You Ever Been to (New) Mexeeecooo???

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Let me tell you about my November, because it’s been pretty damn good.

Dog, wheels, bag full o' clothes and bourbon...yes, it's a road trip.

 

Let’s start from the beginning.

This first point may have actually taken place in October…I’m never really sober enough to remember details like that. Anyway, I headed up to Denver to see my little brother’s band, The Acacia Strain. They are a pretty hardcore metal band, which is not exactly my cup of tea, but I got to be up on stage behind my brother during the set, and they freaking killed it.

Kid gets paid to travel all over the world—and I mean all over the fucking world. He was just in Indonesia last month—to play metal.  Good gig. If you’re into hardcore metal, check out The Acacia Strain and try not to blow your eardrums.

 

Shortly thereafter, I finished writing the novel I’ve been working on for three goddamn years. It’s novel number 5, and I think it’s going to be good. My brain shut down after that (it’s debatable as to whether it has restarted), which is an obligatory process any time I finish a novel, so I’ve mostly spent my time drinking beer, taking photos of beautiful young women, and standing in my garage, wishing I had a better bike. Oh, and I bought rollers. Fucking shoot me.

A week later, my wife and I went to see Puscifer in Denver. If you don’t know Puscifer, you just don’t know. The new album is all about the Verde Valley in Arizona, which made me feel pretty damn homesick.

YouTube Preview Image

(skip to 1:20 if you want to ignore the long intro).

The Verde goddamn Valley. Yeah, I'll admit it, I'm a bit homesick for Arizona.

 

The following week, we went back to Denver to have us a splendid evening of hockey with the one and only 40 Hands. The game was perhaps the most boring hockey game I’ve ever seen, but it’s always nice to spend a bit o’ time with a fellow DC’er.

Anyway, that’s all well and good, but let’s talk about ridin’ some o’ them there bi-cycles. I’ve been doing that a lot lately, mostly here:

That there is Palmer Park, here in the Springs. Take note of Pikes Peak in the background. It's a helluva nice after work riding spot, especially when the folks you ride with are prone to drinking a beverage or two along the way.

 

The riding ain’t half bad here in Colorado. Ain’t too bad in New Mexico either, as I found out this weekend. Since my wife and I don’t have any west coast family and we weren’t ready to fly back east for Thanksgiving, we decided to pack the dog and a bike and high tail it down to Santa Fe for the weekend. My only experience in Santa Fe had been a gas station up to this point, so I was ready to give it a fair shake, and I’m glad I did. We checked out the art scene (awesome), ate some New Mexican food (mind blowing, and occasionally colon blowing), and got some riding in, luckily. I say luckily because it snowed the day we got there and I was thinking I might not get to ride at all, but as it turns out, the snow only stuck around long enough to make the trails nice and tacky.

 

It was a goddamn cold day on the trails, but well worth it.
Sorry for the low quality phone pic. The scenery was pretty awesome, though.

 

This here's the Dale Ball trail in Santa Fe. It was fun, rolly, and fast. Not real technical, but goddamn fun.

 

"Is this Heaven?" "No Sir. It's New Mex-eee-Coo, and you're under arrest."

 

This wrist is DC-approved.

 

A glory shot of my Gunnar Cockpound.

 

This tree's a fucking doper. You wanna know how I can tell?

 

Anyway, had me a great time on and off the trails in Santa Fe and ate some great food. The 5 hour drive kind of blows, but we did stop in a creepy/cool little town in southern Colorado called Trinidad…it has been brought to my attention (thanks, Matt P.) that Trinidad was once the Sex Change Capital of the World, and while I did not partake in this particular extracurricular, I did take a walk around and snap some photos of a town that should be, for all intents and purposes, a ghost town.

Seriously. Could have  been the setting of a Stephen King story.

You got a purdy mouth. Hyuh hyuh. And you sure do stink purdy too.

 

The new Stephen King novel, "Transgender Blender"

 

It was a great town, and it was pretty nice in other parts of town, but goddamn, it was creepy as hell to walk around this functioning town and not hear or see anyone at all. It’s different when you’re in the woods and expect to be alone…the sound of your chain climbing over cogs is comforting there. But here, the same sound struck me as menacing, almost slimy. If you ever get the chance to visit, I highly recommend it.

 

 

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About D2

I am a writer and a photographer. I never killed a man in Reno, but I once rode a bike through a casino in Vegas. Bikes are cool, huevos rancheros are for breakfast, whiskey is for dinner. Denver, Colorado, USA

29 Replies to “You Ever Been to (New) Mexeeecooo???”

  1. That town looks as if it would fit better in Travis County Texas. From the Hewitt house

  2. Let’s see.

    Road trip with your loved ones, tick.
    Accomplishing goals, (novel), tick.
    Live music gigs, (granted neither are to my tastes), tick.
    Lots of good bike riding. tick
    Seeing interesting places, tick.

    Pretty much sounds to me like you’re living the life, congratulations!!

    And for us ‘senior people’ out there , today I discovered that YES are coming to NZ next year, (Yes, my tickets are already booked).

