this is the end (my darling friend, the end). i borrowed this sentence from jim, i hope he won't get mad at me. but seriously. this seems to be the last post of this somewhat irregular and somewhat uncomplete diary of my trip to the u.s. of a. i would like to share some more pisc but since my laptop refused to cooperate with me coupla days ago, i've been hoping that the pics are not gonna get lost at least. if you feel like that, check http://my.opera.com/theorange/albums/ some time in the end of october. if something new comes up, my pics were saved.

i got a story to tell you in the very end. well, it's not much of a story, rather a piece of information. i saw a bear two days ago. i was hoping this would happen one of these days in here (since it definitely won't happen where i am from) and it did. i was running on a bike trail along the yampa river here in steamboat springs in the evening and i saw him. he saw me too so we both turned back (me after a while) and walked/ran on in the opposite direction. well, that was my first "close encounter of a bear kind" (sorry for that, steve) ever. and living where i do, it'll stay like that for some time.

and just to finish with, i'll list some of the things i always wanted to make a note about on this blog but never found time. these and many more. you can ask me some more once we meet somewhere...

... huge cars ... no locking of houses ... no recycling ... no smoking ... huge breakfasts ... no walking ... long time from work ... smalk talk ...

this was a spectacular trip, thanx for that. and thank to the gse team of wonderful people.

here they are, the pics. it did not work at one at night but it works now at six in the morning. which means (apart from the fact that i haven't slept too much:) that you can check out three new series of pics at http://my.opera.com/theorange/albums/. enjoy.

pictures online. i just spent some time selecting pictures to put them online to http://my.opera.com/theorange/albums/ and for some reason teh opera server refuses to cooperate. so you will have to wait a little bit to have a look at pics from clack canyon of gunnison, silverton and mesa verde. i'll be back.

sorry to be late. i mean, i had some i-net connection over the last couple of days but no wireless and i am lazy to write my posts on somebody' s home pc. so i just didn't. plus there has not been that much happening. after we left buena vista some days ago, we went to the city of pueblo, that is big but not too inspiring and headed to la junta, lamar and burlington then. all of these are in the plains areas, which means that even though i may add soem pics from the canyon near la junta in some days, it was really not much to see in these last days. but the places were real and some of them looked what i would expect the rural u.s.a. to look before ever coming to colorado. today we made it from burlington (which is almost in kansas) to colorado springs that is the last stop on our trip and a place where my little sister is gonna pick me up and drive the long way to the beautiful steamboat springs that's everybody talking about:) looking forward to that a lot. i am spending the last four days of my organized colorado experience over the city of colo sprgs in a house with the most beautiful view ever. i would share a picture with you, had i not lost the usb cord long time ago. so just be patient and you're gonna get to see it sooner or later:) g'nite from the hill over the city (as opposed to "city upon a hill":) - i do not think anybody reading this can really get this play on words, if you do, let me know!) see ya ...

some days off(-line). i obviously took couple of days off, spending most of them offline. we made it through telluride and durango in the meantime. not that there wouldn't be enough to write about. telluride is said to be the most beautiful ski resort (beating both aspen and vail), durango offered the beautiful trip to mesa verde, the national park full of remnants of the life of the native pueblo people. and then yesterday to pagosa springs with my first visit to hot springs ever. it felt okey after that and i enjoeyd both the hot springs and the cold river of san juan. and here we are today in the town of buena vista and i am enjoying the place a lot. seems to me that the word "amazing" has made it to my top ten of english vocabulary (including articles and prepositions) for a reason in the last some weeks. teh countryside looks different again and we met about 20 pieces of animals during our five-minute drive from the party tonite only. mostly deer and rabbit. looking forward to tommorrow.

and here a little bit of mesa verde ...

wild wild west, here we go! so this was www (not meaning world wide web this time) in real. silverton is a little bit of a tourist attraction but the feel of the dusta roads and guys with huge hats seemed real. and the steam engine was real for sure. wow, i enjoyed this.

some pics ... as promised. i finally got online for more than couple of minutes today. so here i go with the long promised pictures from the black canyon of gunnison.
i hope to get some more pics into my picture gallery asap.

people amaze me. being in colorado isn't obviously being in an average u.s. state. colorado is the state with the highest altitude, with one of the fastest growing populations, with the highest life expectancy (6 of the top 10 counties of the u.s. of a. are here in colorado) and if you expect to see obese people in the streets, you will not see more than in europe. i've been especially amazed at the activity of people in higher age. i know that meeting rotarians is not the same as meeting average americans but still. hearing a person 80 years old talking about his/her yesterdays bikeride is really not unusual. my hosts in montrose are simply amazing. both of them well in their seventies, each of them still does sports. i only managed to beat Joy 21:18 in ping-pong tonite and Tom is definitely better at frisB than any of my teammates in here (even if he was better than me, i would not admit that:) four years ago, they were in peru and the galapagos,
Tom rides a bike, Joy plays tennis. plus i would like to be as funny as they are when i am
over seventy. yesterday, Tom took a picture of Joy and me a brought it printed three minutes later. at dinner, i asked Joy about the recipe of the wonderful chinese vegetable dish and i'll get it per email from her. plus they do both so much community service within or outside rotary, i am simply amazed. good to know that life does not (have to) finish once you retire.

