Coming home

I guess the String Cheese concert at Red Rocks was kind of the Grand Finale for the trip. It's been downhill - literally and figuratively, since. I went to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. That was a very nice park to walk around. While I was in the area driving east on Colorado 24, I saw a car that had been crushed by a boulder. According to the news that night, no one was hurt, as the boulder landed on the trunk. I had been driving in that lane going the other way about a half hour earlier. The southern part of Colorado along I25 was a very pretty drive - there were grasslands on the left and the Spanish Peaks (purple montain majesty, above the fruited plain?) on the right. I chose the I25 south route because it was fast and went right through Santa Fe - one of my favorite cities. I spent another two days there, and had two more meals at Santa Luna off of Don Gaspar. That is a fantastic restaurant. Highly recommend Chile en Nogada - chile pepper in cheese stuffed with meet and pomegranite seeds. It's hot, spicy, sweet, and creamy. The owner of the restaurant remembered me from when I ate there in June. By this time Santa Fe had started up their every night concert series in the plaza. I enjoyed a reggae band there, and I had coffee a couple more times at Counter Culture. One lady asked me why I decided to stop in Santa Fe. Why wouldn't you? It's got three cultures, art, music, pueblo architecture, awesome food, the oldest house in the country, mountains, desert, reasonable prices, and pretty cool people. I'm going back. the drive home actually seems to have gone faster than driving out. I spent the night in Asheville on the way home and mealed at The Laughing Seed a couple of times. The worst traffic on this entire trip was either in San Francisco or western North Carolina. If anyone with any power is reading this, it is time to make I40 from Morganton to Winston Salem into a three lane highway. My camera is done, so I have no new pictures. People have asked me what I liked best on this trip. Can I narrow it down to five or six things? I really felt at home in Santa Fe. Sedona made me feel really peaceful. Zion and Taos were truly beautiful. The Pacific coast had beautiful weather and was filled with nice people. Las Vegas was a lot of fun. Yellowstone was unbelievable with all of the animals. I am pretty sure that there is more country to explore, so I am probably going to do this again next year. I'm probably going to hit up a lot of my favorites - particularly in California. For the record, I estimated ten thousand miles, and the total came to 11542 miles, from June 11 until August 1, 2010.

Red Rocks Ampitheatre

This is an amazing place to see a concert. If you go to http://www.redrocksonline.com you will see that just about every major touring band is on their schedule. I highly recommend you pick a band that you like and go see them play at Red Rocks. I don't think there is a bad seat in the house. Either you get a great view of the band, or you get a great view of the Denver skyline all lit up at night. Everyone gets to walk up the four story ramp to get into the venue. One guy I was talking to said, "This is the best place to see a concert in the country, but you gotta work for it." The picture above is not mine. I found it at Google Images.

Boulder, Colorado

The above picture is not mine. I also took this same shot, but my camera is not working. I got this one at Google Images.
I checked in to my conveniently located motel in Boulder and wandered down the street to the little park. I was actually looking for Pearl Street, where they have a little plaza with lots of bars, restaurants, and street musicians, but I got sidetracked. They had a pretty big farmers market in the park, and there were probably a hundred people hanging out, eating, talking, and playing music on the lawn. I ended up hanging out there until dark. Then I made it downtown later and hung out outside this bar where there was a reggae band playing. Lots of people walked by and petted Macy. I ended up having a conversation with this old guy who is an artist, and he made a few suggestions for things I should check out. The next day I took his advice, and I drove up this dirt road that goes through Sunshine Canyon to a cool little 1860s mining town called Gold Hill. It is the first place where gold was discovered in Colorado. Most all of the homes there are very small, rustic, built out of logs or wood, and all of the roads in the little village are dirt roads. The dogs just wander around. It really was like stepping back in time. And getting there was a fun drive. I also went to another little mining town in the Roosevelt National Forest called Nederland. Very interesting, slow-paced little town. Back in Boulder I ate at a great vietnamese place called Chey Thuy, had coffee at a good little spot called the Laughing Goat on Pearl Street (constant parade of interesting folks going by), and enjoyed some street entertainers. There was one guy who had a great comedic / acrobatic / juggling act, but probably Dave the Zip Code guy wss most impressive. He quickly asked fifteen people what there zip code was and then, after going through all of them (he didn't even seem to be paying attention), he went back and told everyone what town each of them was from. He got everyone from Maine to California, and even identified Sudberry, Ontario, and some town in Sweden! He got mine correct too. Also, I would like to thank Tanya at Ome Banjos for taking the time to give me a tour of their workshop.

