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North America » United States » Colorado » Denver
July 13th 2009
Published: July 13th 2009
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It's Monday morning. I am back at my desk in my home office. The trip is over and the weekend is over and it's time to start dealing with everything again. I am alright with that. I am just so happy that for 5 or 6 days I was actually able to turn it all off. The whole time on the road I did not let any of the negative thoughts about this house seep into my brain. I blasted them out with very loud music and thoughts of the past and future.

Not much time to write now as I'm a little overwhelmed with real-life stuff but I did want to post the pics and make one last observation about the countryside I just drove through; a country that has been expressed in different ways by different artists over the decades. Artists as diverse as Norman Rockwell, Jack Kerouac, Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. The reality is always going to be somewhere in the middle of the extremes...a hodge podge of the picture-perfect "American Dream" Rockwell painted, the dirty, gritty streets and cities of Kerouac and the small town farmers, families and troublemakers personified in songs by Willie and Dylan.

From what I saw this all still exists, it's just been skewed a little. Main Street is no longer the town center it used to be...most people are now in the huge strip-malls on streets named after the stores that reside on them. Galleria Way has taken the place of Main Street. Supercuts have taken the place of the local barber. Cineplex’s the place of the local Theater. Numerous chains have replaced the local diner, ice cream shop, coffee shop, etc.

That being said...the characters haven't changed. You still have the overly friendly people in the South (as Drew said they are nice if they like you, they are extremely nice if they don't), you still have the cowboy types hanging out in the dive bars before noon, you still have the rich, poor, ladder-climbers and bottom-dwellers in the cities. You still have the truckers on the highways and the school buses on the back roads.

It's all still there...it's just different somehow. Like looking at one of those Norman Rockwell paintings in one of those funhouse mirrors that distorts everything. It's like climbing into one of those paintings only to find that once you get a little deeper in, it becomes darker, it becomes a little scary, it becomes a Tom Waits song.

Trip Stats:
6 Days
3250 Miles
55 Hours in car
9 States
6 Cities (spent time in)
6 Concerts
14 Bands/Artists

All Pics Posted:
CLICK HERE FOR PICS


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Photos: 15, Displayed: 15


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13th July 2009

inspiration
Kevin, you are an inspiration for all of us in these awful crappy times. to take it all in and not necessarily start over again... just to take stock and move forward. Glad you had fun!!!
13th July 2009

Thx for the shout out!
Nice reflections on our country... and glad you could get away from it all for a few days. Thanks for the shout out on your past two posts!
13th July 2009

Strange America?
What's the most shocking thing you saw/experienced?
13th July 2009

Strange America
Probably the whole Milshire Hotel experience...the people, the smell...just the whole experience of being in a true crackden/brothel/roach motel. I have been in some bad places before, but that was probably the worst. Also, a bra repair company that had at least 10 giant billboards across Kentucky...how does a bra repair company have the money for that many billboards? Oh, and the pregnant woman chain smoking cigs was pretty interesting/sickening.
13th July 2009

Strange America
Oh yeah, the house for sale on Michael Jackson's block in Gary, IN for $500 down and $250 a month.
14th July 2009

shout outs
lil hurt that I did not get a shout out, but then came your meaning and the use in the world, for paintings, and it felt like me:) tthanks for sharing Kevin...
14th July 2009

Great
Great blogs Kevin. Glad you had a good trip. Hopefully you'll be able to now deal with things with a clear head. Good luck with it all. Give us a ring if you want to come up and swim, want us to come down for a bbq, or just hit Elitch.

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