I wish I had woken up with a fat cup of espresso or a full pot of coffee to prep myself for this insane day ahead. We woke up bright and early in Colorado Springs to beat the tourists to the Garden of the Gods where massive jagged rock formations rose from the ground and stood almost crystal-like across the sky. Over 3000 years ago, Garden of the Gods was a neutral trading ground for Native Americans. Even rival tribes would set their weapons aside in the garden out of respect for the gods. The peaceful garden was sacred to the native americans and a trading post for nomadic tribes. It was a crazy thing to see such dramatic landscape suddenly pop out of the land around it. Deer and Big Horn Sheep ran wild in the garden and as the day went on, so did the tourists. We got plenty of pictures and enjoyed the nature long enough and decided to head back to the camper for some lunch.
Back at the camper we received a text from Andrea's mom that the Avett Brothers were performing that night at Red Rocks Amphitheater which was only about an hour and a half away from the garden. Both of us being big fans of the band, we were immediately running ideas and knew we needed to see them perform in the other worldly venue. Looking up tickets was the fun part. $150 per ticket! We liked the band, but not enough to blow $300 for the night. Andrea's mom offered to buy us the tickets as a "Welcome to Colorado" gift and she couldn't let us miss them live. We had plenty of time to think about the concert and didn't want her to spend $300 either. We planned on heading north either way so we decided to at least go check out the most beautiful venue in the country. Driving north and now west of the Denver area, we had to make our first cross into the mountains. It was the first time my car would be pulling the camper up steep grades (500lbs over my cars tow capacity).
The first few hills heading west and into the mountain range went smoothly and my confidence began to build. Navigation said we were about 3 miles away from Red Rocks when I saw the final climb and it was no joke. Of course, like some kind of "boss level" in a video game, this climb up the final hill had to be double the grade of anything we had gone up before and it scared the hell out of us. Having never pulled a trailer with any vehicle before, I had a lot to learn about it on this road trip and I can now say I'm pretty knowledgable. But this day was early in the trip and I was about to learn a pretty sketchy lesson. Half way up the climb we started to lose momentum and the rest of the way up was all on the engine. Traffic passing fast and cars building up behind me, I felt like an asshole and tried to keep pace (mistake). About a 1/4 mile past that point was the end of the climb where i made it at pace, but upon stopping at the light I saw smoke rising from under the hood.
Immediately filled with overwhelming stress and anxiety, we were in a world of: We're so screwed! The car is F@#KED! We're gonna be broke! This is how it ends! At least we technically made it into the mountains? It was a mess of stress and emotion as we pulled over to the nearest turn off. I jumped out of the car and threw the hood open for a billow of smoke to pour out over me. First thing I noticed was green fluid EVERYWHERE (radiator fluid) and I could now narrow it down to the radiator overheating (obviously). Checking left and right, under and over the bay for leaks or cracks, I couldn't find the source. I stood confused, pissed off and trying to cool down to think clearly just staring at the mess for a good ten minutes before I finally had my Sherlock idea to follow the direction of the fluid splatter. After feeling like a crime scene investigator under my car and all up in its parts, I realized it was all going to be okay. It seemed that I had just pushed it so hard that the overflow cap (although airtight) couldn't hold the pressure of the climb and just released a big burst of fluid right out of the seam (over a gallon and a half to be exact) I had a little bit of fluid in the trunk to fill at least the few ounces I had left, but still needed a good gallon in the system. After the most stressful situation of the trip so far and the car needing to cool down for a while, we decided to pop out the solar panel and soak up some sun for a while while we waited.
With the engine now cooled down and an extra bit of power in the battery, we looked for the nearest gas station. By the grace of God, the nearest station was 3 miles perfectly downhill and right next to Red Rocks. I cruised down the mountain and into the most adorable little mountain town called Morrison where we found the gas station and topped off the fluids. Now that we could finally breathe, we decided to pick back up on our mission of the concert and decided to check around town for tickets. There were a couple guys on the side of the road with "Buying and selling tickets" signs so we pulled over to check out their prices. $120 each wasn't much better than $150 each and still seemed too much for us, so we just drove into the amphitheater parking lot an hour before the concert to hang out and see if any other deals would arise. We were directed to the "bus and camper" parking area where there were tons of other amazing camping rigs and nomads in what looked to be the perfect tailgating area. As the time got closer and closer to the concert, the ticket prices online were dramatically dropping by the minute. With about 5 minutes til showtime, we bought the tickets. $75 a ticket sounded much better! (Thanks, Momma Poole!)
We walked up the never ending staircase and into what felt like another sacred place. Beautiful red rocks stood tall along all sides of the venue and the acoustics from the opening performer sounded amazing no matter where you stood. The place was sold out and we almost couldn't find anywhere to stand. We headed for the top of the venue where we found a railing perfect for leaning on and centered with the stage. Up at the top, the acoustics still sounded great and we had a view of the city and landscape in the distance for miles and miles. Although we knew we were beginning to suffer from altitude sickness from the past couple days, we decided to grab a beer anyway. How can you enjoy a concert without a beer in hand, right? The Avett Brothers put on an amazing show and the "feel good" vibe radiated the whole night.