Grand Tetons

When you go around the bend on Wyoming Hwy. 191, all of a sudden these massive, blue, snow-capped mountains pop up. They are the Grand Tetons. Seth says it looks as if someone cut them out of a magazine and plopped them down. We decided to go to the Heart 6 Ranch and take a raft trip down the Snake River. Our raft guide, Eric, looked exactly like actor Owen Wilson. Interesting guy. He went to college at Purdue and then decided that he needed to spend his time fishing and working on a scenic river in Wyoming in the summers and working in a fishing store in Tucson in the winters. There is something to be said for following your passion, especially when it can be found in such a beautiful place. He said Wyoming never gets old, and he nearly jumped out of his seat when he spotted a moose off of the road while we were driving to the river. The guy worked really hard, paddling the boat for almost three hours. It was just Eric, Seth, and me in the boat, so we just relaxed, watched the scenery, and talked all afternoon. I didn't take any pictures on the boat, but there was a beautiful view around every bend in the river. After rafting, we ate at the Heart 6 Ranch and then went looking for moose along the Gros Ventre River. We saw eight moose in about 45 minutes.

Yellowstone

One of my old roomates, Seth, flew out to meet me for Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. I am very grateful to have had his company, and it was awesome to be able to experience these places with another person. While I am comfortable being by myself and travelling by myself, this place was almost too much to experience alone. Seth and I both wish that we had seen this earlier in life, and we wish that we had been exposed to a greater variety of experiences when we were younger - for example seeing a national park. We both kind of envied the college kids who were working in the park for the summer. I never had a fun summer job. II am amazed at how much wildlife there is in Yellowstone. I have to thank my mom for the binoculars. I suggest that all of my friends go see Yellowstone at some point, and bring the best binoculars you can afford. You will feel like you can reach out and touch these massive, wild animals. I will never forget watching a grizzlie bear and her three cubs foraging and coming up the hill toward us. I almost feel like I wasn't supposed to see that. The next morning we went out looking for a bald eagle, and in the process we found a red hawk and another grizzlie. We eventually found the eagle as well. Later in the day we got to sit at the top of a hill and watch a herd of over 100 buffalo.

Craters of the Moon National Monument

Lava came bursting out of the ground several times in eastern Idaho. Not from a volcano, but more from cracks in the ground. Scientists say the first incident was fifteen thousand years ago, and the most recent was 2000 years ago - the year 10AD. This is an interesting place.

Boise, Idaho

There were a couple of things in Boise which I wanted to see. First, for some reason a lot of shepherds from the Basque Country ended up settling in and around Boise. A lot of their descendents now live in Boise, so I had my pick of Basque restaurants. I ate a lamb sandwich and croquetas - which are kind of like hushpuppies except they are filled with cheese and meat instead of cornbread. Equally bad for you, I'm sure. I also wanted to visit the Birds Of Prey Wildlife Refuge. I saw falcons, owls, condors, but the most captivating bird they had was a bald eagle. I got about four feet away from him and he screeched at me. I had coffee at a pretty cool coffee shop downtown and sat outside and talked with some Boise State students. The night was so pretty, I decided to go camping.I ended up about tenty miles outside of town at a free campground called Macks Creek in the Boise National Forest. I stayed up until about midnight looking at the stars and watching out for this little skunk that kept running through my campsite. I told Macy that if she provoked the skunk and got sprayed, that we would no longer be friends.