Into the mountains!

...a travelogue from Anna...

After driving hundreds of miles on vast, flat land, we let out a whoop when we first spied mountains looming over Denver, CO. Within one hour we went from land literally flatter than a pancake, to twisting roads, rocky canyons, and snow-peaked mountains. I have officially decided that mountains are far superior to great flat plains and would much rather live the life of a mountain goat than a plains buffalo.

We stopped in Denver to stock up on oil, a tire gague, and radiator fluid. It took us several trips between the car and the store to figure out exactly what kinds we needed, but we finally came out with a large bag of goodies. We spied a grocery store across the parking lot and decided to see what they might have to offer for our lunch. After wandering around the small store, we found some injera--Ethiopian sponge bread. I have eaten at Ethiopian restaurants before and loved the bread, so Mary and I decided to buy the package of five large injera and soup to dip it in. As we were talking about it, we met a Mestizo man who works at the attached café. Our conversation with him reminded me of conversations I had with people in East Africa--there's a certain sense of curiousity about one another. We headed for a park to eat our injera and soup. We both ripped off pieces to scoop up the soup, but Mary was put off by the 'alcoholic' taste to the bread and soon opted for a spoon.

Now we're at Bonnie's house in Basalt, CO. We just played some good rounds of Mennonite Scrabble and are soon off to bed for a long hike tomorrow. Hooray for friends! Hooray for mountains! Hooray for road trips!