The Centennial State

Cheyenne, Wyoming to Greeley, Colorado Saturday, August 14, 2021

Before we get started, I have to lay down some snark on my quirky hotel. It was cute, trendy, and innovative, but it appeared that at bottom, it was about cutting costs. Hilton figured out that almost nobody uses the dressers in hotel rooms anymore, which were there in part to give enough room for the big color TVs of yore. Now it’s all flat screen TVs, so they got the idea that if you remove the desk and dresser, have a roll-out table instead, and have the chair do double duty, you can make the rooms narrower. A little claustrophobic, but it worked. Shelves were everywhere, even a webbing one on top of the air conditioner.

A walk-in shower is trendy, and takes up less room than a tub.

The soap, shampoo and conditioner were mounted on the wall, with cute slogans and logos. Unfortunately, the soap dispenser was empty, so I had to use shampoo for everything.

There was one triumph: the TP dispenser. For decades the debate has ranged, does the roll dispense from the top or the bottom? Poor Ann Landers, when she was still alive, got endless letters about this. But the Hilton Tru has solved the problem. True bipartisanship, in this age of polarization.

Speaking of snark, my good friend Mary Jo (MJ), with whom I’ll be staying in Denver, rightly called me out for my snarky remarks about Wyoming yesterday, with a germane passage from Marcel Proust encouraging me to look at the landscape with new eyes, new attitudes, that only then could I expand my horizons. Inspiring words, and after reading them I noticed my speed had increased considerably, 5 mph faster than yesterday, with no help from the wind. Could my stamina have increased overnight? Was this a Proust boost?

Nah, it just turned out my elevation profile was the mirror image of yesterday’s. It seemed flat, but I was gradually descending 1500 feet from the high plains of Wyoming to the, um, regular plains of eastern Colorado.

Ah, Colorado! So excited to be here, been waiting so long.

The only state healthier than Vermont. Soaring peaks, lush valleys, legendary rivers, aspen, wildflowers, meadows, heaven. The Centennial State, since it was admitted in 1876. Centennial was my first book by James Michener, about a fictionalized version of the very town where I’m staying tonight, Greeley. Some people hate on Michener, say he produces watered-down or “pop” history, but I find his technique, to follow a corner of the earth from prehistory to the present, to be brilliant and compelling. I read the book almost 50 years ago, but looking at the synopsis now I’m startled by how much I remember.

All day I was running parallel to the Front Range of the Rockies. I have long fantasized about first spotting the Rockies rising from the plains, as the pioneers did, seeing those purple mountain majesties above the amber waves of grain. Alas, the smoke from the wildfires interfered, I could maybe just make out the faintest skyline. Maybe tomorrow, as I enter Denver.

Distance 55 miles, 5,305 total. Time 6 hours with stops. Elevation gain 716 feet

©️ 2021 Scott Luria