Day 22: Filth, Flam, Filth

Filth is a strange thing. Most of us will go well out of our way to avoid it, but once it happens we realize it isn't the most horrible thing (unless of course you're around other, cleaner people). Filth (NSFW) is probably the best way to describe my 8 hour drive to Denver.

The day saw me rise at 6 am still encrusted in the sweat, dirt and disgustingness brought about by a 3 hour hike in the Grand Canyon. Due to excessive lines at the canyon showers and a complete lack of showers in Zion, my bedtime odor was less than desirable. Needless to say, my morning stench was breathtaking (not in the good way) and I was wishing for a washing. To complicate the situation, I arose 2 hours before all the shower facilities in nearby Springdale opened and ended up driving about a hundred miles to the nearest KOA that offered $10 showers.

In most cases, the problem would be solved. Not for this bumbling fool though. I had passed up an opportunity to wash my clothes while in San Francisco since I thought I had plenty - and for some articles I did. If I only wore around hiking socks and sweatshirts, I would have been fine (I strongly advise against picturing that image). Unfortunately, other essentials such as underwear, shorts and t-shirts were needed. The end result was a unwashed, unshaven, disheveled fool going through a pile of sweat and dirt stained clothes and smelling them to see which pair of boxers and shorts were the least dirty ("most clean" was the original wording here, but that would have wrongly implied some cleanliness). Luckily for all the campers, I was doing this about 10 feet from the all -you-can-eat pancake breakfast, so all in all, I ruined about a dozen people's morning and still smelt of a baby's diaper. Not a bad couple of accomplishments before 9am.

Once my uncleanliness debacle was complete, I shot on up to I-70 for the 9 hour drive to Denver.

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Since this drive took up the majority of my day, I figured I should go into a little more detail about my Saab. This thing is a beast - it's going strong with 107,000 miles on it. It has great leather seats that I ripped from my brother's beater. The gas gauge doesn't work, only about half of the pixels displaying the time and radio station do (I always know how far past the hour it is, but not necessarily the hour itself), and at least one of the air conditioning fans is falling out of the casing. Overall, it's a pretty sweet ride. Of course, when you take a trip that has covered roughly 8,000 miles up to this point, even this classy auto is bound to get messy. I'll let the pictures do the talking:

The Front Seats

The Back Seat:

The Trunk:

As I approached Denver, I started looking for a place to do laundry. Then I spotted it. No, not the "Super Duper Watch Naked Coeds Wash Your Clothes For Free Laundromat". Nope, I spotted Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. Needless to say, I had a dilemma - do I go another day without clean clothes, or do I miss the Rockies/Nats game?

It turned out to be one of the simpler choices I've ever made. Even though I ended up wearing the same underwear for 3 straight days and only lasted 4 innings at the game, it was a great time. The stadium is beautiful, security was super nice when they "randomly" searched me because I apparently fit some kind of profile, the beer was cheap ($5 for a Blue Moon) and the fans were somewhat knowledgeable of the game. Overall it was a great time and well worth stinking for another day or two.

After a few innings of Little League level ball (the Nats are THAT bad), I jumped back in the Saab and, ignoring the conventional wisdom, drove east. The Limon, CO KOA was nice enough to host me for a long 6 hours before I headed towards my next destination: Kansas City (and 2 Sox games!!!)