DAY 3 - Hitting the Road to Steamboat... _______________________________________________________ Today involved some final prep to leave the Boulder area and get on the road. OUR PLAN: Head North West, through Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, hitting several locations as we go. Then we'll cross into Canada, eh, and make our way west to Vancouver. Once there we'll have a couple brews and figure out where to go next. However, before we could set this plan in motion, the Family Truckster needed a small repair. We discovered that if you beep the horn while the radio is on, it blows a fuse. The result: no horn and no tunes. And we all know how important TUNES are on a roadtrip. So that was the first order of business. Our next order of business involved fuel, but of course there's always some problem... The drive west was rather uneventful. The Truckster held together and managed not to catch fire, although it was passed repeatedly by semi trucks going up the hills. Our quest took us to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where Rom had arranged some lodging with his college buddy, Gates Gooding. Gates is also a recent grad from UVM and is currently chllin' at his old home with his Mom, Debbie for a couple weeks. No sooner did we arrive in Steamboat and meet Gates, than we were immediately wisked off to a nearby waterfall to jump off a cliff. Apparently this is like shaking hands to people in Steamboat. I'm not kidding... we weren't there 5 minutes and everyone wanted to jump off cliffs. Meanwhile, I was hungry from the drive and just wanted to grill the damn pork chops we had in the cooler. Here's some pics... Not only did Gate's Mom, Debbie, welcome us into her house but she prepared a massive meal for us. Talk about hospitality! Before dinner Gates lead us downstairs into the basement to show us his secret stash of Dandelion Wine he made last year. We toured the wine making facilities, which consisted of a huge wood barrel and a handful of bottling instruments. Now ladies and gents, I had never even heard of Dandelion Wine. Dandelion is a flower, not a fruit and, personally, I would never in a million years think of picking the little yellow weeds and producing wine from them. But hey, people make booze out of damn near anything, so who am I to question it? So we selected a few bottles for the evening and prepared to drink up. With the first sip, I was hooked. It complemented the steak and pork chops well, then made a wonderful after dinner drink. Later on it made a nice evening wine... best enjoyed glass after glass. Finally, before bed it also served well as a mouthwash. All in all I probably had 10 glasses and got straight-up hammered.