I’ve been planning this trip since April. This year I discovered a new band called Heilung. Closest thing I could call them is experimental folk music. They sing in Proto-Germanic and Old Norse languages. I barely understand a word but it’s incredible. Very primal. They call it “History Amplified.” It's the most amazing thing I've ever heard. They’re doing a single show in the US in 2021 and it’s at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado on October 5th.
I took a few weeks off from work. I wanted to take a bunch of time and not spend hardly any of it in my apartment. The Colorado trip is two weeks. I’m leaving Sunday, September 26th, going to stop in state parks on the way out, camp for two nights each, and get to Colorado on Sunday, October 3rd. I’ll stay in a hotel there until the following Saturday, then drive home.
That was the plan, anyway.
Note: This is very long. I didn't write much new book material during the trip because I was writing this road diary.
Sunday, September 26, 2021
I leave a little after 9 AM, right on time! Top off the gas tank and head west out on NH-101. As soon as I get past Peterborough, I realize it’s new territory for me. Decades in NH, a state you can drive across in a couple hours, and I’d never been out this way, apparently.
I drive through NH, VT, and into NY. Half highway, half state roads. Hilly but otherwise looks the same as home. Different license plates on the cars. Same percentage of Wrangler owners wave (about 70%). I see lots of town names that were similar to NH. Pittstown, Petersborough, and similar. Beautiful country in NY and a perfect, partly cloudy day.
I stop twice and make good time, reaching my first destination in Hammondsport, NY, around 5 PM, with lots of bugs on the windshield. I’m thinking the bug situation is pretty common for Wrangler owners and anyone else with a near-vertical windshield. Probably a good measure of the march of the seasons, in addition to dead leaves and snow, is the absence of insect residue the washer fluid and wipers alone can’t remove.
I stay at the Best Western Plus in Hammondsport, about 7 miles north of I-86. The hotel doesn’t have a restaurant and I’ve no interest in the brewery next door, so I have a salad from the Jeep fridge. This is good, because I’d forgotten to unplug it from the Jeep and into my Jackery overnight. The fridge is a Dometic and has a low-voltage cutoff, so it doesn’t drain my car battery, but I’ve not tested that yet and therefore it doesn’t work. The quantum state of untested equipment; it doesn’t work until you’ve observed it doing so. My brother Jeff knows all about this with some faulty heated gloves on his Deadhorse motorcycle trip.
Monday, September 27, 2021
I linger in the hotel shower because it’ll be days before I’m desperate enough to bathe at a campground shower (usually frigid). I check out at 8 AM and head back down to the interstate, stopping for gas, healthy road munchies, and to clean off the windshield. Hop on I-86W. Destination is Delaware State Park in Ohio, about a 6.5 hour drive.
Time goes by…
Okay, so I get to the park around 3 PM. I check in, park the Jeep, unpack and setup the roadhouse tarp off the tailgate. I discover that it funnels every flying insect into the back of the Jeep, where I’ll be sleeping. Mosquitos, a couple bees, and a whole slew of aphids. The aphids in Ohio are the size of dimes and might as well be the state bird. They don’t bite, but they buzz around and they’re annoying. While in flight, they look and move like wasps until you get a closer look, but by then you’ve done the “gah, it’s a wasp!” reaction and seeing that it’s merely an aphid is somehow even more irritating. It’s like freaking out at a spider and finding out it’s just lint. Aphids are the neediest bugs. Everything I touch, they have to touch. They get everywhere. I move the tarp six feet away. Setting the tarp up in A-frame mode by myself tests the limits of my patience.
I sit down, annoyed, and eat dinner. I want to leave already and it’s 5 PM. I read a book. It’s hot (84F), muggy, and buggy. The campground is near train tracks. I know this because I can hear a train’s horn. I have an argument with myself for thirty minutes. I decide I’d likely spend the next 3.5 hours annoyed, go to bed annoyed, sleep poorly (annoyed), and wake up annoyed. Nope, not doing it.
I pack everything up and drive 8 miles to the nearest hotel, a Quality Inn. It’s adjacent to a strip mall and surrounded by chain link fences. Nope. I drive 20 more miles and stay in a Marriott. The high point of the day is following Siri in the dark through upscale Dublin, OH residential areas. The roads are 55mph … in a residential area. Ohio is really weird.
