Breckenridge, Boulder, Denver and now... Little America, Wyoming

So I stayed in Breckenridge for two nights with Dara. He owns a Vegetable Grease recycling company and I got to stay in a bunk room he has above the garage/plant. He converts diesel vehicles to run on recycled waste grease. I met him through his business partner, Dan, at the rafting company I stayed at in Moab, Utah. Thanks guys!

While Max was in Breckenridge he got into a quick fight with a big dog (The swiss mountain rescue breed). Max got bit once and has a straw size hole that he is tending to. After 4 days, it still looks like its healing on its own.

The I went to Boulder and stayed with one of my Mom's former students (soon to be assistant principal at a school in Colorado) and her husband
(a sheriff's dept park ranger at a reservoir near Boulder and a ski patrol guy by winter). They have a dog too and Max and her we're tense but fine. I bought a new phone while In Boulder. I'm going to try Verizon for a few weeks and then drop ATT if all goes well. Its a Blackberry Curve 2. It doesn't have a trackball to get clogged with sand so hopefully that will be an improvement.

While in Boulder Max decided to chase a deer while on a hike and only got 5 steps into his charge when he either pulled a muscle in his back leg or stubbed his thigh on a rock. He made it back to the car but then limped for two days. Half an Advil later and he was walking within 6 hours.

Today I left Boulder with a walking and wound licking Max and drove through Denver. I stopped at the biggest REI I have been to and then didn't open until 10 but I decided to roll by to orient myself before finding breakfast while I waited for the store to open. There were hundreds of people in the parking lot. What was going on? It was their semi-annual garage sale when they sell off all the stuff that has been returned. I got a bike computer that's missing a unnecessary small part, a pair of waterproof binoculars to replace the ones that were waterlogged when I wanted to push the canoe away from the shore with Lewis. I also got a small hammock to experiment with (most likely getting returned after I play with it a little). I also got a new floppy fisherman's hat to add to my silly hat collection. A mini bike pump... And I exchanges a sitting pad and a sleeping pad that both had holes in them as well as a stove that's igniter has become untrustworthy (but let me not make it seem like I think its igniting behind my back while I'm away from the car).

I drove through Denver. Industrial to downtown to trendy residential to lower income inner city residential and back to industrial. It was a 2 hour tour, but I liked what I saw. I like Colorado in general so to find a real city, sized slightly bigger than Boston, was a nice way to finish off Colorado.

So then I drove through Wyoming for the majority of the day on Interstate 80. It sucked trying to stay up between 65-75mph but the trucks coming up on you at 80mph kind of helped. I stopped in Cheyenne, Green River and have decided to call Little America "home" for the night. Its a one property town: gas station, full service truck stop, auto mechanic shop, motel with pool, RV park and one whole area in the back with homes for the staff. Ranjeet, my server at the restaurant, just informed me that "Yes, we DO have a post office". And it DOES have its own zip code, ehem!

I have about 130 miles left until Salt Lake City for tomorrow morning. I'm going to be meeting and staying with Kyle from couchsurfing. We've already spoken on the phone a few times, I have his fancy got-to-get-it-in-Boulder beer in my car and he doesn't have a dog. Max says "Thank God!".

Did I mention I saw a full arch, double rainbow in Salida that lasted for easily 25 minutes. I saw a pewny little attempt at a rainbow today and it made me laugh.

Its funny to me when people find the truckstop and Walmart sleeping fascinating... Anyone have any questions? I'm sure people would like to hear the answers.