GayPatriot

The Internet home for American gay conservatives.

Powered by Genesis

My Surreal Return

October 24, 2007 by GayPatriotWest

When I woke on Monday, I looked out on my cousin’s backyard in Denver to see four inches of snow on the ground. As I drove through Denver on my way west, I saw some cars still partially covered in snow. When I returned to LA, a friend, whose work parking lot is outdoors, told me he had had to scrape ash from the car.

The air was crisp and clean in the Rockies and the desert and open spaces of Utah and Nevada. When I returned here, you could smell the smoke (from the wildfires) in the air. The stars were completely blocked at night. I wonder if this is how LA was in the ’70s before people become sensitive to the environment.

On Monday, I had to walk across an icy parking lot in Denver to get to Starbucks for my morning coffee, taking a short cut over a snow-covered traffic island. Yesterday, stopping in Mesquite, Nevada, I had to walk through a casino to get to the Starbucks there. Even at that early hour (just before 9 AM), people were already gambling, mostly senior citizens, many drinking and a good number smoking.

I’ve always found casinos depressing places, maybe it’s the contrast between the sad-looking people so focused on the machines, pulling the levers and pushing the buttons almost like machines themselves, and the images of happy, celebrating people in the prime of life we see in advertisements for such establishments.

One of the many contrasts I noted on my journey.

Filed Under: Dan's Cross Country Odyssey, LA Stories

Comments

  1. V the K says

    October 25, 2007 at 9:11 am - October 25, 2007

    Dude! I was in Colorado Springs on Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was awesome to see snow on the ground. Also visited friends in Denver Monday night. Unfortunately learned that their son is not doing as well as mine are.

    Anyway, when my son and I were in Reno last year, we encountered on the way back to our hotel from breakfast a man walking down the middle of a city street at 8:30 in the morning casually throwing unopened beer bottles in the air and letting them smash to the ground. It makes one wonder what the story was behind that.

  2. Damon says

    October 25, 2007 at 6:44 pm - October 25, 2007

    DUDE! I live here in Denver. Anytime you guys wanna meet I am up for it! Damon from March to the RIGHT you Penguins!

Categories

Archives