places i was once
a hotel on the highway. outside of denver co. kind of mission-style inside with warm beige stucco walls and some fountains and everything.
i was there with other people and i can't remember who they were.
we didn't stay long and i can't remember why we were there.
it was east of denver on the highway which was kind of a wasteland of storage rentals and shipping container yards and metal shops. big billboards advertising local radio and car dealerships. electrical wires everywhere and the faint outline of the mountains that lay just a few miles away but remained cloaked in the thick haze of denver industry.
we sat in a bar area with little tables reached through labyrinthine halls, past overgrown potted plants. no servers to be found. we just sat there for a while and moved on.
i remember the whole thing being odd. a weird (nice) hotel in a desolate industrial zone. not even near the airport to justify itself.
it was probably that summer of 91. i lived in denver for a time then.
i thought of all the times as i kid i would sit in the back of the family car on a trip to the mountains. we made a game out of when we could first see the mountains. every year we had to be close and closer to denver before we spotted them. the haze and smog got thick and thicker every year.
i would sit in the back, staring out at the vast industrial park that sat east of denver along 76. past barr lake. staring out at it all, thinking of who lived in this mess, who worked here, why stop if not for gas?
why stop indeed.
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