Denver, CO
Elevation: 5,280 ft.

After bidding Ellen goodbye, good luck and thank you I began my usual routine of prepping Rhyhorn for a long drive. It didn’t take long for me to get back into the road tripping zone but it did have a feeling of being lonelier. Putting Rhyhorn into drive I looked back at Ellen’s house and took solace in her words when she told me that I would be meeting amazing people out west. Like-minded, open and fun. It rekindled the idea that I was starting over and that I was jumping into the unknown with a purpose - to really find out what this world had to offer. Reenergized I took off westward for highway 230, the destination was Colorado.

Highway 230 passed me through a few of the ridges of Medicine Bow National Forest eventually giving way to Colorado and the small towns of Cowdrey and Walden. From there it was south and eastwards towards Fort Collins. Deciding to take highway 14 through Medicine Bow and Roosevelt National Forests was, perhaps, one of the best decisions I made during this trip. The scenic routes added a couple of hours to the trip but allowed me to drive through parts of the Rockies (but not the Rocky Mountain National Park, I was incorrect). Cattle and farmlands blurred past me as I hurtled towards the Rockies - my heart was pounding irrationally hard over these mountains.

Highway 14 took me right into the mountains and snaked its way eastward along the Cache la Poudre River. Around every turn there was something to see, I could barely go a few minutes before pulling over, grabbing my camera and running across the road. I climbed down river banks, up rocky mounds and stood along ledges so steep I got lightheaded - it was an adventure.

Something that caught my eye along the nearly 2 hour long passage was the way the mountain sides would change from section to section. I am in constant realization about how little I know about geology but only after this drive did I realize how much I want to learn. My logical way of looking at it was that the sides were all characterized by the different types of vegetation present as well as whether they were snow covered or barren. I figured that a few things could have contributed: elevation, facing westward or eastward and management (logging, burning).

I had never seen mountains like these in my life and getting the chance to drive through them by myself was something that I really needed. I left highway 14 with a newfound respect for these silent ridges as well as a burning excitement to learn more about the west.

I decided to stop in Fort Collins for a rest and grabbed a burger at a restaurant off the main strip called Lodge Sasquatch Kitchen. While there I made friends with the bartender and a regular. They were the first young people that I had seen in a long time and it was refreshing to hear them talk about places to see during my time here in Colorado. The bartender was a transplant that had spent time living in Michigan and South Dakota before coming here and I was able to talk to her about some of the places I had been. Rested I headed out for Boulder with the simple mission of finding the NEON, Inc. headquarters and finding the Boulder Patagonia. During my time with NEON I met some of the best people I know and found a family there. It was one of my biggest learning experiences going through the different protocols and it allowed me to see the SCBI facility in ways I had never seen it before. Never before had I known the buildings and the land so well. At the end of each hard day there was always the realization that all of this hard work was to produce data and samples that would be sent back to Boulder. They were also the ones that came up with the protocols, handled the troubleshooting and would send out supplies and people to train us. I just HAD to see this magical place that had put us through so much. Pulling into the parking lot I looked at the plan building complex in front of me, unsure if I was in the right place. It looked like I was in the middle of a business park. What gave it away was a few white F150s parked around me with the “NEON, Inc” magnet decal on their sides. A decal I fondly remember frantically ripping off our truck in Annapolis, MD during a beer run as a lady with groceries laughed on. The building was set up so that NEON had the entire first floor. As I entered the main lobby I had the sudden realization that I had no fucking idea what I was going to do once I got here. The mission was just to get here and I hadn’t planned anything. I will spare the suspense and confess that it went just as awkward as it could have gone. Gently pushing the door of the main office I entered a silent, sterile waiting room. The young woman behind the desk looked up at me with a surprised look and said, “Hello”. “Hi”, I replied, “So this is kind of random but, I used to work in Domain 02 in Virginia, and I am just road tripping across country to Oregon and I just had to stop by and see HQ”. “Oh, wow! Thanks for stopping by!”, and then she fell silent and stared at me. I looked around and mentioned that they had a nice sign. And that it was quieter and smaller than I expected. I asked her if all the techs where here and if the labs were here and she said yes. I found a picture of the board and told her that I had met them, she said wow. I then asked her if there were a lot of visitors, before she could answer I noticed the sign in sheet and saw it was mostly maintenance guys. At that point it was so quiet that I knew if I kept talking it would quickly degenerate to just me making an ass of myself so I asked her if I could use the bathroom and she said yes. Leaving the building I felt a big sense of accomplishment. A year ago I had no idea that I would be where I am now. Not in a million years did I think I would ever make good on my playful promise to myself to visit headquarters and yet I had just peed in their bathroom. Starting Rhyhorn I thought about my NEON team and said under my breath, “that was for our soldiers”.

