Ramble
Colorado: A Wanderer's Guide to the Offbeat, Overlooked,
and Outrageous,
by Eric Peterson
This is the third book by Eric Peterson
that I have reviewed in the last four years. The first
was Roadside
Americana in 2004, followed by Ramble:
A Field Guide to the USA in 2006. Peterson's
books are quirky, entertaining and excellent resources
for planning road trips. He discovers fascinating attractions
and people in places that most of us wouldn't even begin
to know how to look for. Paraphrasing one of his descriptions
about the "Ultimate Taxi" in Aspen, I think
the highest and best use of this totally engrossing
epic is that Ramble Colorado: A Wanderer's Guide
to the Offbeat, Overlooked, and Outrageous is the
best book to carry with you if you don't have a destination
in mind and are in no hurry to get there.
When you pick up Ramble Colorado
for the first time, you'll be tempted to flip through
it immediately. The gorgeous color photos are instantly
arresting, as are the author's candid and original remarks.
Peterson's light-hearted Kerouac style is funny, engaging,
and ultimately full of very astute observations. His
voice is decidedly different from the tone you are likely
to find in a Frommer guidebook (although, ironically,
Peterson also writes for Frommer's). But even though
these features will hold your attention, the first thing
you really ought to do is to turn to the last page and
read the "Ramble Manifesto." Peterson captures
the mystical romance of the road trip better than just
about anyone I know. Take a moment to soak up some that
good stuff before diving into the meat of this book.
Ramble Colorado is a fabulous book
for "random paging." Open the book to any
page and you'll immediately find something humorous
or captivating. The book opens with a look at attractions
in the Denver area and then follows a more-or-less northwesterly
route to the extreme western edge of the state, swinging
around to the south and finishing on plains on the eastern
side of Colorado. Lists of interesting places to visit
are interspersed with his signature travel narratives.
Attraction categories, including such topics as "Big
Things," "Road Art," "R.I.P,"
"Vice," "Star Maps," and "Grub,"
introduce write-ups of a wide variety of off-beat sites.
You'll learn where to find the graves of famous dogs
and that the current record at the Great Fruitcake Toss
in Manitou Springs is 1420 feet. The Bishop Castle near
Beulah, the Colorado Alligator Farm near Mosca, and
the Clown Museum in Arriba are other one-of-a-kind attraction
profiled in this collection. (Yes, there really is an
alligator farm in the Rocky Mountain State.) You'll
also find out about a whole of great places to drink
good beer.
I've heard rumors that Peterson plans to
create a "Ramble" for every one of the fifty
states. While I wonder how he'll survive that much micro-brewery
research, I hope the buzz is accurate. It would be great
to enjoy Peterson's unique style of research and evocative
commentary about locales from coast to coast.
Mark
Sedenquist
12/12/08
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