On Up to Seattle

Well, I've made it quite a round trip from Colorado, to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, to Seattle, and all the way back here to West Virginia!

After spending Mother's Day with my Grandma in Boulder, I drove down to Glenwood Springs to fly fish some. I love fly fishing, but I'm terrible at it. I walked into this fly shop and the guys told me what to buy and where to fish. I didn't catch a thing. Oh well... the beautiful scenery and calm mountain air was good enough.

My rusty steed and I then headed south to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and I got there just as the sun was setting. You haven't lived until you've seen the sun set on the Grand Canyon. The next morning I woke up to find the same site to the East and just as breath taking. On to the Redwood Forests!

That took me up toward Salt Lake where I hung a left onto Interstate 80. Now, I thought this would be a pretty boring part of my drive, but let me tell you, it wasn't. Western Utah is by far the strangest place I've been. The ground is white as snow; apparently it's entirely salt. People find these black rocks to write illegible messages in the salt. It's completely absurd. As far as the eye can see in any direction there's nothing but salt. No plants. No animals. No hills. No people. No nothing. Wild.

Oh yeah, in the middle of all of this I came upon a huge, manmade thing. As I'm heading down the road, barely speeding, I'm inspecting this giant contraption and thinking... "Well, is it artwork? Yeah sure... must be." Then I almost hit the guy in front of me who had almost stopped because of the... um... artwork. Fortunately, I didn't hit him, but I was inclined to stop barely speeding.

I finally made it to the Redwood Forests in northwestern California. Those trees are absolutely beautiful. I was kindof filled with mixed emotions though. While those trees were enormous, big enough to drive through, bigger than any tree I've ever seen, the stumps left from the loggers were even bigger. They were larger than my imagination. Interestingly, they had sprouts coming from them. They are the 800 or 1000 year old trees, cut down in their glory, only to spring forth new sprouts from their roots. The sprouts aren't very big yet... but wait another 800 years!

I went to Seattle next to visit me sister for the next few days. That'll have to be next time... perhaps tomorrow. I'm going to bed now. For all of you who are board studying, best of luck!

Mike