Pictures from Driving through Colorado

A cute creek along US-40

We crossed the Continental Divide at least twice.

Rainy view in Colorado

A distinctive peak on US-40

They just keep going...

View from US-40 somewhere between Steamboat Springs & Dillon

The next Grand Canyon??

It may be a gray day, but the view is still beautiful.

Somewhere on I-70 between Dillon and Glenwood Springs

Mountains, mountains, and more mountains

I didn't even mean to take this in B&W, but it turned out pretty great!

The mountain nearest my hotel in Glenwood Springs.

Some of the mountains are green!

I couldn't believe I caught the clouds in such a great shot!

I love the view from the plane.

Gorgeous

Red earth

Beautiful mountains between Aspen & Denver

Check out the snow!

Aspen, CO

Wow. I sure can't complain about having a business trip to Steamboat Springs, CO!!  We flew into Aspen and drove up to Steamboat Springs.  I drove through Glenwood Canyon and up highway 131 at about midnight.  I will never do that again.  We saw about 10 deer, 2 raccoons, and 1 skunk (incidentally the skunk was the only one just sauntering down the middle of the road like he owned the place).  I did manage to stay on the road and to not hit anything, but it was definitely one of the more scary nights of my life.  I was very thankful when we finally reached out hotel in Steamboat.

After completing our visit with the family on Saturday, we drove over to Dillon, CO, so that my colleague could visit her friend.  We drove from Steamboat to Dillon via US highway 40.  It was a gorgeous drive full of rugged landscape.  We crossed the continental divide at least twice!  I had rented an SUV so that we would have 4 wheel drive (since I knew we'd be traipsing all over northern Colorado), and we ended up with a soft-top '09 Jeep Wrangler.  On our drive to Dillon, we took off the back window panels and drove with our windows down!  That was pretty awesome.  I was glad, though, that we hadn't taken the top down because it ended up raining on us a couple times during our 2-hour drive.

Once I dropped my colleague off in Dillon, I headed toward my hotel for the night in Glenwood Springs, CO.  I drove on I-70, but you wouldn't have known you were on a federal highway if you looked at the scenery.  It felt like a scenic state highway.  I drove through Vail, CO, which was stunning even without snow.  Toward the end of the drive, I gave myself a scare because I passed what ended up being the last available gas station for 20+ miles immediately after my gas light came on.  Needless to say, my daylight drive through Glenwood Canyon was a little bit stressful.  Thankfully, I did make it and I did manage to enjoy the canyon walls towering over me as I drove.  In Glenwood Springs, I checked in, ordered pizza for supper, cross-stitched & watched soccer for a bit, and then collapsed into bed. 

This morning, I was able to sleep in and eat a leisurely breakfast.  After packing up my belongings, I headed to the Jeep for one last drive down to the airport in Aspen, CO.  The airport, like most things in Colorado, is styled after a lodge or ranch house.  It's very small, and all the planes that come in are very small as well.  I flew in on a turboprop and I'll be leaving on one as well.  There are no jetbridges, and you board the plane and deplane by walking across the tarmac.  I know for some folks that's just how airports work, but for me it's a new experience!  It seems fitting to do that here in the middle of mountains that stretch thousands of feet high above us. 

Once I'm home, I plan to add some of the pictures I've taken.

I'll be very glad to get home this evening since I've only got about 36 hours until I head out to Fresno, California.  We'll only be seeing one family, but getting to and from California makes that trip exceptionally long regardless. 

Rental Car Frustration. Again.

When we went to Pennsylvania a couple weeks ago, I had just recently gotten my Kansas driver's license.  Most states nowadays print you the real card right there while you wait.  But not Kansas.  They gave me a piece of paper that was the size of a receipt with my DL number, info, and picture on it.  Talk about old-fashioned.  It didn't help that the picture was 3 times the size it is on the card.  Anyway, they told me my real card would come in the mail in 2-3 weeks and that this paper one was perfectly valid and would be accepted if I got pulled over (which thankfully didn't happen).  Well, we left on a Friday for Pennsylvania and the card hadn't arrived yet.  So, I brought my passport to get through airport security because I figured they wouldn't appreciate the paper license ID in Kansas City and they'd really put up a fuss in Philly.  With the passport, of course, I made it through.  Once in Philly, we took the customary rental car facility shuttle to Alamo and I got in line to pick up our car.  I approached the counter and the CSR and I began finalizing my rental.  All went well, until...she asked for my driver's license.  I handed her my perfectly valid paper license.  She looked at it, looked at me (I matched the picture!), then informed me she couldn't accept it.  I was furious.  Absolutely furious.  Thankfully, my colleague was able to rent the car so we were able to continue our trip.  Alamo wouldn't let me pay for the rental, though, even when we returned the car.  That was even more infuriating because I'd received an advance from the grant for the amount of the rental and I would therefore owe them money.  It's just not fun coming home from one of these trips and having to write a check to the people who usually owe you money.  To top off the whole thing, I checked my mail on Monday afternoon and there was my new license in card form.  Aaaggghhh!!!

Moved In

Moving is NOT fun.  Yes the all-caps was necessary to convey my dislike.  Though I am glad to escape my loud neighbors and their vuvuzela. 

The new roomie and I are getting settled in our new apartment, slowly but surely.  I really enjoyed seeing my family when they came out to help me.  I don't get to see my brother very often now.  (I can't believe he graduates from Emory University next spring!)  I didn't like all the hard labor and unpacking I had to do while they were here, but it was good to be around them. 

I now have a garage (!) for storage and/or my car.  I can't believe my car might get to live in the garage this coming winter.  No scraping!  Today's project has been to get everything together that's going to be stored in the garage so that I can continue unpacking my room.  It's a little wild right now.   I can get to the bed, the bathroom, the computer, and the closet, though I have to move stuff around each time.  Hopefully soon there will be less clutter.

Moving. Again.

Surely sometime soon there will be a year during which I will not move more than once.  Maybe not even at all.

One good thing is that I am getting out of the apartment that I don't really like and, more importantly, away from my loud and rude neighbors.  It'll be nice to live around people who don't insist on throwing massive parties during which their guests have screaming lovers' spats on the landing outside my door or ring my doorbell during the wee hours of the morning.  The goal is to not feel like I live in a frat house.  Another great benefit of the new place is that I'll save a good chunk of money on rent and utilities each month since I'll be living with a roommate.  Maybe I'll be able to upgrade my TV viewing experience by retiring the 6-year-old cheap off-brand old-fashioned CRT screen from Walmart and replacing it with a flat screen of some sort. 

I've spent today packing, but I've hit a brick wall at the moment and cannot bring myself to tape up another box.  I'm worried I might just fall asleep here at the computer!  Most likely dinner will help me get my second wind.  It's nice to go through my things and get rid of what I don't need anymore, but I do hate trying to wrestle non-box-shaped stuff into boxes.  It would be somewhat easier if I wasn't the sole person responsible for finding boxes, buying packing tape, and packing up every single possession, especially when I'm the one who also has to pay for the rental truck and the carpet cleaners and then fight to get my security deposit back after cleaning the apartment to better-than-new condition.