Imagine sleep. Dreams. Pillows and mattresses. Then forget about them as you are /rudely/ awakened by the boot sound of Windows XP and the bright New Mexican sun (ok ok, it wasn't that bad. I really needed the sleep, whew).
So we awaken. Naturally our first stop is the fitness room. I must cleverly sneak in to the well guarded facility as I am indeed under 21, the required age for the room as explain in Nell's last post. Some basic liftin' later and I'm ready for the day; Nell's not feeling too hot (mmm, spicy fatty pork!) so I'll let her slide for now.
Continental breakfast time. Pretty chill in here, got a cool nylon string player noodlin around, some basic fare as far as food is concerned. I go for the muesli. Nell and I get into conversation and I end up letting her listen to one of my songs on my "cool" Zune - halfway through she makes this really sour face, concerning me. Turns out shes staring at this little girl with yogurt-drool hanging out her mouth. Go figure.
Let's a go! Onwards to Colorado!
First thing we notice on the quiet, relatively short trip is in our snack box.
Whats this? Bloaty seaweed!
Apparently the Japanese do not expect their snackies to travel far from sea-level. We are currently riding around 5 or 6k up, so hmm.
I take this time as an opportunity to take some self-photographs.
So incredibly piggish she needs a bib.
It really is an incredible view from the road. It's difficult to capture the beauty in photos so I'll only take a few.
Have to dedicate one to McSlow, here.
A couple hours later and we arrive in Saliva- oh, excuse me, Salida. The town has a big river of spit flowing through the business center. Can you believe people actually enjoy this?
The town itself is super old-fashioned, with one main street and plenty of walking culture.
We eat at MOONLIGHT PIZZA, a joint that hails itself as supplying super powers with its pizza. One spicy pizza later and I feel like I can take on some GHOSTS. Funny I should think of that, cause that's where we are headed! GHOST TOWN! First of course we scoot into the town book store for some research. Didn't find anything on ghosts, but found this:
For my beautiful girlfriend.
On the road again, this time to St. Elmo, the ghost town previously mentioned. We take a route that puts us right in the middle of the mountainous forest. I question the town's existence after a few miles of dirt road, but lo and behold St. Elmo exists! Town itself is not particularly spectacular - just a few run down buildings and some signs. The scenery however is stunning!
A river runs by the town. It's quite chilly, bringing some apprehension about our supposed rafting trip tomorrow...
Aullll right! TETANUS! Notice the stump on the left.
We decide to roll it down to the river, where it spectacularly explodes into several pieces! I run after it as it floats down the river.
It gets stuck on some rocks. But we must retrieve it!
So you gotta throw some rocks at it. So close!
Awww yeah.
Success! Blow that vuvusuela!
No ghosts, but there is another creature that haunts St. Elmo...
No, not this guy, though he is kinda creepy.
...
DUN NUH! Chipmunks EVERYWHERE! They walk right up to you... provided you have foodstuffs.
Several took a liking to Mzom.
Once we have had enough of the woodland creatures, we scoot back to the car- OH NO!
Alas, 7000 ft up and 80 degree weather has finally popped our poor Japanese snackum.
It's a sad day for snacks everywhere.
Doesn't last too long, as Nell has found a new fascination! PIZZA FOR DINNER!
Alas, two is one too many, so we go to "The Laughing Ladies", a nice little traditional restaurant. The food is spectacular and the service speedy and friendly. I order a pork chop while Nell and Mom split the sea bass. Both plates are pretty and tasty, and after closing up the place we head back for slumber at yea ol' Gateway.
Love the pix of the chipmunks! Hope you fed them the dessimated seaweed snacks!
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