TRAVELIN'  TUESDAYS

Travelin' Tuesdays is a brand new feature on my blog, where I tell youse guys about the madcap adventures I've had while traveling across this land I like to call AMERICA!

I have had to use a lot of disclaimers lately, to avoid legal problems, but...I'm tired of dadburned disclaimers!!

I'm gonna use another device to tell this story, and I think most of you will get the point.

CIRCA 1970...Granite City, Illinois

About 43 years ago (43 YEARS?!!) I was a semi-hippy living in a little house trailer with my 

best friends, Ryan and Joanne...I say semi-hippy because I worked at a job at the time.

The trailer had the whole living room ceiling covered with beauteous album covers from wall to wall.

It was a real happy hippy haven (subliminal reference to Richie Havens) that we thought was far out , right on, and totally "heavy!"

This awesome song was written by Richie Havens and Louis (Fiddler) Gossett Jr.

The black light posters that we had, were my favorite things to gaze at for hours! 

WOW! OH, WOW!! Like, that poster is blowing my mind, dude!!! 

I feel like I'm, like , walking around on that weird planet , man!

Anyway, Ryan had heard through the "grapevine" that Boulder Colorado was the PLACE to go for ( now, how can I put this, so as not to corrupt the kiddies), uh, let me see, "M&M'S," yeah, that's it, "M&M'S!"

You could buy an "M&M" in Boulder for 25 cents, and come back to St. Louis (across the river from Granite City) and sell it for $2.00! ( You could also get a BIG bag of, umm, how can I say this, "lettuce salad" for 10 bucks!)

So we did some ciphering, and figured out that if we could scrape up $250.00,  we could take a "trip" to Boulder, buy 1000 "M&M'S," and sell them to our friends  in the St. Louis area for $2.00 each!  

Far out, man! We would get $2000.00 for a $250.00 investment!

What could go wrong?!!

We might even score some "lettuce salad" for our personal selves, as well! 

What a genius plan!!

In addition, gas was dirt cheap back then.

Don't you just love foolproof  plans?!!

I worked during the week, so we had to  start our trip on Friday, after I got off work, to drive 12 hours to Boulder, pick up the "M&M'S," and be back before Monday morning! 

We were sore excited!!!

I had a beautiful blue 69 Ford Mustang, fastback,  with chrome wheels, a raised hood, with hood pins, and a super POWERFUL 8 track stereo system that could be heard 5 blocks away!

So, we wouldn't be too conspicuous.

What a lovely "trip" we had on the way!

None of us had ever been to Colorado, and the glorious, wonderful vistas, with all of the snow covered mountains (in the summer, no less), buttes, mesa's, and plateau's were, like, totally and righteously freakin' us out, but in a good way, man!

I have to write this part in semi-earthtones, man, because Boulder was so fresh, earthy, and REAL!

Totally REAL, and the coolest place I'd ever been!

BOULDER COLORADO

We did some touristy kind of things at first, drove up to Nederland, made a makeshift camp site, and talked to the local "heads" in the area. 

NEDERLAND COLORADO

We heard that the "hill" was the best place to go for "M&M'S" and "lettuce salad," and we heard RIGHT!

University Hill

When we got to the "hill," tons of people would walk by us, they didn't walk up to us, they walked BY us, and would whisper, "best "lettuce" on the "hill," or " pure "M&M'S," man".

This was easier than we ever dreamed!

To make it even better, the prices were exactly as we had been told through the proverbial "grapevine!"

This was unbelievable!!

Everything was going according to our plan!

Ryan and I HAD to try one of the "M&M'S" to make sure everything was Kosher (it was), Joanne did not partake because she was driving, and we cheerfully headed home, feeling very, very HAPPY!!!! 

What could possibly go wrong?!!

(Continued next "Travlin' Tuesday")