I made it to Denver yesterday.  It's been a fantastic trip across South Dakota (a first for me) where I managed to find an exhibit of Ansel Adams' Masterworks as well as Nebraska that yielded a marvelous state recreation area for camping.  I feel spoiled lounging on a leather sofa visiting family.  They have a -baby-.

I suppose the fantastic moment for me, though, was when I realized the clouds were not clouds but mountains.  They were the mountains that I crave, that I long for.  I suddenly realized that I was coming home.  Mile by mile I'm getting closer to the place I left (insert number) years ago.  I left part of myself in the Tetons and I'm coming back to find that part of myself that hasn't been jaded and darkened by life.

I'm also coming back to share what I've learned, what I've seen, and what I know about the colour of a moment.  Like looking through the lens of a camera and catching that perfect shot, that moment before the butterfly flits away, before the light changes, we all get this summer to do just that for so many people.  The colours are so bright.

Eight more hours of driving.

The sky is gray, almost white, here in the city of Minneapolis.  I missed this place so much while I was in Beckley, West Virginia.  I've come back to find that one of my favourite haunts is simply gone.  It was a little tea shop, open late, with over one hundred variety of teas.  They would serve your tea in cast iron pots with tiny cups.  One could sit for hours playing board games, or talking, or studying alone, whatever the wont.  The coffee shop where I met one of my close friends has moved and become some strange coffee shop/bar.  I guess that's hip, but... it's not the SAME.

I don't expect everything in Jackson, Wyoming to be the same, or at GTLC to be the same.  It's been (insert number of years here) years since I've been there.  I didn't expect so much to change in a year and a half here.  Then again... I've changed, right?  I suppose that's one of the aspects of the Twin Cities I loved so much is that it is alive, and with that comes the ability to change, to grow, to die.  Not, of course, in the most literal of senses but speaking quite figuratively.  I still love it here, though now I feel more of a stranger.  I can't remember my way around anymore.

Leftover green curry for breakfast.  It was great for dinner.  Maybe a smidgen better than the place I used to go to in St. Paul, though twice as expensive.  Of course, the decor and service were elite in comparison.  Then I'm off to see if I can find a laundromat and maybe a nook to bide my time in for half a day.  It's good to take a break from the road.