update

i've discovered WI-FI is not always easy to come by- also i could not find any cell phone signal within rocky Mtn nat'l park. i never had a cell phone or a laptop until this year so i can't complain - oh i guess i can but it shouldn't count. anyway i will
to do a summary update since this is the end of first week of trip.
August 22nd: re-visited Wichita where i grew up and attended school thru college at WSU and then moved to DM in 1974. a driving tour by my friend (and school mate from 4th grade thru college) Clark Ensz revealed that Wichita has really been revamped and is now a very attractive city. We ate at a very nice Indian resturant called Passage to India.
After spending the night i headed west stopping at the Lincoln Perk coffee shop in Hesston KS. I told the woman working there i had heard it was the best coffee shop in the Kansas. She said she had just returned from Seattle and they didn't have any better there. i told her i would check that out for myself.
August 24th:
castle rock colorado.
We (thats the Royal We , me and ol Blue- the prius is now named Blue by default)
made to friend Vladimirs arriving in thunderstorm with hail. I had to
pull off road because i could not see anything. The pea size hail
didn't seem to do any damage to ol Blue contrary to the evidence of
the terrible pounding I heard.
My friends have been treating me Royally- I hesitate to point out that
i'm not The King Arthur as they seem to think. Oh well maybe i can
tolerate just a little more guilt in that respect.

visited the very impressive Denver Art Museum(DAM) . Its newly completed extenstion
is totally futuristic. We ate at an excellent Indian restaurant called the Clay Oven-
(do i detect a theme emerging on this trip?)
August 25th:
drove to Rocky Mtn Nat'l Park on a beautiful colorado day. drive thru Big Thompson Canyon evoked memories of first travels to the rockies in 70's and 80's.
had a pleasant day seeing the sites and doing a couple short hikes though the altitude did not show me much respect. it was a very crowded day in the park so
vladimir and i dodged tourists in estes park until we found place to eat. he headed
home to castle rock and i settled in at aspenglen campground. it was very quiet and
the clear sky made for some good star gazing.
August 26th:
Hung out all day at the park. found a quiet pinic area with a mountain stream running
thru it, read and lazed about. typical afternoon rainstorm moved in and out suddenly.

August 27th:
decided to go to Moab and see Arches and Canyonlands Nat'l parks- add 2 more to the list- i bought an annual pass for $80 - its a $20 entrance fee for each park so i will soon get my money's worth. it was cloudy and overcast as i packed up and
remained so as i drove over Trail Ridge road. It started to rain as i left the park
and rained almost all the way to grand junction where more rain was forecast for the night so i got a hotel with WI-FI so that concludes the 1st week of the blog.

The only insight(and certainly not a great one) that i recall is when i broke a finger nail and wondered "what did Lewis and Clark do about fingernails?" but then i
bit off the broken piece with my teeth and said "Ah Ha!