Driving (destination one)

For the uninitiated, the long haul of the open road is both alluring and intimidating. There are many things we can do with our day, including but not limited to, watching TV, reading a book, surfing the web, socializing with friends new and old, working at our jobs, spending time with the family, walking the dog, talking on the phone, seeing a movie, having a beer, writing 1000 words, shopping online or at an actual store, the possibilities are truly endless. It's your day and you're called upon each morning upon awakening to have one. Imagine doing none of the above for 20+ hours (with the exception, perhaps, of talking on the phone) and just... driving. At the speeds we're talking about, there's not a lot of challenges aside from staying on the road and avoiding other motorists (more of a challenge to others than to your humble narrator), and signaling your lane changes. It can be dull.

You might have noticed that the driver is on the right side instead of the left. While the latter is more common in the states, the former is more typical in Europe. Many have asked of this, "Why?"

A fight occurred some eighty years ago between Henry Ford and Ulrich Audi, the two top car designers of the then burgeoning automobile industry, the fight itself having nothing to do with cars, their technical design or aesthetic features. The topic was, ironically, golf. Yes that kind of driving. You see, Ulrich Audi was an avid golfer, from his youthful days caddying for a number of Germany's more prominent golfing estates (the term "golf course" was some twenties years away, and American) and it was through the connections Audi had forged by providing the correct wedge, iron or driver (I can't make this stuff up) for his clients (der mandat, in the original spelling) that lead him to his pioneering career as car manufacturer. It was customary in Germany, it should be noted, to never favor the left in any form, regardless if the person was born left handed or not (a number of German left handed surgeons were amongst the highest in mortality rates, as a result.) There was no way for Henry Ford, a south paw in his own right, to know any of this. And many years hence, Henry Ford and Ulrich Audi agreed quite jovially to a game of golf, this some years prior to golf courses being the number one place for business meetings and deals being made. And sure enough, when Henry Ford selected his lefty driver, Audi displayed shock and insult. In modern times, diversity being more a source of joy and differences more a cause for celebration, such a conflict would have been laughed off and no impact upon history would have occurred. However, back than, tradition and conformity held a higher standard of value, and thus, a fight ensued, complete fisticuffs, and the two men pulled apart by golf course caddies and other server folk, all of whom were subsequently fired (a few of were never heard from again). Apologies were made, publicly, on behalf of both camps, and behind closed doors were secret plots of revenge and comeuppance. Thus, today, Americans (North and South) drive on the left and all of the rest of the civilized world drives on the right.

We have missed the focus of our original topic. To wit, if I drove, say 1000 miles in a day instead of writing 1000 words, where could I possibly go?

Previously posted entries have established cost and time expenditures, so we'll skip that and cut right down to the bare bones. If I started in Location X (here, X stands for the place my car is most likely going to be just prior to, and shortly after, my trip) and headed for Denver, Colorado, that would eat the majority of the mileage I am attempting to undertake. And Denver's not such a bad town. I was there once, for only an evening, and although it's years since, I admit freely I had a damn good time. I'll save that story for later, because I've so far only driven 936 miles, leaving me with 63 miles left on my journey. As I've already established a southernish, westernesque direction, let's keep going south and see where I end up.

My odometer would register 1000 miles traveled just outside of Fountain, Colorado, a town just small enough to fall somewhere between hamlet and village in population. The nearby Fountain Creek Regional Trail, caters to hikers, bikes, and horseback riding enthusiasts for nearly thirty years.

As an interesting bit of local history, this was also the site of a less than nationally famous gunfight. Sirs Jefferford Skeet Darren Jackman and Hughie DougaryDarren Weiss had joint business ventures in the area, and when the arranged marriage between Jackman's daughter (Rachel) and Weiss's son (Aron) were halted due to a pregnancy of Weiss's wife sired by Jackman himself, their ability to rationally divvy up the land and businesses cordially was hampered by the time's need for reputation, honor, and gunfights. Neither man was killed in the endeavor, but Weiss lost three fingers and Jackman a third of a kidney, even though neither man was hit by a bullet.

The oddest coincidence, readers, occurred some ninety-seven (97) years later when a man decided to make a movie, his only connection to these two gunfighters was that his first name, Darren, matched both of their second middle names. The odd overlaps continued, as this modern day Darren (surname, Aronofsky) cast in his movie a man with the last name Jackman and woman by the last name Weiss, whose first names were swapped from their historical counterparts, this time the Hugh (previous a Wiess) was now a Jackman and the Rachel (whose daughter-in-law's name would have been Rachel) was now a Wiess.

The name of that particular movie was, also coincidentally, "The Fountain."

The revenue did not outweigh the cost of production.