Pictured are examples of miles and miles of prairie, ranches, mountains between Boulder, Colorado and Riverton, Wyoming. The gray striped black mountains are the Granite Mountains the the chunky, brownish mountains are the Split Rock Mountains. We stopped at Sweetwater Creek Wyoming at the rest area. Hallelujah for a restroom within 50 miles! It is a very historic spot and since the water was apparently "sweet" the many tribes over many years settled there. The water seemed to be very deep and super clear. The lady who was cleaning up the premises (which were pristine, btw) wore cowboy boots, had long, wild strawberry blonde hair, ball cap and drove an old VW Beetle. I complimented her on the cleanliness of the ladies room and she appeared to be stunned that I spoke to her. You know, me, I am a busy body and am not afraid to speak to a benign looking stranger. So we leave here, as it turned out to be a Holiday Inn Resort, not a HI Express, but it was not any more expensive than any other of the Expresses in the area. Hmmm. Only thing, you don't get FREE breakfast. I guess that's the dif. Onward to Yellowstone! Hopefully I will have more interesting photos from there. I have been posting pix from my phone on facebook, but the ones I take with the camera will be here.

I must digress this morning as I was so tired last night that I didn't even proofread my post and this morning I am mortified at the typos! Please forgive me. I want to tell you all about Boulder. It is a lovely town and a pedestrian and bicycling haven. Since the legalization of marijuana for personal use, however, the demographic has changed considerably. Transients from all over descend on the town and there are stoned vagrants all over downtown. As we were walking to dinner Monday night, we passed a bunch of them huddled on the ground, stoned out of their gourds and filthy dirty. I could not look them in the eye. It was pitiful to me. Bill said that this business is an all cash crop because no bank will fund their operation because in the eyes of the federal government, it is still illegal. So it is a wild and woolly business now and since it is in its infancy, the rules are very unclear. I mentioned to him that in Florida, the only marijuana that is legal is the medicinal, non-THC containing type and that only nurseries that have been in business for at least 30 years can get a license to produce the stuff and only doctors who have licenses to dispense it can dispense it. I think that is a baby step to keeping it regulated. We have had only 2 nurseries licensed to produce it and I know of only 1 doctor who is licensed to dispense it. I am proud of my state for taking these precautions so that unscrupulous sorts are kept away from this iffy project. As we were leaving Bill and Kit's house yesterday morning, we saw a woman walking down the street, stoned out of her gourd, visibly, as she was sort of moseying down the road with a silly grin on her face. Too weird. I was amazed at the whole scenario outside of Bill and Kit's door. Happily it did not interfere with our visit. Now I will try to get those photos uploaded as soon as I can get the camera out of the car! More in a bit

