Opposable Road Trip- Day 1- Part II

I got through transcribing 63 voice entries, hand writing 30 pages and taking a total of about 10 hours.  Updated calculations- 185 pages and 62 hours to complete.  Now, these are not ‘notes’.  This is not a summary, it’s a true transcript.  I’m putting in every er, um, pause, throat clear, and belch.  Why?  Because I need to remember this experience as precisely as possible.  Why?  You’ll know when you read Opposable.

Where did we leave off?  Right, we haven’t started yet.  Let’s launch!

The trip meter is set to zero as I depart the Shell station on Alameda and Union at 9:07 am, June 12, 2018.  Here’s some of what filled the car.

Throw in a hard cooler, a soft cooler, and a tall kitchen trash bag full of clothes, and that’s pretty much it.

Indispensable items: Tunes, digital voice recorder, phone (for pictures and navigation), wallet, vape, and Coke Zero.

Unnecessary Items: Pants.  Mostly just pants.

And you knew I was going to say this, but I’m going to say it anyway.  What I didn’t bring with me; expectations, reservations, reservations about not having any reservations, and inhibitions, were far more valuable than anything in the car.

What I acquired along the way; a more defined purpose, a more realized vision, and truer sense of self, made me wish I left the car empty so I could fit them all in.

I first stopped in Georgetown at 9:56 am to visit good ol’ cousin Xeno (RJT); veteran of chemical warfare, highly decorated.  I am proud to serve with him (vicariously, mostly).  We conversed briefly.  He showed me a couple spots he visited during his trip to the Grand Canyon, spoke a few lines from Opposable, let me use his restroom, and sent me on my merry way.

He is, undoubtedly, my most loyal friend and supporter.  Without his unwavering encouragement, it would have been difficult to accomplish the little I have so far.  Thanks, Xeno!  Disclaimer: Bruce Campbell was not there.

I imagined the first leg of my journey taking me west on I-70, heading south at Glenwood Springs, and ending up near Ouray and Red Mountain pass.

As I may have mentioned, the primary objective for this mission was to, in a sense, reenact the road trip of which I wrote in my fledgling novel; Opposable.  As I may have also mentioned, while the road trip would mirror said fictional journey, most of the details will not be provided here.  Hopefully, just enough to whet your curious fangs.  Suffice to say, it involves murderous telepathic cats with opposable thumbs, fireball shooting aliens, gun shooting fugitives, sex, drugs, violence, tenderness, and a road trip to Sedona.

Have we left yet?  Yes!  Rocketing up the divided, elevated portions of I-70 between Frisco and Vail in what I imagine is a Matte Black, 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, but is really a Pearl White, 2014 Subaru Forester.  Probably a better road trip car overall, but not if you’re being chased by COPP infested cops.

This stretch, along with the engineering marvel that is Glenwood Canyon airbrush themselves pristinely both in reality and my writer mind’s eye.  Perfect locations for a midnight, high-speed chase.  I’m a location scout now, for myself.

I do want to keep these entries short, but thought it would be fun to give you a couple doses of what I’m having to wade through in order to compile this multi-dimensional travelogue.  Here are two excerpts from my transcripts so far.  It’s okay if you cant follow them, neither can I.

“I’m just imagining this route as occurring after the All Night Diner and, uh, befooorrre the motel, fo Sho shell-tel.  Motel Fo Sho-tel.  Sho and tell at the motel.  That’s what I call brainstorming.

What kind of processing plant is this?  Some kind of gravel.  Some kind of taking the mountain and turning it into littler mountains. 

Okay…”

And then there’s this gem.

“I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that in my story, this faction wants to kill this faction, and this faction wants to kill another faction, and that faction wants to kill somebody else.  I don’t think anybody’s trying to kill each other, they’re just trying to kill somebody else, while avoiding being killed by the person who’s only trying to kill them and it’s not reciprocal, but, uh, so…multi-faceted, like, it’s not a head on collision, you know what I’m sayin’?

It’s like you’re trying to run somebody off the road while somebody else is trying to run you off the road.  So you got a couple things goin’ on there.  I mean, maybe you got your assault squad trying to go after these guys, while the defense is, uh, trying to repel people who are trying to assault you.

Oh, it is gettin’ towards afternoon now.”

I speaking these words while doing 65 on a two lane stretch of road between Delta and Montrose.  Beware!

Anyway, until next time, don’t bother me.  Another sunset.