Plan? Who Needs a Plan?
The fun part about plans is throwing them out. Missouri is supposed to be the same weather as Ohio, and it’s supposed to rain in Kansas on the days I’d be there. I’ve discovered I don’t enjoy camping alone in gross weather. I cancel the remaining state park reservations in Missouri and Kansas.
My time in Colorado was supposed to be Sunday to Saturday. It’s going to be Wednesday to Thursday. I’ll get in, hang out for the weekend, see the concert on Tuesday, and head back early Thursday morning. Should take me 2-3 nights to get home, so I’ll be back on Sunday at the latest.
This leaves me with another night on the road, then find a place in Colorado for four nights. I have reservations for the Origin Hotel in Golden, CO, on Sunday, but it’s booked solid ‘til then. I’ll have to find other accommodations. I poke around online and find out about Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain State Park. Seems interesting. I’ll head towards Estes Park, CO, tool around in the Rockies and play it by ear.
I have a sticker on my laptop from Winthrop, WA. It says, “Adventure starts when plans end.” Seems appropriate.
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
I linger at the Marriott until 930 AM, check out, and hit the road. Target for today is stopping somewhere around Kansas City, Missouri.
Long day. Siri said there was a crash on I-70W and sent me around Indianapolis, by way of Kentucky. I don’t mind. Not as many bugs in Kentucky. But hot; it hits 90 degrees in places. Today I go through Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and end up in Missouri. Corn everywhere. Not sure if anybody’s growing anything other than corn down here. It’s just corn for miles, with small towns sprinkled in between.
Trucks own the roads out here. So many trucks. I enjoy sharing the highways with America’s mobile logistics network. Speed limit is 70 mph. Nobody bats an eye if you do 80.
My biggest pet peeve about Missouri is the rumble strips on the highway. All the other states I’ve been in, the rumble strips are about two feet off the shoulder. In Missouri, they follow the lines on the sides of the road. There are a lot of 16-wheeler trucks out here and getting around them often requires putting my tires on the side lines. Brrrrrmpt! So obnoxious.
I drive through St. Louis at 5 PM, so I get to enjoy rush hour traffic on the way out of the city. That Gateway Arch thing really is big. Definitely looks strange from 5 miles out. Not something you expect to see in a city’s skyline, this big, curved thing next to the tall buildings.
I stop in Columbia, Missouri, about a hundred miles east of Kansas City. I was shooting for Lawrence, on the other side, but it was too far. I’m pooped. Today was a 10-hour day. Another Marriott tonight (Springhill Suites). Nice place.
I saw a billboard on the road today that said, “Road calories are free.” It was advertising for a chocolate shop. I didn’t stop there, but I do walk over to a White Castle near the hotel. First time I’ve ever eaten anything from there. It’s about what I expected, but I walked in with low standards, so at least I wasn’t disappointed?
Speaking of billboards, lots of them are talking about God and Jesus down here. I finally finished American Nations last night, and it’s quite noticeable that this is a different country than the one I inhabit in the Northeast (Yankeedom). Everybody’s nice, but it’s not like I’m striking up any political discussions. I’m on vacation. I didn’t come here for an argument. Also, if you get into an accident in Kentucky and Indiana, call 800 800 8888 and talk to a lawyer nicknamed “The Hammer.” He’ll help you out.
Wednesday, September 28, 2021
I consider lingering in Columbia for an extra day, but I got stuff to do. Target for today is Limon, CO. It’s a few hours from Estes Park, one of the entrances for the Rocky Mountain State Park. I check the park’s website and the campgrounds have all but closed for the season, and the one open is full. Oh, darn, beds and hot showers it is.
I spend another hour or so researching options. I’m interested in doing Trail Ridge Road, but the park is doing timed release of their day passes to limit the traffic in the park. They release Thursday’s passes tonight at 5pm. So, I won’t know if I’m heading up to Estes Park until I stop for the night in Limon. Alternatively, a colleague at work recommended Eldorado State Park in Eldorado Springs, CO. It’s about 2 hours from Limon. It fills up on the weekends, too.
I look for other things to do and find the National Museum of World War II Aviation in Colorado Springs. That’s more my cup of tea. I’m doing that. It’s an hour from Limon. If I push, I can make it to Colorado Springs by the end of the day.
