After leaving New Mexico, the first thing I wanted to do when I got to Denver was go see Knod. I had hoped that it wasn't going to be too late by the time I got there. However, the first thing I encountered was heavy traffic. They had a couple of lanes of I-25 shut down for road work and I was starting to lose my patience after everything that had happened earlier that day. I felt like it was just one thing after another putting obstacles in my way for what was supposed to be MY fun time.
I got over to Knod's house in Arvada around 9:30pm, but her mom told me she was at Muddy's Java Cafe. I threw up my hands and realized that I wasn't going to see Knod that evening. I went over to the apartment of a friend who said I could stay there. He gave me a key and said I could come and go as I please. I fell asleep without worrying about what time I was going to wake up the next morning.
When I did wake up, my friend had left for work. I decided that it was about time that I try to contact Rid. I hadn't talked to him in eight months since I left Denver. Even though I was still mad about how he failed to show up when I truly needed him to help me move, I missed his friendship. Knod had told me previously that he had gotten married and enlisted in the Navy. Before I got ready to leave, I called his house. He picked up the phone. I hung up.
I drove most of the way there. When I got to a gas station, I went to the pay phone and called his house again. He picked up the phone and I hung up again. At this point, I knew he'd probably still be home by the time I got there. And if he left, I would probably see him coming in the opposite direction. Fortunately, he was. He was surprised and pleased to see me. The first thing he showed me was his wedding ring. I told him Knod had given me the news. He was waiting to go into basic training for the Navy, but hadn't been given a definite date that he was supposed to show up.
We decided to run around town for awhile. We went to the Mayan Theatre and surprised Mr. M. He had received word from the friend I was staying with that I probably wasn't going to stop by. But I also had a surprise. In Mr. M's office was a film promoter I had met just a few weeks earlier in San Diego. He was also probably surprised to see me.
Rid and I went back to my friend's apartment and hung out for a little bit before I had to drive him home. After taking him back, I drove over to Knod's house. She was there with a friend named Cald. They were getting ready to go clubbing. Knod previously told me that a friend of hers would be accompanying us and that was going to be Cald. Cald was 21 years old and had short, dyed-black hair. She also had freckles and, in retrospect, kind of looked like Azura Skye.
Knod's mom, older sister and brother were also at the house, along with her 2 1/2 year old niece. During the time I was at the house, Knod started throwing her niece up in the air and catching her. However, she wound up hurting her back the last time she caught her. Fortunately, she would be okay, but it did hurt for awhile.
We planned for me to come back to the house around 8am and we would then be on our way. I went back to my friend's apartment and slept. I got up at 7am the next day so I could go over to the Denver Greyhound bus station, buy the tickets and make it to Knod's house on time. When I got there, her brother was outside. As I approached the house, he told me Knod didn't come home the night before and he didn't know when she was going to be back. I didn't know what to do. Obviously, I was going to stick around until she and Cald showed up, but I didn't know how long I could wait before I needed to hit the road. I hadn't considered the possibility that there was a chance she wasn't going to come back with me. The big issue was that I had bought three tickets to see a production at the La Jolla Playhouse. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait for more than about 30 minutes before they showed up.
Everything was going okay for the first part of the trip. We stopped in Glenwood Springs to go to the bathroom. When we got back on the road, I asked Cald if she had ever been anywhere before. She said the furthest she'd ever gone from Colorado was Wyoming. I told Knod, "You didn't tell me we were initiating someone on their first real trip." For the next hour or so, Knod and Cald were writing stuff in a notebook, giggling and passing it back and forth. I didn't pay too much attention to what they were doing. I was just keeping my eyes on the road.
At some point before we left Colorado, we stopped so I could go to the restroom. Neither Knod nor Cald needed to go. When I came back to the car, Knod smiled at me and said, "Hey, just so you know, we took some acid back when we stopped in Glenwood Springs, so if you think we've been acting a little goofy, that's why." I didn't know whether or not to believe her, but it wasn't really affecting me at this point.
We crossed the state line into Utah. All of a sudden, Cald started freaking out. She was screaming that she wanted us to turn the car around and take her back. Knod kept yelling at her that she was tripping and tried to get her to lay down an go to sleep in the back seat. It was this point that I realized Knod was not kidding around about them doing drugs. Every time Cald tried to lay down, she would immediately sit back up and start asking questions about what was going on. Cald told Knod that she was a terrible person and that all she did was trick people. Knod started crying. Pretty soon, Cald fell asleep. Knod also fell asleep.
A little while later, Cald woke up. I wasn't certain if she was still in the trip state, so I asked her how she was doing. "I'm doing fine." She certainly seemed a lot calmer. I guess she was back to normal. Knod woke up and they started talking. What had been going on was that this was the first time Cald had ever tried acid, and she got it in her head that Knod and I were driving her to a police station to have her arrested for doing drugs. Because the landscape in Utah looked like the same thing over and over, she thought we were going around in circles. Knod told her that if she'd known she hadn't done acid before, she wouldn't have given her any.
Then I noticed I was low on gas. I hadn't thought to fill up before we got into Utah. We found an exit to a place called Cisco and took it. However, I didn't notice there was a sign on the exit that said "No Services." (I would see that sign on future trips.) We kept driving and driving, hoping to find a gas station, but I had no idea where we were or how to get back on the highway or even how long I would be able to go before I ran out. Eventually, the road we were on took us back to I-70. A few miles later, there was an exit to a small town called Thompson. They had gas there, but it was a lot higher than if I had purchased it earlier. It didn't matter, I was glad to have a tankful of gas. I sure didn't need any more disasters on this trip.
There is a section of I-70 through Utah in which you have to drive about 100 miles between towns with services. Knod's other brother warned me about it. I also recalled when we went to my uncle's wedding in Salt Lake City in 1975. Dad told me we were going along this stretch in which we wouldn't be able to stop anywhere. On top of this, it's mostly uphill. I was glad we were in a dependable car and didn't have any malfunctions along the way. We made it to I-15. We stopped somewhere along the way and got something to eat. (I think it was Cedar City.) We saw a Subway and said, "It's a Subway! We're saved!"
We decided to stop in St. George and spend the night. At this time, I always stayed at Motel 6, but I had trouble finding it, so we checked in at the Rodeway Inn. The pool was closed by the time we got there, but Knod and Cald went swimming anyway. Several of the local boys were hanging around in the parking lot and when they saw them swimming, they went up and talked to them. Knod and Cald came back inside and we went to sleep.
It had been a long hard day, but we had plenty more adventures ahead of us the next day as we were going to GO TO VEGAS!
That's tomorrow's post.
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