Pulling into Denver I was greeted by a traffic jam. For the past week I had been driving through country roads and rural highways, the concept of rush hour hadn’t even crossed my mind and yet here I was stuck between priuses and shiny SUVs. It reminded me of NoVa and started giving me splitting headaches and claustrophobia. I remembered how much I hated big cities. But, being the mile high city as well as the hub for a lot of outdoor sports I bit the bullet. I will say something that made me happy was the fact that nearly every other car was a SUV and that most of those were tricked out 4runners, Escapes and Jeeps AND that all of them had roof racks. Rhyhorn and I blended in perfectly. After about an hour and a half of traffic I pulled into the parking lot of Kevin’s apartment complex. It was the first time I had seen him since Christmas and I went in for a big hug only to learn that he had bruised the muscles around his ribs from heavy coughing and a performing in a recent performance despite said cough. Kevin is the only guy I know that goes so hard that he sprains his serratus muscles dancing. After settling in in his apartment we grabbed dinner together at his favorite sushi place (a treat from my mom to us, she’s the best!).

That night was a trip down memory lane. We caught up on life, what our future plans were, what we were doing right now, how much we were winging it and a reintroduction to the world of hip hop. Once upon a time I was a breakdancer and throughout high school and early college dancing was a passion of mine and Kevin and our close friend Johnny. It started with home made martial arts videos and evolved into home made dance videos and eventually culminated into us making our own crew and everything complete with logos embroidered on our clothes. We were in it. Once college came around we met many like-minded dancers and really entered the world of hip hop choreography. Speaking candidly, I had no idea what I was thinking. My sad attempts at creating choreography are moments I will never live down. But Kevin. Kevin took off. His style was complex and rich in emotion and, in my opinions, years ahead of the game. It was his love and passion for dance that caused him to pack his things and drive to Colorado to pursue teaching. At the time my friends and I were worried and pretty much chalked it up to him just dying but we were wrong. Spending the whole first night watching his new pieces and watching videos of our favorite choreographers I was caught up all at once to just how much progress hip hop dance has made. It is a complex, rich force of art that is going as strong as ever. Watching Kevin teach his classes I was really taken back. I couldn’t really comprehend what I was seeing. I remembered practicing in my basement late into the night for a international night talent show at my high school with Kevin but now here he was with a full class teaching excited students and getting paid. I told him that watching him teach reminded me of the opportunities I had at SCBI to teach BJJ basics to my friends. There is no feeling quite like teaching. You are imparting a part of yourself to other people and they are excited to feel and learn and become part of what you have to share. It’s intense as balls. Here are some links to some of the artists that we revisited as well as Kevin himself:

https://www.youtube.com/user/LucklessLotus

https://www.youtube.com/user/BrianPuspos

https://www.youtube.com/user/keoneANDmari

https://www.youtube.com/user/shaunevaristo

https://www.youtube.com/user/DJIcon

And I have to mention separately Bboy Cloud and just how much he has grown as a dancer. He has transcended breakdancing and choreography and has gone the distance to write and produce his own films. I always found his short musical clips amazing but, armed with kickstarter, he has come out with his first long, short film and it blew my mind. Watch it for yourselves and tell me that this is world’s better than the shit they have on tv, movies and the god damn grammy’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOYZyCJF5_8