I’m on the road at 9 AM. Within five minutes … Brrrrrmpt! Good morning, Missouri. I pass around Kansas City and after a while, I’m in Kansas (but not while near Kansas City, mind you).
Kansas is really long. Not as long as Nebraska, but close. So much corn. And wind farms. Giant windmills for miles. Overall tree density dwindles as I venture westward. There are trees, certainly, but it does make me wonder if there were more of them at some point, and if humans cut them all down for farming. The speed limit in Kansas is 75mph. I hardly see any state police and do 85 the whole way across.
The other thing that’s amazing about Kansas is how much of it has no people in it. Lots of cattle fences, but no people. Miles and miles of farmland, grassland, land in general, with few critters of the two-legged variety. I live in a tiny state in the Northeast, where you can drive across its fattest section (a whopping 68 miles) in a few hours, and you have to really try to avoid people. I was in Kansas almost all day today, and most humans I saw outside of automobiles seemed collected around the highway exits.
I’m happy when I pass into Colorado, because that means I’m in the target state of this entire trip, but I soon discover that Colorado has its own highway problems. The roads aren’t as good and it’s even windier than western Kansas. Felt like I was driving against the jet stream at one point.
I reach Limon at 5 PM and decide to push onwards to Colorado Springs. It’s 75 miles away. After a 625-mile day, what’s another 75? I take 24W towards Colorado Springs. The rain that’s been threatening just over the horizon for several hours catches me on 24W. It does wonders for the bugs plastered all over the front of the Jeep.
Another long day, but I make it to Colorado Springs. It’s 47F here, much cooler than the 88F I experienced crossing Kansas. I’m staying for a couple nights at the Radisson near the airport. Going to explore a little. Tomorrow is the aviation museum. I also told the hostess at the next-door Airplane Restaurant, where half of the restaurant is inside an old airplane, that I’d return for dessert. I may ghost her, unfortunately. Road calories are not free, road calories are NOT free …
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Slept okay. The dry air and elevation doesn’t agree with me here; Colorado Springs is at 6200ft. My town in NH is at 180 ft. There’s less oxygen in the air and that doesn’t bode well for my sleep quality. I have obstructive sleep apnea if I sleep on my back and wear a pulse oximeter at night. The sensor sits on my thumb and vibrates if my blood oxygen level drops below 89%. It vibrated a lot in the night, and I removed it at one point.
The Radisson has a standard continental breakfast. I scavenge two hard-boiled eggs, a yogurt, and a couple granola bars. I stay away from the waffle iron and the bread items. I take my food and go back to my room to eat. There are people in the dining area and my social anxiety is kicking in hard on this trip. I don’t like being around lots of new people when I’m overstimulated. This trip has been very stimulating.
I root around online and plan Friday and Saturday stays. I settle on the Trailhead Inn up in Winter Park, CO. I want to stay a couple nights in the Rockies themselves, not down in any of the cities. Reviews are good, it’s right off the main road, and plenty of stuff to do nearby. It’s about a 3.5-hour drive from Colorado Springs, and I can take the scenic route up past Breckenridge.
I read a book while I wait for the aviation museum to open at 10 AM. It’s a good book, and I drive over to the museum around 11. The museum is really cool. I worried I’d run down my phone battery taking pictures. The whole museum is setup in a timeline from the start of WWII to the end, following the battles and technical improvements over the course of the war. All of the planes are airworthy. It isn’t super busy, which is nice. There was a guided tour of a nearby restoration shop but being in a group of people right now is my own special kind of hell, so I opt out. Lots of planes to see either way. They had a restored ball turret and I’m still not sure how they crammed a human being into it. Looked very uncomfortable.
I drive back to the hotel and grab a salad out of the Jeep’s fridge. I need something healthy after the past several days’ caloric sins. I spend the rest of the afternoon with my nose in a book. Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. It’s good, though the ending felt a little rushed. Good cliffhanger at the end. I write cliffhangers in my books, so I can appreciate a good one when I see it.
Friday, October 1, 2021
Woke up at 430 AM. Movie dreams. Dreamt I was coaching Michael Jordan through some personal issues, then another one where I was in a group of unknown people all fighting something like the Transformers. The big baddie had just appeared when I woke up. Grimlock got clobbered and ran away.
