Day 5: CO / Day 6: NM/ Day 7: AZ

Day 5:
Today, we headed out to Denver to visit my friend Carrie. We left Casper, WY in the morning and took out time heading out to CO. We stopped by Target, and the mall in Casper - an obviously small town mall, but with some interesting things. Scott has been looking for a western shirt for a while, and he finally found one at the mall. It is blue and white striped(like most of the button down shirts that he owns) but with a little western flair to the buttons and the design. Very cute. Oh - and we went into a pet shop at the mall (that's our thing, we are always checking out the pet shops to play with the puppies) and there are very stange people, and animals at this place. There was nothing cute here at all (except 2 bunnies, which I think were meant for food, not pets). The place was full of boas and pythons, and there was about a 3 ft. alligator for sale in an aquarium!! And people were in there in awe looking at all these gross things. We couldn't get out of there fast enough.

We stopped for lunch at Arby's, and the manager was a hoot! There was a bit of a backup at the register because it looked like a baseball team had finished up a game and went to get lunch afterwards. She was on the only register, and she kept yelling at everyone who worked in the store that they were leaving her hanging and that she wanted to fire all of them because some customers were waiting about 10 minutes for their orders to be filled. Scott thinks it's her that should have been fired.

We then ended up in Denver to visit Carrie and Chris. They have done a great job with their house and it is so nice. We had a great cook out, and lots of wine. A perfect end to a great day (minus the 3.5 mile walk that we went one around the park - you know I hate to excercise!)

Day 6:
After a great breakfast at Carrie's, we went through CO Springs, drove through the Air Force Academy and saw the house that Scott used to live in, and stopped for lunch at the Pizza Hut in Pueblo, CO. So much for not eating chain food. There was a lot of fog all throughout CO, and when we got the border of CO and New Mexico we drove through a hail storm. It was so freaky, and it was coming down so hard that the ground looked like it was covered with snow. Once we got through that storm, the weather turned beautiful!

We made it to Las Vegas, NM - and our first stop was Montezuma Hot Springs. I really wanted to find a natural hot spring, and this was exactly what I was looking for. Basically, it was a hole in the ground (well, many holes since there were 4 different pools) with hot water in it. They were right by the river which was ice cold, and Scott was daring enough to do what "they" say you should do - go into the hot spring and then jump into the river and then back into the hot spring. There was one pool that was so hot that I could not get into it. But it was great, and we met some interesting people at the pools.

Then we checked into the Comfort Inn - showered all the icky algea off us - and then tried to find something for dinner. Since it was about 9:30pm, and this is a small town, we could not find anything. We ended up at a mexican restaurant attached to the hotel accross the street. We felt completely out of place in there - but when we were paying the owner started to talk to us. He said that Scott was the first white guy to come into the place in months, and that they are really hurting economically. He said a year ago, the place would have been packed and the highway busy all year round. Now, he says that there is not much traffic going through, and that everyone is feeling the effects of "that Bush". Too funny - and they were really impressed with my $4 tip - and even told me that I needed to come in there more often. I really hope things pick up for them. Oh - and he knew I spoke Spanish because he says that I look latin. I don't get it.

Day 7:
We left Las Vegas and headed to Santa Fe. We stopped along the way to check out the Pueblo ruins of Pecos. It was very interesting, and it made me feel very sad to see the effects of the Spanish invasions and to think of how the Indians must have felt about being forced to convert to Christianity.

In Santa Fe, we walked around the plaza and shops (fortunately, we did not buy anything!) and had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant called Coyote Cafe, on their rooftop dining area. We then headed west to Arizona, and had time to drive through the Petrified Forest National Park, and took some great pictures of the Painted Desert here. We then went on to Flagstaff, and are staying the night here at the Comfort Inn. We wanted to just chill and catch up on emails and such - so we ordered Chinese Food to the room and are wrapping our long day. Tomorrow - The Grand Canyon!! Good night...