I love to travel but I hardly ever do. I love…LOVE...seeing new places and then learning more about them online after I’m done driving. I will keep a list of towns, historic sites and notable landmarks so that I can then go read about them and find out more on Wikipedia.

For instance, you can now ask me anything about the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico (whose Sheriff once was a guy by the name of “Mysterious” Dave Mather) or about the Ludlow Massacre (machine guns were used against a tent city of striking miners and their families in 1914 about 18 miles north of Trinidad, Colorado) and I will be brimming with interesting information. Here are some more things I learned on my road trip to Denver:

  • Marijuana dispensaries now make up at least 50% of all brick and mortar stores in Colorado.
  • If you want to get Whataburger in Albuquerque DON’T go to the one just off the intersection of Interstates 40 and 25. That whole area is very sketchy.
  • On Google Maps says it’s 637 miles from El Paso to Denver. This is horseshit. According to my odometer it was 695.
  • Las Vegas, New Mexico used to host a reunion of Rough Riders from the Spanish-American War. Theodore Roosevelt attended the first on when he was still Governor of New York. The final Rough Rider passed away in 1974.
  • Despite there being a pot store on every other corner, I never once saw or smelled anyone using marijuana.
  • I-25 from Denver to El Paso actually has you travelling north for about half an hour.
  • Colorado decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms earlier this year but no one knows where to actually get them ( I was asking for a friend).
  • Pueblo, Colorado is one of the least expensive cities to live in but it’s crime rate is higher than the national average.
  • Denver apparently has a major league baseball team called “The Rockies”. Who knew?
  • John Denver was born John Deutshendorf in Roswell, New Mexico. He changed his name to “Denver” because he really liked Colorado and somebody told him “Deutshendorf” wouldn’t fit on a marquee.
  • “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver is one of the two official state songs of Colorado. It was also banned by some radio stations when it was released because they thought it promoted drug use.
  • The line “I’ve seen it raining fire in the sky” from “Rocky Mountain High” refers to the Perseid meteor shower during an especially clear night on a camping trip (sorry, I kind of went down a John Denver black-hole on Wikipedia).
  • Castle Rock, Colorado is so named because they have a giant rock on top of a mountain that kind of looks like a castle.
  • There were plenty of mountains that still had snow on them during the first week of June. It got me thinking: are there towns high enough up in those mountains that kids actually wear scarves and snow-boots year-round like on South Park? Next summer I’m thinking of going back so I can find out.

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