Breakfast is ferreting away the same boiled eggs, yogurt, and granola bars. I check out of the hotel around 10 AM, gas up the Jeep, and head west. I go up US 24 and over the first set of mountains. Fun ride up, great sights. It levels out into this giant open space with mountains all around. Probably 15 miles across, at least. Flat. Big fifth-wheel campers out in the middle of the fields, with hundreds, maybe thousands of yards between them. Some small houses here and there. Some of the homes have earthworks all around the house, probably 4-6 feet tall. I’m guessing to prevent snow from piling right up against the house in the winter? Or wind breakers, maybe.
After a while I turn onto Route 9. I go over some more mountains, see some incredible peaks with snow still on them, and reach Breckenridge. It’s bigger than I thought, and it’s mobbed. I go right on through. One of the chairlifts comes right down into town. Owning property in that town must be astronomically expensive. I look on Zillow.com. I am correct.
A little ways north of Breckenridge, I see a sign that says there are delays in Frisco. Siri agrees and I make a right onto Swan Mountain Road. This takes me on a nice drive over to US 6, which goes up over Loveland Pass. I know it’s Loveland Pass because I see the sign at the top and I’m glad it’s the top, because it’s a harrowing climb. Loveland Pass is a bunch of hairpin turns without enough guardrails, which makes it pretty dicey to take my eyes off the road to look at the terrifying cliffs everywhere. It’s snowing at the top. Snow collected on the sides of the road, but not on the road, thankfully. I drive a 4x4 but have zero interest in exercising its capabilities at 11000 feet with no guardrails. At the top, there’s a small parking lot and a great view of I-70 down in the valley between peaks. I’m still a bit unnerved by the climb and I don’t stop. I’m really happy to get back down. I passed three ski mountains coming up over the pass. I don’t know how anybody dares go to any of them in the winter.
I jump on I-70 east and descend from elevation over the course of 10 miles. The kind of descent that requires turn off lanes for truckers to cool off their brakes. I see a sign for Georgetown, CO, and another one that says, “Lost your brakes? Don’t take the exit.” A few miles past Georgetown is the exit for US 40 towards Winter Park and Granby. This goes up over Berthoud Pass. It’s not as traumatic as Loveland Pass. It has guardrails in most places. I stop at the top and take the only picture of the entire day. I’m not really a picture-taker of the outdoors and my phone camera isn’t going to do these mountains justice.
I get to Winter Park about 30 minutes later. I’m staying at the Trailhead Inn for two nights. I have a Cubano pork sandwich at the BBQ restaurant up the street, The Smokehouse. I might go back tomorrow; it’s low-key and the food is delicious.
Today was a fun day. Adventure was had over Loveland Pass, enough that I’m rather pleased I do not have revisit it on my way into the Denver area on Sunday. I have plenty of new reference material for mountainous regions in my books. I got to see the awe-inspiring and humbling Rocky Mountains. They’ve been here for millions of years and will be here millions of years from now. It’s quite difficult to believe my own personal challenges are all that impressive compared to this incredible landscape.
The Trailhead Inn is a lodge-style kind of place and I’m on the first floor. I’m hoping the people above me go to bed at reasonable hours, because I can hear them thumping around up there. Sounds like some kids. There’s only so much one needs to walk back and forth in a hotel room.
Saturday, October 2, 2021
I sleep poorly, waking up every few hours. Today turns into a low-key day. I write for most of the morning and play a game for a couple hours to recharge. Hunger drives me out around 1:30 PM. It’s sunny out and in the 50s. I walk up and down the main drag, looking for lunch options. Everything looks busy, so I go back to the Smokehouse for the Turkey Rueben. The sandwich is another great choice, if you happen to be in the area.
I mosey back to the hotel and plan Sunday’s trek out of the Rockies and down to Golden, for the last hotel stay in Colorado. I have to checkout of Trailhead Inn at 11 AM. Check-in at Origin is at 4 PM, giving me a bunch of time. A straight shot out of Winter Park to Golden is about an hour. On a whim, I call the automated Trail Ridge Road line to find out the road status in the Rocky Mountain National Park. It’s open. Score! In a couple hours, I’ll try to get a park pass when they open the reserved passes for tomorrow.
