked about i though manitou was just a recreation area, but it is its own small town in the colorado springs area. and it has one of those really nice small-but-bustling downtown centers that just begs you to stroll about at a leisurely pace and take it all in. we went there for the arcade. becasue natalie wanted to ride some of the quarter rides and then we all went to play skee-ball. what a nice little reacquainting date.

while we are walking around, similar to ricky in san diego, frances is frequently running into people she knows and introducing me. i forget names about as quickly as i hear them, but i remember faces and mostly am just exchanging hellos with these people and vaguely listening to a small conversation that frances has with them. but, again, it is a nice feeling to be out somewhere and not be known but be with people who are recognized and approached and small-town-feeling in a big town, i guess.

so, of course, i am smiling throughout all of this and having a grand old time, how could i not? through various methods we compiled 45 tickets for natalie to purchase some plastic cheapness from the arcade store and then we walked on down the road, at that nice slow pace just being part of the crowd. we had a destination, but that place was closed when we got there so we just turned around and walked back to the car.

we destined ourselves next for the garden of the gods. earlier, when i was exploring uccs i came upon a street named the garden of the gods, but when i looked down it, it seemed to offer only more fast food places. i disregarded it at the time as just a quirky name for a street with no other connotations.

but, that wasnt true. the garden of the gods are natural rock formations that have been turned into a natural wildlife area. there are a number of trails through them and many people come to awe in their splendor. the sun was setting when we got there, and it was a beautiful dirty sunset that fell behind the rocks nearest us. we did a small loop through some of the park, with the intention of not being out there after dark. it is a place that i would go back to and explore in more detail when i have the time.

but, then we were off again, to the store to buy some things to make a quick dinner and then back to the house. frances made us some tostados in a quick fashion and it was very nice. then travis and i went out for guy time.

this date was something that was kind of pushed on us at poor richards by frances, certainly not something that i was against or unhappy about, but i had just met this person. but, the two of us got back in their car, were given a one pitcher rule, and headed of towards tony's. the bar was a place that i had catalogued at some point when i was moving about the city becasue it looked like a divier bar and it had free wi-fi.

we got there and it was dj night, i guess sundays around the country are dj night. that statement isnt one that has any validity, just something i guess. we got in and got a pitcher of pbr and sat and talked. and, again, it was a really nice time. we talked all the way through that pitcher and still had words fresh on our tongues, so we forgot about the rule and had another pitcher. all the while being embroiled in good conversation. not always deep or meaningful, but just good connecting with another person.

something that i havent really been feeling too much. so it was a good feeling to just have some beers and some conversation with another person. thanks travis.

okay, then we are leaving. it is midnight now, and clearly later than i am usually up, i am looking forward to going back to the house, sitting down and typing up some details that are fresh in my mind and going to bed. but no such luck! when we got back, the house was still alive with movement, frances and natalie were up and active, no sign of slowing.

so we got back into chatting in the living room. all the times that we were chatting it wavers between talking about now and current things in our lives to the past and things that we remember about our history together. it is a weird mix and it comes without warning. it was at this time we started talking about turnabout in 1994/5 and that experience. and i very much enjoy hearing other peoples perspectives on a past that i supposedly had. and, i decidedly do not enjoy the feeling of being told things that happened that i have no recollection of. if makes me feel like a bad person.

and this went on until about 2 in the morning! amazingly, to me, natalie is also still running around, no sign of slowing down. i am fading and luckily travis calls it time to start making our natural descent. and then i get to start typing up my day, mostly so i dont forget about things, but i dont get very far. why? because shortly after i got settled in and was furiously remembering things to commit to this computer natalie comes downstairs and walks into the room i am in to play.

she talks with me a little bit, but mostly she is playing with her toys. i ask her some questions about the things she says, but mostly i am trying to type. it is hard. she is a very eloquent child that uses her words pretty well and has such surity when she says things. i asked her if she was tired, she repiled "i dont beleive in tired. no one does. no little kids i mean." c'mon, thats a cute thing to say. she also told me that she wasnt afraid of anything anymore, she got over all of her fears when she was 3. and she gave me some history on a few of her toys, eventually i found that i wasnt going to get much more typing done and was tired as it were.

i told her that i had to sleep now, and she said okay, and walked out of the room. at that point i had barely gotten to "knocking on the door" and i called it a night. then i lay myself down to sleep.