tuesday starts in the office of the mayor of denver, taking about 20 mins of his precious time. the guy is really nice and very easy to communicate with. he even was in pilsen and liked the city a lot. i can understand this pretty well. a visit to the national renewal energy labs (nrel) was fine as well. i can see the amaricans do some amazing research in the field (not the i would be able to judge) and so there is something more to the environment other then the usual comments as "we have to do smth about the energy consumption of our house (said in the huge suv car we usually drive here and that may have gas consumption close to the one of a hummer car)" . we drive to vail in the afternoon with a guy who used to work in international business for dozens of years and with uno before he retired a couple of yrs ago. a very interesting and inspiring chap even though i cannot agree with his view of Kaddafi (whom he worked for somewhere back in the seventies). i talk back a bit at the lunch even though we were adviced not to mention potentially hot topics. but i mean, difficult to shut up in an issua like this one, being as political as i am. we go to vail after the lunch and stop over at the pass at the altitude of almost 12.000 feet (slightly less than 4.000 meters). i remember how much energy it cost us to get to triglav in slovenia - my highest place so far. and this was just opening the doors of teh car and step out side. but the view ...! we stay at sb else's house for two nights now. the guy is originally from the netherlands and we expect some more people for the diner. there are 10 of us in total then, and what is funny - it's no real americans at all. one dutch, two of british origin and then the five of us from czechia and slovakia. funny, in teh centre of the u.s. of a. luc's telling me about a bumpersticker he saw somewhere last week - i find it damn funny and as soon as i see it somewhere, i am buying it. it reads "and old indian (native american) saying - vegetarians are bad hunters. and that's it for today.

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the monday is supposed to be the first real day of our trek around colorado. i went to bed at one and got up before half past six, working on the powerpoint presentation of our team long into the night (hey, folks, let's not forget about my jet lag, okey?) and went on in the morning. i should have the presentation done in czechia already but not only the last couple of weeks were very busy and i really did not find any spare time to do it. so here i go as usual, doing the thing after the last moment. the first presentation of the presentation (this looks even worse than it sounds) will take place tonite. i let everybody comment on the presentation , add their own particular personal information and hope i find 30 minutes during the day to include the comments and add-ons. well, i don't. i am spending the day with michal of the boy scouts of america in castlerock, about 20 miles south of denver direction colo spgs. we start at the bsa county office in denver. michael is a really nice guy and we have some nice discussions throughout the day. the office looks very well organized, neat, calm and effective. the age average would be around 20 yrs more from what we've got in prague at the hq's. i meet a guy responsible for property - they've got a lot of land and some campsites and ... just that this is nit really my cup of tea so i enjoy the visit to the campsite better. michael (a day later i find out that he did his college at stanford and graduated from mit - wow) shows us (meand our colorado rotary guide) around te huge place, nice picnic and all. i especially envy their fundraising - so much private funding is admirable. but with our non-tradition of philantrophy, no way these days (and years). on theway back we touch the topic of atheist and gay and lesbian leaders in bsa - and michael seems to be rather liberal compared to what i think about bsa. but nevertheless, i would not be in scouting if i lived in the states. i would not stand this religious-based hipocrisy. an afternoon "wine and cheese" at micky's - i am staying here overnite as well. a dinner at the county jail and our first presentation. we do well (and damn long as well). could have been worse. the visit to the jail itself turns out to be an experience. not a pleasant one at all. i did not expect to see real people spending their days (and weeks, months, years) behind bars. no idea what i expected. i need to sleep on that, i think. on the way back micky askes me in the car whether we had rehearsed for the presentation. well, i tell him just "we should have" and he gets the message.