I woke up yesterday morning and realized that I had become dehydrated and had a headache. After drinking a gatorade and about a gallon of water, I felt better, but at lunch, a fresh veggie place in Boulder, CO, I had a very bad reaction to what I think might have been saffron. That's the only thing the I could think of that I have never eaten. After getting over all of that we checked in with Bill and Kit Horton. I must elaborate on their home. 25 years ago, they purchased a house that was over 100 years old. After many years of upgrades, they now have what I can only described as pleasing and beautiful. They have comfy porch furniture and we sat out there with cocktails and visiting and really getting to know one another after so many years. We then walked to a fab restaurant that offered Spanish and Mediteranian cuisine, which was fab. I had a wonderful ravoli and the others had paella with shrimp and chicken. (wish I had ordered that) We walked back to the house and Kit presented a slide show of Bill's photographs which are incredibly beautiful. He has such a perfect eye and the depth and breadth of his work is amazing. Their house has a fireplace with emerald green tiles as the surround and hearth. They had upgraded to gas logs. They have updated the kitchen in emerald green and gold and such a beautiful and functional work Space. They have a very modern, spacious bathroom off the kitchen. Upstairs they have an updated bathroom similar to the one downstairs. All of their furnishings and appliance are state of the art and visually pleasing. Kit made us her famous Dutch Baby and sausage for breakfast, being a light and fluffy large pancake-like concoction; topping with a little confectioners' sugar and a really special lemon topping. Ah, it is so wonderful! Kit made this for us at the April's Children reunion a couple of years back. After breakfast, we went up to the third story and viewed Bill's work area. His computers, printers and other various office machines. The coolest place was a little nook with windows and a recliner and ottoman for naps!!! Bill then helped us plan our route up to Yellowstone via the scenic route and Kit printed out lots of mappage, as I am fonder for mappage that the GPS. We use the GPS when we get close to our destination. We are so hoping that when they come to Evergreen early November that they will come down to photograph the dune lakes in Grayton Beach. They are the only dune lakes in North America and it's pretty slow in November before the Snow Birds converge upon us. Kit and Bill and publishing a book of his photographs which will include fall foliage in the San Juan Mountains. That is his passion now as he is pretty much retired. They have had such interesting stories and have been all over the world on business and even to Iceland! Such a cool couple and I cannot say enough about their southern hospitality. BTW, they have an Airstream/Mercedes RV and a jeep with all sorts of photography equipment. They go to such remote areas that they can't get a motel room!! They are planning to go to Death Valley after Thanksgiving. As for our traveling the past few days. There are nothing but miles and miles of ranch land in the panhandle of Texas, Colorado and Wyoming. You go for miles and miles with nothing on either side of the road but graze lands, Mountains, hills, and Pronghorn. When we left Amarillo, we were out of town and in the ranch land with no town or gas station for 100 miles. So we turned around and filled up with only fumes left in the tank. We learned to top off the tank whenever you reach a town with a gas station, which are few and far between. I have pictures to show, but it is late and I will add them in the a.m.

Today was one of the best days so far. We drove from Raton, NM up to Denver, and along the way we saw some amazing topography and at Kit Horton's suggestion, we stopped in Colorado Springs to visit the Garden of the Gods. Lord have mercy. This place is amazing. The sidewalk leading into the visitor's center was lined with these wonderful flowers! Inside, we were blown away by the exhibits and the history of this place going back millions of years. Amazing, amazing, amazing. John ate an Elk Brat for lunch and though I tried it, it was W-a-a-ay too hot for me, so John gladly finished mine off, too. The look on his face will certainly tell the tale. I could have taken 100s of photos today, but it was just so much and I know we will have more wonderful places to photo as we make our way. Tomorrow, we plan to visit the Denver Museum of Natural History, grab some lunch and then head over to Boulder to hang with Bill and Kit Horton. They plan for us to do some porch sitting with cocktails and then walk to a wonderful restaurant and let us rest our heads at their home. I am as excited about this as I am about touring Pike's Peak on Tuesday before we head North to Montana to the Little Big Horn. We were so moved by this monument, that we really are passionate about visiting it again. Footnote. The birds and animals encased in plastic represent all the creatures who are native to the area. And we almost ran over a doe and two of her babies on the way out of the park. They were too quick for me to phototgraph, so I don't have their picture. That's all folks for tonight.

We finally landed in Raton, NM, which is just over the border from Colorado. We drove a lot further than we had intended but we are now glad we did. Northwest Texas in the panhandle is vast flat acres of ranches, oil fields, cattle, corn and the town of Dumas, Texas consists of mostly grain elevators. This prairie is so vast and humongous, I imagine the Pioneers and wagon trains were weary and bored to tears. You can only enjoy corn fields, horses, cattle, oil wells and even Pronghorns, that are really beautiful and look as if they should be in Africa, for so long. Tomorrow, we drive to Denver, which is now only 180 miles, so we will have some time to tour the Museum of National History and the Denver Mint! I posted pictures to facebook all during today, so I will close for now.

Ahhh. Saturday morning and we were able to sleep in a little. I am going to finish posting the pix from yesterday and tell you a little about them. The picture of the oak tree is a depiction of the Wedding Oak, which has been there for over 100 years. The Indians performed religious rites under it and today many weddings are performed there. The heart shapes are a natural phenomenon. More pix from the LBJ ranch. He owned over 2,600 acres and gifted 600 to the National Park Service at his death. He died at the early age of 61 of a heart attack. He lived hard, worked hard and did no exercise. What an interesting man he was. The view of his birthplace is shaded by oaks and it is a pretty good example of the way all of the Hill Country looks. It's beautiful.