Letter Home (1 of  7)
9-1-93
Colorado

The books of my L.A. life strike
A close as I open the ledger
Of my new adventure which
Anxiously awaits it's first entry

Well since I coerced you into reading this letter I thought I'd bore with a hyku.  A hyku is a Japanese version of a poem which attempts to drive much thought or meaning from very few lines.

My first week off the innocuous doldrums of "same old thing blues" was spent at my friend Don and Linda Tannenbaums seven million square foot home.  They took me in for a week while I proceeded to tie up loose ends as I was getting prepared for my journey out of L.A. and across white bread mid-America.  With pool, Jacuzzi and real cable TV it was no great thrill to leave it for a 17' tent trailer but for lack of better sense I did so anyway.

Week two I spent at my parents home in Las Vegas which again was consumed in preparation for the most part.  With tears in my eyes as if leaving for a solo voyage around the moon I was again finding myself departing loved ones and off in the warm Nevada sun for my adventure with two cats in tow.

Another two weeks have passed and I have been New Age, Born To Be Wild, Easy Rider, Forty Something type ski bum for a solid month.  Wow, how time flies when you're rained on, dried in the sun and have to shave in a mirror each morning in a public campground restroom next to Billy Bob from Texas vacationing with his two rug rats, keeping one eye on his shaving kit and the other freely roaming out the bathroom window in search of "BARRR" (English translation: bear) which he was told could be found in them there woods.  What an experience so far!

I have traveled from 100+ degrees of Nevada's sun and on through Zion park and Bryce canyon of Utah.  We have stayed at Glenwood Springs in Southern Colorado and as if drawn by some inert power have finally arrived in my new home town of Breckenridge, Colorado.  The scenery has been spectacular all throughout the states from the colored rocks of Utah to the steep Rocky Mountains of Colorado we've taken in so much more than we ever have flying over states going hotel to hotel.  The scenery and people are so much more colorful and earthy this way.

Travels on the road seems to constantly bring a balance to your life.  The world is viewed with great perspective as to, wants, needs and joys of your life.  My nights have been met with some of the worst campgrounds, twelve feet off the highway with showers that only performed if fed quarters every five minutes (approximately.)  As well as some of the nicest with amenities as we found when we stayed in the KOA, (AAA approved of course) campground in Grand Junction, Colorado.  There they had a video game room, nightly "outside" movies on a projection RV set, clean bathrooms (free showers no less) and an actual pool!  The temperature of the pool was kept constant with state-of-the-art equipment.  Whether it was the middle of the day or the middle of the night, any polar bear would love to dive into it's 52 degree water.  Especially if you get that urge at 3:00 a.m. to do some laps.  It was at this vacation fantasy world where the first chapter of "Where's Hopper" unfolded (Hopper and Candy are my two cats.)

I was busily cleaning my tent trailer which is a chore done repeatedly several times a day since when your kitchen, living room, den and bedroom are all comprised of six square feet is constantly untidy.  Suddenly I noticed Hopper was no place to be found!  It seems Hopper would lie deep in the corner recesses of my tent trailer and somehow she must have slid out of the bottom and onto the ground.  For two hours myself and several other campers in the campground searched and searched for 'The Houdini Hopper."  After seriously considering placing neighboring camper people in strategic locations throughout the campground to nab this little cat as she walked by I thought I would infiltrate the perimeter of the grounds just one more time in my car.  After driving about half-way around the grounds and all the while calling "Hopper," "Hoppie" in all the trees, I suddenly heard a very uncomfortable "Meeooow" coming from somewhere.  I stopped the car, got out and proceeded to call "Hopper, Hopper, Hoppie" when suddenly she struts out from under the car.  It seems she must have gotten scared and decided to ride it out on top of the spare tire which is kept underneath my Ford Explorer.

For the next five days I bought more bungee cord, snaps and Velcro and proceeded to work till midnight building a hermetically sealed trailer that even a cat with a higher IQ than myself could not escape from.  My trailer was so tight I turned over in bed at night and almost fell from the window.  Finally, after putting snaps on top of Velcro I considered myself victorious and thought I had out smarted this little Einstein when he nudged himself out right through the snaps!  Tired and frustrated I finally surrendered.  I took Hopper and Candy outside, showing them every nook and cranny of the campsite and accompanying woods and leaving them with complete instructions on what to do if they are accosted by "BARRR."  I released them and found out to my happy chagrin after spending 67 1/2 hours building my tent / tomb that my two kitty kittys didn't leave.  They just played outside and returned on call much as a dog would!  So now that the kittys have proven once again that they are much smarter than I am, and have given me my space and allowed me free access to my trailer, I've decided not to ask for gas money for the rest of the trip. 

Every day has been exciting and challenging with waking up at the crack of dawn.  By the time I shower, clean up, have breakfast, it seems it's hard to motivate out of the trailer by the crack of noon though. 

In the next few days I'll be heading up north before it gets too cold and the saga will continue.

Love you all and take care till then.

Haste La Vista Baby,

Allen