"Hells Bells -- it's Wild West Week!"

From the Sunday New York Times:

Admirers of author Jack Kerouac celebrated the 50th anniversary of ''On the Road'' with a marathon reading of the novel.

Fans and some close friends of the late author took turns reading his most famous novel aloud at Naropa University in Boulder on Saturday. About 150 people listened to the cover-to-cover reading, which took 12 hours and kicked off the university's inaugural Kerouac Festival.

One of the most popular books ever written by an American, ''On the Road'' tells the story of Kerouac and a friend he calls Dean Moriarity as they travel the country, including a visit to Denver that the city celebrates with a tour that traces his steps.

The stream-of-consciousness novel helped generate the Beat Generation.

Let's not forget the one crucial scene in "On the Road" that takes place in Cheyenne during "Wild West Week," a thinly veiled nod to Cheyenne Frontier Days. Kerouac (Sal Paradise) stops in Cheyenne with fellow hitchhiker Montana Slim for a bit of partying before resuming his trip to Denver. This follows a wild trip across Nebraska in the back of a flatbed truck driven by two farm boys on their way to L.A.