Synaptic Snaps, Crackles & Pops

Visit's over! [30 DBC entry]

30DBC November 3 Prompt: You live in a tourist town. There's always an 'interesting' mix of visitors. But this year they are especially... different. In what way?


As Bugs Bunny might say, "These guys shoulda taken a left at Albuquerque!" Who do I mean? Why, the folks who somehow missed their highway turn-off and ended up here in Denver, far from where they'd originally been bound (supposedly) and well north of the line of latitude appropriate for their (alleged) driving skills.

They say, they're just visiting. If that's true, then find an appropriate time to leave. Give yourself a day to get your altitude sickness really going with an ill-advised trip to the top of Pike's Peak, then make the rational decision that there's plenty of stuff worth seeing south of the 35th parallel.

But, unlike wanderers during the other three seasons of the year, they don't leave and, come the first snowfall, they're an accident just waiting on a light to change from red to green so they can burn what little rubber remains on their tires trying to get enough traction to climb South Monaco Parkway across Leetsdale Drive, before the light changes again. Fortunately, some of them slide across the lanes without actually hitting anyone, until they create an automotive logjam against the curb. This leaves enough room on their left for people who actually know how to drive in snow to get to work, to school, etc.

If you ask them if they hadn't, perchance, ended up in the wrong part of the country, you'll get responses like -

"Naw! We meant to come here all along. We heard about Vail and Aspen and the Continental Divide and all that stuff, and we wanted to see 'em." All that stuff is on the other side of the aforementioned Divide from Denver, meaning they'll have to brave I-70, the Eisenhower Tunnel that crosses the Divide at about 11,100', and the wrath of long-distance truckers with little enough patience for Colorado-tagged vehicles and next to none for cars bearing plates from states that border the Gulf of Mexico.

"Yeah, and C. W. McCall had a song called "Wolf Creek Pass" a long time ago, so I wanted to see if it was real." It is real, Bubba - all 10,857 feet of it, and it's not to be trifled with, especially in November.

Visitors? If so, then here's a newsflash for all y'all: Visiting hours are over. Go home!