btw: i haven't told you Joy's and Tom's house is in the highest place of the whole town and my bed on the first floor which means that i spent two night in a highest bed in the whole community:)

btw: we've done some hiking this afternoon and i've seen a beautiful "black canyon". i think i am coming back to colorado to tour the natural beauties because europe cannot compete in this in any way. i'd give you picture but i've left my cable in grand junction so i need to buy a new one first.

plus: congrats on all the recent birthdays. especially if you turned thirty!

semi-desert and desert (not only in utah). we've been in the city of grand junction for the last two days and the next two as well. a new hosting family, very nice people. i've been to the colorado national monument last evening and saw some things you would not see in europe. what can wind, water, snow and ice do to the rock, that's amazing. and let's not forget the river as well. after that experience i should have been prepared for the visit to the arches national park in moab, utah (my second visited u.s. state:). but i do not think i was. the beauty way incredible. i'll give up describing and let you rather see some of my pictures taken at the place. i think i may have seen the most beautiful nature places in my life so far.

check out more pics at http://my.opera.com/theorange/albums.

wild wild west, finally! well, this title may be a little bit exagerated but the town of paonia deserves a little bit of emotions. after we have left aspen couple of days ago, we stayed some hours in the old snowmass. it's an old village just one valley from the snowmass village where we were staying but it's a different world and different time. there is no construction going on in there, they've got maybe two dozens houses in the whole valley, the views are gorgeous and the calm there is breathtaking. to make this description shorter, simply the first place where i could imagine living in the states, although being a city person in general. the few hours there were beautiful.

we were taken to the little town of paonia next. it's the smallest place we've been to so far and everybody has told us that this would be a very special place. some people would say us that th eplace is boring, others that it is damn conservative, still others that almost all the people are LDS (latter days saints - mormons), and still others that it's just rednecks living there. well, all of these were wrong. and by a lot. paonia was our best stop so far and we really enjoyed every single moment in there. the place is small. about 1.500 people there. but it was the first place with a real community i experienced here. the feeling that the people do care about what is going on around them was everpresent. my host family lady works as an aditor in a regional (10 western states) environmental and generally counterculture magazine high country news (www.hcn.org), was born in nyc and has got her digree from the columbia university. well, haven't seen that many rednecks around:) i managed to play a game of soccer in a local mixed mexican-american team and became an instant fan of the local high school football team paonia eagles. well, paonia has been a highlight of out tour so far, no doubt about that.

www.paonia.com

never been that high! oh yes, i just made it to the highest altitude of my life today but i'll get back to it later. we came to aspen from carbondale saturday morning. we got a nice condo in the hotel, which means that we'll all be staying together in one place. that's nice for a change after tha days with our hosting families. later we explored the explore booksellers bookstore that for some reason fulfiled my image of an intelectual bookstore in new york or boston. just that this one is in aspen and i've never been to neither new york nor boston:) the dinner was at the best japanese restaurant in aspen, which was the first really nicely designed place (according to my standards, of course) i've seen here in the states. but, being in the first japanese restaurant in my life, i am obviously not gonna be the biggest lover of japanese food after all. never mind.

the breakfast took place in the one and only five star hotel in aspen and after that the best part of the day started. we headed for maroon bells close to aspen to make i little hike. the scenery is simply amazing! we've seen a lot in vail, we've seen carbondale and surroundings but the area around aspen is really amazing and completely unique. i walked up to the buckskin pass and the last part was muddy, then later 20 centimeters of mixed water and snow and in the end up to 40 centimeters of snow. real fun in the middle of september. the buckskin pass is 12 462 feet = 3 798 meter high which easily makes it the highest peak of my life (even though it's no peak but just a pass, of course, but i had to turn back and meet the others). which means that even the people who found it really fun that i reached the highest place of my life couple of days ago in a car and wearing a tie and that i am growing older (and there really were people like that, believe it or not:), well, even these people will have to admit that i am definitely not growing older:). i felt almost like a local guy up there, wearing my north face jacket, shoes and daypack. at least the rejoice shorts could signal where i come from.

and after this beautiful hike the icing on the cake came in the evening when we had a dinner at ann's and allen's in snowmass. the place is far away from the main road and the genius loci is strong. you could not imagine the views they've got from their windows! and there is no construction going on in there. we've been to a new house in aspen today, built for 20 million dollars and with a nice location and view. but this was a completely different league. i could easily live in snowmass ...

btw, i made some pics on the hike today, you can check them out at http://my.opera.com/theorange/albums/