And the Colorado Skies Said Hello

Well, we're here. :)

While we're still finding the carpet underneath all these boxes, let me take a moment and tell you how the Colorado skies welcomed us.

After driving all day on the Kansas plains under a dull mix of clouds and sun...almost as soon as we crossed the Colorado border, the skies came alive with activity and color.

As we drove westward, the southern skies grew brilliantly blue, but the northern skies filled with a huge, dark thunderstorm, backlit by the golds and reds of a magnificent sunset. We watched for over an hour and a half, barely able to keep our eyes on the road, while the colors shifted and changed. As the southern end of the storm covered over the sun in front of us, the sun's rays shone gold and white around the edges of the clouds, while illuminating the rain below the cloud with a deep red hue. As the sun set, we could see the lightning striking the plains. We thought the storm would move past us.

It didn't.

Just before the southern tip of the storm caught us, we could see the dust kicked up as the rain hit the dirt of the plains miles away. It didn't look like much right in front of us, but then the torrents came, and I found myself yanking the wheel to keep the crosswinds from blowing our rental truck off the road. For 15 minutes or so, we drove through this, even while seeing the blue skies on the other side. When we passed it, we stopped at a gas station to regroup, and looked back on the storm as the last rays of sun illuminated the spiked cloud tops.

But the show wasn't over yet. As we drove the last hour into Denver, scattered thunderstorms (not as big as the first) dotted the plains and created black silhouettes against the gathering purple dusk. Where you could see the sky, it was deep and clear. At one point, I noticed the clouds were backlit again, this time from behind me. I looked around behind me through the side window; the light was from a brilliant full moon shining through an opening in the clouds.

It was completely captivating. Almost everything you can see in a sky, we saw in the space of about three hours. It left me feeling like the Colorado skies were giving us a show, to welcome us.

I've been here two days. Every time I look outside, I am captivated by something in the sky. I don't think I'll ever get tired of this.