Well, yesterday I saw the presidents (Mt. Rushmore) and got a glimpse of Crazy Horse's head from the highway. I'm not sure if it's done yet. I didn't have time to stop by and see the whole thing. Bummer. The Black Hills are so gorgeous. I was listening to the Omega tapes by D'Adamo to prep myself for this conference but had to just turn off the sound on my car stereo and began to sing,

"The hills are alive!

With the sound of music!

With songs they have sung!

For a thousand years!

The hills fill my heart!

With the sound of music!

My heart wants to sing

Every song it hears

(Every song that it hears!)"

You get the picture. My inner muse showed herself at the site of these beautiful hills as if I were Julie Andrews twirling round and round with my guitar case and suitcase in the mountains. Oh man, I never knew my lifelong good next door neighbor South Dakota was such a hot babe!

Well, after eating a very unhealthful deep fried appetizer special near the monuments, I decided to stop thru Boulder, CO, for some good veg. I was looking for a hippie veg restaurant but decided after all to just stop at Wild Oats and buy deli food to get me through the next two days until I reach Tempe. I really wish we had a Wild Oats in Minneapolis. I think I like it better than Whole Foods. The juice bar is a true juice bar vs. the Whole Foods that just has a Jamba Juice (gag). I'm a bit picky about my juices...

So I had some tofu and some turkey loaf last night. Here's a great reason why I like Wild Oats better. They use oats instead of breadcrumbs in their turkey loaf recipe! In general I don't think they are as wheat-happy as the other places I usually visit.

Well, stopped in Vail last night to sleep. I didn't have a clue where to stay. I saw a Best Western on the frontage road. It was like a scene out of a combination of Nat'l Lampoon's "Vail" vacation and Psycho. I went up to the lobby and the front desk was all gated off. There was an electronic buzzer so I pushed it. It made some funny noises and then no one came to the desk. I pressed it again. Still nothing. Creepy.

I then found the Evergreen Lodge via my handy dandy Treo phone's PCS Vision system using hotels.com or yellowpages.com or something like that. Used mapquest to find the exact location. Wow, I never thought a toy would come in so much handy so much!

Well, I better hit the road again. I have yet to really see all the mountains here in the middle of the rockies b/c I was driving in the dark. In 2001 I went to Keystone so I've pretty much seen the mountians up until now. This is going to blow my mind today.

Everyone thinks I'm such a weirdo for driving all the way to AZ. This is the best decision I've ever made. This is such a freaking beautiful country!!! The older I get the more I realize how "pretty she is" (that's a Tori Amos quote).