I remembered to buy a pass at 5:30 PM, 30 minutes after the passes became available. There weren’t many left, but I got one for a 1 – 3 PM entry window. Gives me time to check-out, drive up to Granby, stop for a snack/supplies, and then do Trail Ridge Road.
Sunday, October 3, 2021
I sleep awful again, waking up every couple of hours. The folks upstairs sound like they have two puppies jumping down off their beds every five minutes, along with a single cat who, at random times, does cat things like pushing stuff off dressers. I almost went outside and slept in the Jeep, but it’s not an easy setup and I remembered I had noise-canceling headphones. If you’re a light sleeper and you’re ever in Winter Park, CO, pick somewhere else than the Trailhead Inn. At least don’t sleep on the first floor. Honestly, this place would be aces if the walls and floors were thicker. It’s hard to tell when the building was constructed, but there’s a single-story motel-style building across the driveway that hasn’t been remodeled yet, so I suspect the main building had been here for decades.
I wake up for the umpteenth time at 7 AM and stay up. I’m reading a new book called The Practice of Groundedness by Brad Stulberg. In it, he mentions a mantra to help stave back negative reactive emotions: “This is happening right now, and I’m doing the best I can.” I can tell you it works, even at 2 AM when the people upstairs are driving you nuts.
I research Trail Ridge Road a bit more and discover there are some troublesome sections if traveling west to east (as I will be doing). Just watching a YouTube video of the drive is enough to give me anxiety. Going up over Loveland Pass did a bit more mental damage than I'd realized, I think, and apparently, I have an issue with heights in a motor vehicle. I didn't sleep well last night and I’m tired and stressed. I don’t want to push it.
I leave the hotel close to 11 AM, skip Trail Ridge Road and go back up over Berthoud Pass. I head onto I-70W, up through the Eisenhower Tunnels, then circle back around the way I came. I skip Loveland Pass. Back through Breckenridge and Fairplay, turning left onto 285N for a really nice drive up over Kenosha Pass. Came down through Evergreen. I get a treat following the “no highways” Siri route through a nice canyon on my way into Morrison, past Red Rocks, and into Golden.
I get to Origin Hotel in Golden, CO. The room isn’t ready yet, so I wait in a very swank modern rustic lobby, with a bunch of other people who had the same idea about checking in early. I’d like to take a nap right here in the lobby. It’s laidback, but not that laidback. I check in shortly after, modify the reservation to leave Thursday morning, and get up to the room. The room is great. I drop my stuff and go back down to the taqueria attached to the hotel. I pig out on a burger and fries. It’s delicious. Ninety minutes later, I’m groaning like a beached whale on my bed. I take a Tums and decree healthy eating for the rest of the trip (this does not happen).
I stay up late and watch the Bucs and Pats game. Close game. Bucs take it, but barely. The Pats’ QB is very, very good.
Monday, October 4, 2021
I sleep like crap again. This mountain altitude does not agree with me. It’s too arid. I’m sneezing a lot more and my nose feels dry. As much as I complain about New England humidity, I think my body prefers it.
I need more coffee and breakfast, so I put on pants and go downstairs. I get a breakfast “burrito”.
It is not something you can take and carry with you. It’s delicious. I do not have the same gastrointestinal reaction as I did the previous evening with the burger. To lessen the burrito’s glycemic impact, I walk around the block near the hotel. The altitude here is brutal. Back home, I use an elliptical for 30-40 minutes every morning. Walking half a mile here wipes me out.
My one task for today is to ride up to Red Rocks and scope out the place. I want to see what the concert will look like from my seat. I hop in the Jeep and drive a couple miles over to the park.
Red Rocks is really, really cool. There are lots of people up in the park. Half of them are exercising, running or walking the seats, and the stairs. Holy crap, the stairs. I have to take breaks after fifty steps. If I thought walking around the hotel’s block was hard, walking around the amphitheater is way worse. I take some pictures and walk back to the car, feeling less spry than the many people running the stairs.
Not as many Jeep Wrangler owners wave in Colorado. Too many Wranglers.
Tuesday, October 5, 2021
Concert day! The whole trip has been for this one show. I spend a couple hours down in the hotel bar with a bunch of other people going to see the concert. Lots of interesting people have come from all over to see Heilung.
