east west

too much to write, so we'll go with my favorite literary device: sentence fragments.

hawaii: swam with sea turtles. saw flowing red lava on a distant hillside. slept on a volcano and woke up to earthquakes. black sand beaches. greying coral reefs paying the price of tourism. hiked over lava fields only to retreat in a thunder storm both idyllic and sinister.

michigan: midwestern. familiar stores once forgotten. farm roads every mile on the east west grid. reminded me of ohio - which brings its own brand of melancholy.

washington: five hours through high desert roads (deserted post-midnight) towards wenatchee - where life is based upon the cherry harvest, blm land is open to roam, and the full moon highlights the canyons.

colorado: at present. weathered rocks. startled by a black bear outside my window on sunday evening. the altitude seems to be taking its toll (or at least, i'm conveniently blaming my lack of energy on that). subalpine creekfed lakes so full of trout i almost caught one with my hands. fell asleep in the sparse grass beside fern lake and dreamt in a mediocre manner - woke up to the red-winged blackbird, surprised to find myself surrounded with the stony rock faces of the front range. tomorrow brings rafting on the poudre and we're counting on doing thunder lake on thursday.