Day 2 of our adventure began with our having a little time on our hands prior to our 7 pm flight out of Detroit. So, after a quick breakfast, we hopped on south a bit to explore an Amish area. I've gone out into Amish country before, but had not previously seen so many Amish people. You couldn't throw a rock without seeing an Amish person. And then we realized: Because of Anita's pregnancy, she's a good luck charm. Every time from this point on during our trip that Anita said, "I'd love to see _______!", it would literally appear around the next corner. This included marmot, buffalo, elk, a condor, Amish, snow-covered mountains, good weather ......you name it. There are too many examples to recall.
Despite arriving at our Denver hotel at 1 am due to storms in Chicago (long story), we were raring to go the next morning. I should mention that I am often cursed in rental car arrangements at Denver International. And it appears this is contagious. On one previous trip there to pick up a rental and explore Wyoming, I was 'upgraded' from a basic economy to....an electric-spandex-lame-ass-blue PT Cruiser. Good mileage and drive, but ugh, what an ugly freakin' car. Such was our luck - queer blue color and all - on this trip. Hopefully we won't also hit an elk.
At any rate, our Colorado venture was essentially a LONG day of driving across it on I-70. Wanting to break up the scenery a bit, we had time for one side trip, and that was to the top of Mt. Evans. This mountain, along with Pike's Peak, is one of two in the country that have a paved road to the surface and whose summits are over 14,000 feet (or over 4200 meters). The highest peak in Norway is 2,469 meters (8,100 feet). En route to the top, we encountered marmots, road mice, and even some scavaging mountain goats before they were able to see a span of the Rocky Mountains laid out before them. Below: road marmot - found an erosion-created pothole that he called home, which I'm sure was warm, but noisy as hell when cars rolled over. And not very life-preserving!
Now, we all know about not touching wildlife, but this miniscule little bugger was literally sunning himself in the middle of the (thin) blacktop roadway. We stopped and tried to wave him to the side of the road, but he went instead under the car. So, Arve picked him up and moved him to a nice, flat, warm rock on the side of the road, where he stayed - at least until we drove away.
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