Dallas - The Rockies

On Wednesday we met up with one of the guys we had being staying with in Austin at the Greyhound station and ended up catching the same bus to Dallas. Once there we checked into a small hostel in a town outside of the city called Irving. Irving has recently passed an intiative that makes it illegal to sell alcohol within their town limits. So we spent a quiet night at the hostel watching Crocodile Dundee 3 on TV and resting up for the long journey we would have to make the next day.
The next morning we rose early because there was one final piece of business we had to attend to before we left Dallas. One of our favourite musician's 'Dimebag' Darrel Abbott was murdered whilst on stage just under two years ago. We knew that his final resting place was situated in the nearby town of Arlington, what we didn't know was that Arlington is the largest town in the United States that doesn't have a public transport system. So we caught the first Greyhound out there in the morning and walked just over 2 miles from the station to the Moore Memorial Cemetery. After a bit of searching we found the Abbott family plot where Darrel is buried next to his mother who passed away in 1999. His memorial is a beautiful tribute in black enamel embossed with a gold design which shows his face, a silhouette of him on stage and two of his signature guitars crossed over the motif. Many people had left guitar picks, beer caps and flowers behind to show their respect for a man who revolutionised the heavy metal genre. He will continue to influence guitarists for generations to come and will be remembered for always being himself.
That evening we boarded our next Greyhound bus which was running late from the offset. Once aboard we settled in for ourlongest night bus journey yet a full nineteen hours to Denver, Colorado. We had to change at Amarillo at 4 o clock in the morning, so if you ever need directions we can get you there from Dallas at least. We awoke briefly at sunrise as we were crossing the plains of east Colorado, there was nothing but barren waste in all directions but the sky went from deep purple on one side to bright orange on the other. When we finally woke up fully we could see the Rocky Mountains jutting out of the landscape just under one hundred miles in front of us. We were filled with a sense of anticipation because we knew that the next day we would be able to make our way through those lofty peaks under our own steam in a hired car. Once in Denver we went to Budget car rentals and reserved a white Chevrolet Cobalt which cost us just under $400 for four days.
We picked up the car at noon the next day and made our way quickly out of the city and on to Interstate 70 which goes West all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah. We found it surprisingly easy getting to grips with driving on the wrong side of the road but agreed that the vehicle would have handled the slopes better if it were a manual. Our first destination was Winter Park which is known as the best ski resort in Colorado, the people we have spoken to think we're crazy when we say we don't ski. The hostel we checked into was one of the most comfortable we have stayed in thus far and the ski bums we have met were all very friendly. Sunset is at around 5pm up here so there was very little to do after the sun went down but we were happy to hit the hay in order to have a full day on the road the next day.
Today we drove further west and south to Leadville which is the highest municipality in the United States at over 10,000 feet. To get here we crossed Loveland Pass which is one of the highest roads in the Rockies and boasted spectacular panoramic views in all directions. Leadville itself sits in a basin and is surrounded by gigantic peaks on all sides, it would be hard to find a better view anywhere else in America. I can not even begin to describe some of the sights we have seen in the past few days so you'll have to wait to see the reels of photos we will have by the end of this stretch of our journey. Tomorrow we intend to head further south to Crested Butte which is the neighbouring ski resort to Aspen.