It's Better in Wyoming.

* my toe hurts. * i'm drinking orange juice. * tomorrow i head up to the black hills, the second of three weekends in a row that i'll be up there. * summer's arrived in laramie. * the high water of laramie river's receded, at least here in town. * i hope the panniers are a perfect fit; i hope they encourage me to commute by bike more consistently. * it seems the media has switched their references to the BP spill from "barrels" to "gallons": why?? * the front yard and flower beds are coming along nicely, I think: will know more in a few more days, when the grass seed should germinate. * A-Team: better than Prince of Persia.  Best of all: the editing room's abridged script for Iron Man 2 . * new sewer line: on the way.  maybe i'll have a new garage by year's end, after all.

Arriving back at the parking lot, five-ish hours after we set out for a free-weekend stroll in Rocky Mountain National Park, Melissa and Quincy and Steph and I calculated that that our hike had turned out to be about 8.2 miles. Even thought the trek was a bit longer than expected, it was worth the distance: we hiked up-and-back to Fern Falls, and to Cub Lake, and walked past elk grazing 10 yards from the trail. And just before we arrived back to the lower parking lot, we got to wade through the side streams of the river before crossing the bridge. The highlight of the trip was watching a giant log coming down a stretch stretch of river, being tossed around like it was a twig.  There's no picture of that, though.  I don't think a picture would've done it justice: a half-ton section of tree bouncing and spinning, and you couldn't even really hear  it separately from the general noise of the river.

Over the holiday weekend I rode along with Steph to Yellowstone.  Trip highlights include: * a temperature drop over 2 1/2 hours from 90 degrees near Meteetsee to 38 degrees when we drove into Cooke City, Montana. * my first bear sighting since I can remember.  My sister and I went to Yellowstone with my grandparents a couple of times when we were little, but I don't think we ever got to see a bear.  The other wildlife sightings on this trip were alright, too: * road food.  Road trips are a free pass for me to eat whatever I want Cheetohs, donut holes, beef jerky, beers, ice cream in Rawlins, giant bbq burger at the Lander Bar: I'm not sure I ate a single piece of healthy food during the entire trip.  Unless banana pancakes at Teton Lake count as healthy... * karaoke at the bar in Cooke City.  We didn't sing, but we did get to hear the drunkest, whitest, awesomest version of "Gangsta's Paradise" ev-ver.  Proof that Cooke City is a b...