During the day we had a tour de gear stores. Kevin was being a great sport and taking me to outdoor gear stores I am sure he would never have visited on his own. He held it together while I fan-boy talked his ears off about Patagonia and REI and had the patience to wait while I geeked out about said companies in said stores with said store’s employees. Walking into the Denver Patagonia I had low hopes to be honest but I was driven by my quest for stickers (Patagonia stickers are some of the hardest stickers to come by, you have to visit their brick and mortar stores to get them and even then there are only 29 in the U.S.). Something I learned while visiting the DC Patagonia was that employees knew, at best, the surface factoids about how the company was a big figure in the fight for environmentally responsible businesses. But a man named Trevor Masters changed all that. I must have talked to him for at least 30 minutes about the company. We talked about Yvon Chouinard and how many things he had pioneered for the company, climbing, watersports, the clothing industry and sustainable business. We talked about how the worn wear program was bringing to the forefront the concept of reducing and reusing. He told me how surprised customers were that a person was going to literally sew ad repair their worn clothes before their eyes. He put it well when he said, “A pair of pants you wear and repair for 10 years is 10 years worth of pants that don’t have to be made, circulated and trashed”. Just when I though I couldn’t be geeking enough about the company he asked for my information and gave me his. He told me that, if things didn’t work out with my field job (getting an extension, etc.) that he would email Porltand Patagonia’s manager and put in a good word for me. I was beyond freaking out. We talked more about the company and started touching on technical fabrics, fabrics made from recycled material as well as their traceable down. I don’t think he expected me to keep up with him let alone finish his sentences and even correct him on a few things. That’s when he asked me if I had read and of Chouinard’s books. When I said no he told me to wait one second and he went to the bookshelf, walked over to the register and BOUGHT ME TWO BOOKS. I died where I stood. I told him that I had never had such a positive and actually thought provoking experience in a patagonia store. That I thought I was crazy that I was as passionate and grateful as I was that such a company existed. He handed me some stickers and told me that it was a pleasure meeting me and I left with a new friend, a rekindled love for the company and some bad ass stickers.

The next stop was the flagship Denver REI. Both places where places I had often fantasized about visiting. One does not just drive through Colorado without visiting these places and here I was making it happen. When we pulled into the REI we were shocked at how big it was, then we shocked that we had to pay for parking. Instead of entering through the front we decided to park on the side. As we walked up towards the door I stopped dead in my tracks. Right at the entrance was none other than my friend and Fairfax REI coworker Chelsea posing in front of the sign for a picture! A little context, Chelsea and I both left REI a week apart to drive cross country for Oregon and Washington respectively. We were each other’s support systems and shared the grief and sadness of having to say goodbye to our REI family. I knew we would both be traveling but the trips just didn’t line up so I figured we would reconnect later in the PNW but as the fates would have it we ran into each other at that moment! I touched on this once before, the strange way that coincidences work, and I thought to myself how it was all chance that Kevin and I woke up so late, that I talked so long with Trevor, that we got stuck in traffic and that we parked on the side instead of the front! Mind blown and giddy to see my old friend I shouted and hugged her like a maniac.

The actual store itself was massive and impressive for that fact but was otherwise underwhelming. The staff was friendly and I’m sure were knowledgeable but they seemed to lack the fun, friendly, passionate sparkle my team had. It could have been the fact that it was a slow Wednesday, or because I am a pathological romanticizer, but everyone seemed deflated.

The night ended with beers at the Great Divide brewery and some cheap, delicious chinese food. My time here in Colorado has been so eye-opening and fruitful I can’t believe it was just two days. I told Kevin that I have been trying harder to live a more open life, to take more chances and to just go for it. And more than ever I can really say that it has been helping me experience life in a better, fuller way. The next stop is the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone for Wyoming pt. II. Until then my friends.

Sorry this one was so long and thank you all for supporting me and keeping up with me. It is a honor, gift and privilege to have you all in my life!

Chris