Day 1. For the next 2+ weeks I'll be chronicling my adventures and experiences with the RAW gang!

11.30A Tuesday, July 12. RTD Bus route AB from Denver to Boulder thoughts.

As I embark on my 5 week adventure and think about where I've come, I've been lucky to have experienced so many landscapes in recent weeks. The first view of Denver is flat. Real flat. No trees! Only grass, no crops. Big sky. it seems like the sky overpowers the landscape, demanding your attention. So different from the various swamps I visited just a week ago. I'm excited to explore the new landscape of the Black Hills – and the culture, history, topography, and the stories that the landscape brings.

It's cooler here, a welcome relief from the vice-like humidity of the Carloinas (although, it does help out my curly hair!) It was 89 degrees at midnight last night in Charlotte!

Already the airport is different – with tornado shelter signs everywhere. Cowboy hats, backpacking packs and more raw exposed lumber – the West has its flavor.

The missing tree canopy got me the most. It seems like the landscape is more utilized, the weather more watched.

And! The mountains! They just emergy from the clouds as if they are one mass. The coloring is so similar its hard to differentiate between the matter made of water vs the matter made of earth.

It's interesting that the mountains and clouds mimic each other in form, pattern, light, and color. Both fade in and out of sharpness and detail.

Life seems to hold a different realness when faced with the towering mountains. It's been a while since I've seen them so large. The effect is renewed. The ocean has a similar effect, buy at a different magnitude. Both conquer.

Lot's of clerestory windows. And fences. And it makes me miss my horses.

The greens are grayer here, or perhaps bluer.

Until later,

- Keihly Moore