Road trip by the numbers

1,943: Road miles.

167: Incidental miles- gigs, fuel stops, local errands, detours.

5: Number of days away from home.

1: Packages of Mother’s brand iced oatmeal cookies consumed on the road.

2: Accidents witnessed along the road (One was really horrible- a pedestrian/hitchhiker on the Navajo Reservation got clipped)

2: Imposing geological features that made for a lot of extra miles (The Rocky Mountains and The Grand Canyon)

*,***:  How much money I made.  (not sharing that, but it WAS a profitable trip)

8, maybe 9: Times I listened to Kraftwerk’s “Expo 2000” I contend that is about the best sonically recorded song ever and it’s full of rich textures juxtaposed against each other and the vocals/robot voices just float right in the center above it all.  I was born deaf in one ear so I don’t hear stereo.  I can detect where sound is coming from with good surround sound but the psychological phenomenon that happens in the center of your brain when things are balanced, because of monaural disparity, I don’t get that.  I can hear/feel the vocals right in the center of my head with this one.  Not the greatest song ever, just very well recorded and perfectly mixed.

5: Hotel beds I slept in.

1: Good hotel beds that I slept in.  Thanks Hotel Elegante in Colorado Springs- very comfortable.

1: Number of times I listened to The Police “Message in a Box” boxed set.  Everything The Police ever released commercially.  B-sides, alternate takes, live versions.  To hear them go from punk to rock/reggae to producing a half dozen of the best songs of the rock catalogue including the singular best guitar riff in the rock catalogue- “Message in a Bottle.”  They did it in 5 albums in just over 5 years. Stewart Copeland, of course, is a member of the holy trinity of drummers with Neal Peart and Todd Sucherman.

471: Fuel cost in dollars.

24: The date that I felt a little tickle in my throat and thought that I might be catching a cold.

27: The date that I had an important DJ job and I really needed my voice.

8: Number of Zinc tablets in an effort to not get sick.

20: Number of Vitamin C tablets in an effort to not get sick.  I heard it’s difficult to overdose on Vitamin C and that your body will just flush out any excess that it can’t absorb.  I took about 1 1/2 times the recommended dose.

11,158: Highest elevation travelled.  Eisenhower Tunnel on I-70 west of Denver CO.

3: Number of instances of traveling above 10,000 ft.

2200: Runners at Pikes Peak International Raceway for the 5k footrace I was playing for.

72: Percentage of those runners who were women.

1200: Number of race spectators and vendors.

I-17, I-40, AZ89, US160, I-25, CO6, I-70, US6, I-15, UT20, AZ98: Highway numbers.

2: DJ jobs.

2: New tires.

6: Times I wondered why I have this or that horrible song on the iPod when listening in shuffle mode.

20: Times I remembered/rediscovered a song on shuffle and said, “I should play that one more often.” or, “I should learn that one on the piano.”

*: How do you put a number on my gratitude to God for the beauty of this land or the times I felt such things?

2: New jobs booked while on the road.

1: Number of minutes it took to think that I might like to live in Vail Colorado.

1: Number of additional minutes it took to change my mind when I considered the 87 feet of snow and the bizillion drinking and partying skiers that descend in the winter.

2: Number of new wiper blades.

80: Favorite speed limit in central and southern Utah.

83: Sweet spot MPH.  When the van is loaded with DJ equipment, it has a sweet spot for speed.  The engine falls almost silent, any ambient vibrations in the body stop and the van cuts through the air nicely and quietly.  It’s not a performance vehicle- it’s a work van, but it’s really cool when it works just right.

4: The number of states that converge at Four Corners. Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah.  I hear there are no other states, provinces, nations, territories or commonwealths anywhere else in the world that converge like that.