Stuck in Estes Park.

Well i guess it's not that bad to be stuck here, but i was hoping to have gone through the mountains on Trail Ridge Road, but it's been closed the last 2 days because of weather. they're getting snow and ice up there. i drove up to rainbow curve today, but that's as far as they let you go. i'm seeing this as a test for my VW, which did wonderfully. i'm thinking about naming her, but i'll come back to that later. i'm gonna wake up early tommorrow morning and see if they have it open. if not, then i'll have to skip it and start heading south another way. bummer, but oh well.the whole things not bad though. i probably wouldn't have gone hiking around here today if the road had been open, but i ended up taking it easy and hiking back to some lakes, which ended up being beautiful, even if the weather was really sporadic. sunny one minute and then pouring rain the next. it was great, but i can only imagine how wonderful it is on a clear day.
to top the weather keeping me here, it turns out that there's a scottish/irish festival here in town for the weekend. there was a parade this morning and i've been seeing lots of white legs in kilts. it's a fun atmosphere for everything though.

i slept in my car in town last night and will probably end up doing the same tonight to save money. i might see if i can shower at one of the camp grounds around here. i'd camp in the park, but that'd cost me $20, so i'm not doing that. i'll wait till i'm in another park for a longer amount of time and when it's dry.

i realized that i didn't post any pictures from my driving....... so here are a few pictures of the middle of america.

this is where i slept in my car my first night on the road

this is what towns in the middle of america look like. the hardware store was great. i bought batteries.

my view from the road, complete with dead-bug smudges.

the awesome mennonite couple that put me up for the night, fed me and made my week, even though i only called 2 hours before i got to their house in Denver.

david schrott told me that i had to go to breakfast king. i must say, the interior was incredible, the service was hilarious, and the coffee changed my outlook on life.



that's all for now, but there's more to come.......