Weather is clear skies and high-70s during the day, dropping to mid-60s in the evening. Perfect weather. I take the shuttle over to the amphitheater at 6 PM. If I come back this way for a concert, I will stay in the same hotel and take the same shuttle. Makes it so easy. Show starts at 8 PM. Plenty of time to make the way up from the parking lot, grab a water, and find my seat. I hang out and watch the stadium slowly fill up. The amphitheater sits 9800 and it’s sold out. Lots of folks wearing some cool Nordic costumes. Every few minutes someone starts a howl and the whole crowd gets going.
View from my seat:
Concert starts a little after 8 PM. Heilung has this ritual they do in the beginning. Well, the whole concert is a ritual, but there’s an opening one that seems like some kind of blessing. They added a Native American element. Such a great gesture to include them.
The concert is incredible. Immersive. So, so good. I'm too busy enjoying the show to take pictures (you can find some on the Internet - but still photos are inadequate in every way). There was some professional videography being done that night, so I expect to see a concert video release at some point.
The crowd is great, not a jerk in the group. The house audio cuts out in the middle for about two songs, and the crowd keeps it going. Heilung’s show flows from one song into the next; they barely slow at the technical glitch and once the sound comes back, they’re right back into it. What an experience.
The concert is two hours long and it goes by fast. Worth the journey, hands down. I ride the shuttle back to the hotel in a half-daze. I’m thrilled, grateful, and blown away I was able to see Heilung at Red Rocks. What a trip!
Wednesday, October 6, 2021
I wake up with Heilung songs in my head. Had Heilung dreams. It’s the show that keeps giving!
I was planning to use today as a prep day for the trip back, but I’ve woken up with a too-dry nose one too many times. I check out of the hotel a day early and hit the road around 10 AM. I never thought I’d think this, but I’m excited to get back east and breathe humid air at sea level.
A 10-hour day gains me the psychological victory of getting through Nebraska in a single day and puts me in West Des Moines around 8 PM. I stop at a Holiday Inn Express. Never been in one of these before. It’s pretty good.
Thursday, October 7, 2021
Air! Honestly, sleeping at a normal elevation feels amazing. Woke a little before 5 AM. I slept like a rock. Was able to use my pulse oximeter again. It never went off.
My target today is another Holiday Inn Express in Madison, OH, just northeast of Cleveland. It’ll put me within a 10-hour drive back home on Friday.
I grab breakfast from the hotel at 6 and I’m on the road at 6:30 AM. I’m 20 hours away from home, so whatever extra I do today is less I have to do tomorrow. It’ll be nice if I get home with daylight hours left.
Today is a very long day. I think I’m done traveling cross country for a while. Hit my limit today. It felt like the entire states of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana were doing construction on wide swaths of I-80. And I’ve about had it with every asshat who hogs the left-hand lane, doing a quarter-mile faster than the adjacent car. The trucks are the worst. It feels like they take 10 miles to pass each other. Captain Irritable was out in full-force all afternoon and evening.
Hit a Great Lake-fueled thunderstorm northeast of Cleveland. Epic monsoon-level downpour at night on the highway. Adventure!
I go past Madison OH and stop at a Hampton Inn in West Seneca, outside Buffalo, NY, at 930 PM, after a failed attempt to book a Holiday Inn Express in Hamburg, NY. When you open their app, double check the date. Don’t book a room in two weeks when you need one that night.
Friday, October 8, 2021
Woke up a little before 5. Showered, grabbed breakfast in the hotel, and hit the road at 630 AM.
Very long day. I’d definitely hit a wall on Thursday. Driving across New York today was extremely frustrating, sitting behind long lines of traffic on I-90 all doing pretty much the same speed no matter what lane I’m in. It’s a good thing hood-mounted machine guns are illegal.
I got home around 3 PM and hugged all my furniture. I ate ice cream while unpacking the Jeep. In addition to the several aphids I’d ejected during the trip, I found three more dead ones while unpacking gear. Two in the door panels and one inside the fridge. They really got everywhere.
The trip was a lot of fun. I think everyone needs a reminder that the mid and western United States is big. I have been suitably reminded and shall not need another for several decades. At least.
The concert was phenomenal and worth the trip in every way. I hope Heilung plays in the US again.
Next time I’ll fly.