Red Rocks

Today, we went to a place called Red Rocks Ampitheatre, which has really awesome scenery.
Unfortunately, there was a show going on, so we couldn't actually get into the ampitheatre.  But we got some nice pictures nonetheless.

Altitude sickness

In Denver, you need to keep drinking water, because something about the altitude makes the air really dry, so you can dehydrate really easily.  You may also find yourself becoming light-headed, because the air is thinner, and your sinuses may start to act up too.  Combine these three things. and you get what is known as altitude sickness!  What fun!

Chaya Rachel and I went to the library the next morning and she signed up for a library card and got out a couple of books.  Unfortunately, the branch we went to didn't have much selection.  (There's a larger one, but it's further away.)  Then we went to find shoes for her, since she couldn't find her nice flats, which she wanted to wear for job interviews, dropping off her resume, and other professional-related stuff.  But we couldn't find any that were both comfortable and appropriate for interviews.  We were also both getting really thirsty, but we couldn't find any place to get a drink.  So we went back to Leslie's, where we were both presented with water bottles.  I was feeling okay, apart from the fact that my sinuses were going nuts, but Chaya Rachel had gotten all three of the symptoms of altitude sickness, and was seriously nauseous.  She had to spend most of the evening lying down, but felt better after that, which was very good. I was also advised to eat a banana to help with my sinuses.  I'm not sure how that works, but it did!

Chaya Rachel's uncle Irwin flew in from Vancouver, and Leslie's other son, Shalom, and his wife, Rachel, and their adorable daughter, Matana, came in from Pittsburgh. Leslie's daughter, Zoe, came in from Chicago, where she was in college.  I also discovered that Zoe was rooming with someone that Chaya Rachel and I had gone to high school with.  Jewish geography at it's finest...

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas any more...

So, we continued through Kansas the next day.  Chaya Rachel's father and brother thought that the tires on the van needed more air, so we found this ancient gas station that had a compressed air pump.

It was off of an old country road, and the only thing near it was a giant grain silo.  That's Kansas for ya!

We kept driving, and left Kansas for Colorado!  Where the speed limit was 75!

Chaya Rachel and I switched places so that she was driving after we left the Colorado welcome center, which allowed me to take these pictures. Of more cows and fields.

We also saw a reeeeallllly long freight train:

And a little windmill:

And then, at long last, we arrived at Leslie's!  Chaya Rachel and I went shopping for dinner ingredients while her father and brother unloaded the van.  We also stopped at Wal-Mart after we got the food, and got the blank CDs that Chaya Rachel needed, and also found Chicago (the movie) on DVD!  We ate dinner, where I met Leslie's son, Levi, and then went over to the house where we were sleeping, since Leslie's house wasn't big enough to hold the passel of people coming in for the wedding.

Over the Rainbow

As you might have guessed from the title, we went from Missouri to Kansas in the next leg of our trip.  We saw cows.  Lots of cows.  And lots of fields too.

We also saw two actual hitchhikers and a couple of tumbleweeds, which we didn't get pictures of.  We also got stuck behind two 18-wheelers that were blocking the highway.

We also saw a wind farm:

And then the sun started to go down, practically blinding me.  (I wasn't wearing sunglasses, since they distract me when I'm driving, but I don't think sunglasses would have helped with this.)

And then we stopped for the night, in a little town that seemed to consist entirely of hotels, gas stations, and fast-food restaurants.

All photos in this post were taken by Chaya Rachel.