America: Mountains

Traveling cross country (south and tornado alley.) We have found the end of the prairie by way of Denver. The talk in Denver was that in the old days prairie people migrated west, crossed the plains, found the Goliath Rockies rising to the skies, said f-that and plopped down with the tents and carts.

My best friend from high school lives there with her boyfriend and is working on a fat degree.

12:23 PM Denver, Colorado: Me n Red. She showed us around Denver, we had cocktails and tasty coffees, posh lunches, raided a local bookstore and music shop, where Mie and I bought Radiohead and Revolver to relieve us from Blurred Lines on every station in the forty-eight. We stayed up late talking and singing and listening to 90s hip-hop, just like old times.

10:34 PM Buck's Palace, Denver: Buckley Napoleon is happy, noted by his tongue hanging out.

2:12 PM Irving, Colorado: The rock climbing gym, excellently marked routes, almost twice as high as Rockreation but missing that je ne sais quoi. Maybe it's the smell of feet. Was the Colorado gym too clean?

2:03 PM Rock Jam, Colorado: For the Arrested Development fans.

12:10 PM Echo Lake, Colorado: The real rocks, aka Rockies! Trying my hand at Ansel Adams, his photos are everywhere I look, printed and in the leaf.

1:32 PM Mount Evans, Colorado: The highest paved road in the country at 14,100 feet!

3:32 PM Goliath  Peak, Colorado: Encountered this crazed tourist, who hijacked the car and made me drive all over the Rockies in search of wild goats, yelling, "Show me the GOAT!" Eventually, I began to share her enthusiasm and finally my passion for wild goats and sheep created a common bond that led us to continue traveling together to this day.

Someone else understands about the goats and sheep.

Botanical prowess

3:40 PM Summit Lake, Mount Evans: Pretending that we are the first explorers to ever climb this far up into the Rockies, wearing only a sweater and poncho.

3:43 PM Chicago Lakes, Mount Evans: It's been so long since we've seen any vegetation or animal life. We are beginning to question our sanity. Can't go...on... much... longer.

3:21 PM Summit Lake, Colorado: Slightly under dressed for this kind of fun. I guess somewhere in our minds it was still muggy Louisiana, not any more.