Toward the end of the concert, we were both feeling super drowsy and weak. It was a mix of altitude and waking up bright and early (I'm sure the beer didn't help), but when the concert was over, we were more than ready for bed. Arriving back to the camper, all the other nomads seemed to be setting up for the night. I walked over to a guy with a camper and asked if we were allowed to stay the night. He told me how he had stayed before and never had a problem, so we double checked with the venue's website and verified the stay as long as we left by 10am.
Camping at the venue was perfect for us as we couldn't find anywhere else to stay in the area, and it was getting late. As I was prepping the camper for the night, our neighbor popped out of his travel van and walked over. Beer in hand, and a trailer park style ripped sleeve shirt, this 40 something year old guy was only missing the mullet to complete the look. "Hey neighbor, my names Matt". He immediately complimented my camper and we struck up a conversation. We talked for a while about all kinds of things. What led us to this lifestyle? What we did before it? How we found our vehicles and why we were even doing it in the first place. He told me how he used to remodel houses for a living all by himself. He would stay up working up to 3 days straight at times, and brought a mattress along with him when he needed to sleep. "Coffee and Red Bull only keep you awake so long until it just turns into super fast heart rate and going insane". He told me that one day while on a 3 day work stretch and all maxed out on caffeine, his wife rushed to the house to see him because he felt like he was going to have a heart attack. As he hilariously explained this story, he told me his wife started yelling at him when he thought he was going to die. He said " My wife is the kind of woman who I have to ask for her permission to die, so after she finished yelling at me and I felt okay, we decided we had enough of this life we were living and we made a promise to go see the Badlands of South Dakota to take a break. So we found an old van, hit the road, and never went back."
I sat on the hood of my car talking to Matt for a while that night and he shared all kinds of crazy stories and advice with me. One of my favorite bits of advice was his method of conserving water. He was dumping the melted ice from his cooler one day when he called for his wife to grab a container to which she replied "Honey, we have enough money to buy water, we don't have to drink the cooler water!" He laughed at her response and said he was going to use it to fill the toilet flush tank and sink. I thought this was brilliant because we had been wasting all our melted ice to that point. Just as we were all enjoying the night and settling into our spot, a truck pulled over to us. "Red Rocks Security! You all need to leave the property immediately or I will have the police escort you out in a heartbeat". The guy was a total douchebag right off the bat. Completely confused, we all approached the truck to which the guy got even more douchey and defensive. "There is no overnight parking in this lot, if you do not leave right now I promise you I'll have the sheriff come over here." Matt took the lead with this and told the guy he had stayed plenty of times here after concerts without a problem. "Well, I've worked here for three years and we have never allowed overnight parking". That's when I jumped in and pulled out the website where it said we were allowed to stay. He was the kind of guy that seemed like he just didnt want to have to worry about his job over night and would rather just be a dick and kick everyone out. He threatened to have me arrested and kept on with his big bad ego, so we all just decided to leave.
Just before we left the property, Matt and I shook hands and wished each other the best of luck in life. As I was about to jump in the car, Matt yelled over to me "Hey, just remember... you don't have to drink the cooler water!" and we all took off our separate ways. Now its midnight, we're insanely tired and have no idea where were going to stay for the night. After searching the area, we couldn't find anything within 50 miles other than a pull off on the side of a mountain highway. We drove out to Buffalo Overlook where a bunch of truckers were parked in a single file line on the shoulder of the road and sleeping for the night. The only spot we could find was between a big truck and a little car in front of us.
Glad that we could finally rest, I began again to set up the camper for the night. As I was gathering my things, I began to hear super loud classical music which is an odd thing to hear at almost 1 in the morning. The man in the car in front of us had turned his radio up to the moon and climbed out of his car to stretch. I thought it was weird at first, but didn't mind much and continued to set up. As I was finishing up for bed, I noticed he was still going about this weird stretching (if you could even call it that). It would have been okay for a few minutes, but this man was doing all kinds of crazy stretch and dance moves for about a half hour straight with his classical music blaring. I finally decided he must be on some kind of drugs or something. Andrea and I both felt uncomfortable. It was the LAST thing we wanted to do, but we decided to move somewhere we felt more comfortable.
At this point, I was beyond the most tired I've ever been and the altitude sickness started hitting hard. The only place we knew we would be comfortable was the Bass Pro Shops we had stayed the night before in Colorado Springs. It was about an hour away, but we aimed toward it anyway. About 30 minutes into the drive and feeling like death, I saw a Cabellas which was Bass Pro Shops sister store that had the same tolerance for a 1 night stay. I've never been so happy to see a sports store in my life. We pulled off the exit and into the lot. About 2am and not knowing where the hell we even were, we were finally able to sleep.