    Fucking old hippies

  3. Your brother is in The Acacia Strain? Those guys are bad-fucking-ass.
    “We come from broken homes
    Broken hearts and
    Broken bones
    We will live and die alone”

  4. Yessir, he’s been touring with them for a year and a half, so I guess he’s really just a touring guitarist. No idea if they’ll make him a permanent member or not. I guess their permanent guitarist hasn’t toured with them in, like, three years.

    His name is Tim. Check out the wikipedia page.

  5. Acacia what now? Was listening to Minor Threat in the crew van today. On headphones, mind. Between the beaners and the rednecks, real music don’t fly. I want me some a that Acacia thingie.

  6. I’m with Hurben.

    That trip of yours was one tick after another.

    Except the music. That sucked. But to each his own.

    Where does one buy a copy of your writings ??

    And yea Hurben. You are def a fucking old hippie. And I hope ya never change.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Febr_t_qa9U

    A bro sent me that link. I think I’ve listened to it 50x since yesterday.

  7. …nice little travelogue there, amigo but how about a big whoa-down & backin’ up there a minute…

    …what constitutes trinidad having been “the sex change capital of the world” ???…

    …’zat mean alotta locals weren’t happy with their junk & got stuff removed (&/or built) & thus it was a big tg community or does that mean out-a’-towners found the local ‘removal services’ to their liking ???…

    …& no, i’m more than fine w/ what i got, i’m just askin’…

  8. Apparently a doctor who was like the Picasso of sex change operations operated out of there for forty years. If you’re in the know, “Taking a trip to Trinidad” basically meant going to get your privates reassigned.

  9. …holy shit, d2…“…the Picasso of sex change operations…”

    …nice imagery…i’m visualizing some of picasso’s work & thinkin’ picasso, salvador dali & van gogh (the self mutilated ear thingy) just might not be real good advertising…

    …how about something more subtle like the realistic work of edward turner or even leonardo da vinci…

    …anyway, a nice little drive up the coast to the tiny fishing village of trinidad, california, just above arcata, for dinner at the foot of the pier will never be quite the same…

    …just sayin’…

  10. Ha…leave it to a writer to come up with disturbing imagery.

    Never been to Trinidad, CA. worth the trip? In fact, I’ve never been to northern CA. I’ve got friends in SF, so maybe a trip is in order.

  11. “the Picasso of sex change operations” ?????

    Thanks a lot D2. I’m now gonna have to sleep with the lights on for at least 2 days.

    Stop being a Dolak.

  12. I’m going to go out on a limb here & say his Pink period.

    His cubism periods & later periods disturb me.

  13. …touche’, el jefe…

    …but to answer your question, i’d say his later abstract stuff, after 1940…

    …the kinda surrealistic expressionism that if picasso did a period piece for the good doctor’s signpost at the ol’ ‘sex change clinic’, the clipped johnson might still be in the picture, just moved from it’s intended place to next to the new vagina…

  14. …d2…hwy 1/pacific coast highway is the drive of a lifetime, north or south from ‘the city’

    …the majority of it is a simple 2 lane road but the amazing coastal scenery more than makes up for the time spent behind some clown waddling along with the family in the rented rv…

    …if you can avoid the summer months, you miss the worst of the traffic & springtime or early fall is generally pretty awesome out here…morning fog, sunny days & ya, you might even get some rain ‘cuz, hey, it IS a coastal climate…

    …there’s a whole lotta other cool parts to northern california like the tahoe basin, yosemite & the sierras but a drive up the mendocino coast & beyond is seriously worthwhile…

    …sonoma & napa are known for their wines but you don’t have to drink the stuff in the vineyard & i guarantee every restaurant on the north coast other than the cheap chains, is gonna have the good norcal grape…

    …fuck…i sound like i work for the tourist board but, hey – i love this whole awesome area…people crack on ‘california’ all the time but you know what ???…they sure spend a lotta their fucking money coming out here to enjoy themselves whilst on vacation…

    …me ???…i live here…

  15. I’ve just never been able to get my head around cubism. The penis would end up as some strange appendage coming off of the knee… You wouldn’t be able to tell if it was a penis or a vagina… Rose for realism, Surrealist for the absurdity of the whole procedure.

  16. Having grown up in Napa County, I can say that Sonoma > Napa. There’s still things other than grapes. Also hit up Russian River Brewing Company. Pliny the Elder is widely considered to be one of the best microbrews in the country. IMO, Fall is the best time of year on the coast.

  17. The sentiment is appreciated. I’m not worried, though, cuz the gubmint says them there job creators are gonna save the day.

    Fuuuuuccckkk…..

  18. …ouch !!!…hang in, bud…

    …sheesh…that piker…i’d buy you 2 beers, but you’re about 956 miles east of me at the moment…

  19. Raised a VB for you.

    Yes it’s quintessential Australian piss, right up there with XXXX, but it’s cheap in NZ.

    Take care.

  20. Girls and other women always ask me if they are pregnant because their period is late!
    I used to explain to them why it didn’t always mean they were, but now days I just point them to look up late period.
    The internet explains everything, from why periods can be late, to pregnancy symptoms.

    When my period is late though, I still get stressy!