Colors

August 2010

    When we woke in the morning and opened the door to our tent the sun was blinding. It was probably 8 in the morning and we were right out in the open. We seemed to be invisible to people driving by though and luckily there was no activity in the construction field. We packed up quick and got out to the hwy with our thumbs up. We were amazed how beautiful our surroundings were. We were at the mouth of a draw and the hills in front of us were covered in green grass. The sky was a perfect blue and the sun was casting its golden glow on the entire landscape. We didn't have to wait long before an old hippy pulled over for us. We were both tired after our near sleepless night and were in desperate need of a cup of coffee. It was a struggle to stay awake during the the first part of our drive. The scenery was beautiful though, we drove through canyons and rolling hills, with cattle, passed by endless stretches of red rock desert with enchanting arches and rock formations. We finally got dropped off in Moab, Utah where it was blazing hot.This man too, was a really friendly, trusting guy. So was the trend all through Utah. Ironically we were worried about hitching through Utah, due to the stereotype of  Utah being full of conservative Mormons and because hitchhiking is illegal there.We never waited long for a ride in Utah though and were picked up by groovy  hippies of the baby boomer era.
      From Utah we traveled into southern Colorado where we hopped in the back of various pickups all the way to New Mexico. Colorful Colorado indeed! The landscape was incredible viewed from pickup beds. We traveled through thunderstorms and watched rain fall around us onto green fields. One night a native American man and his son let us sleep in a little trailer on their property, his wife wasn't too happy about his generosity, but let us stay anyways. Little awkward... It poured rain the next morning, but we hitched anyways until a couple with a small baby stopped and offered us a ride in their pickup. They drove us into Durango where we stayed and ate at Denny's until the rain finally stopped. We learned that hitchhiking is always much easier when a state allows people to ride in the back of a pickup. People are generally not as intimidated about letting a stranger drive in their pickup bed as they are about sharing their cab. Thus Colorado was an easy state to pass through and our time there was short, but sweet. We'll definitely have to go back and spend some time exploring Colorado, I think it's our kinda place.
       We finally entered New Mexico, the last leg of our journey.

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