The weather has been pretty dreary in Colorado. It has been grey and stormy just about every day since I left Missouri last week. It has left me in a dark mood that matches the skies above me. And when I go to that room inside, my thoughts follow and pretty soon there's a conference going on that I have no business attending. My sparkle dims and I hate that. I know, intellectually, that there was absolutely nothing different when I wrote this. Every circumstance was exactly as it was a few hours before. The only thing different was my thoughts.

They don't call it Colorful Colorado for nothing. Look at this sunset. I do love the Colorado skies. Very dramatic! And thirty seconds later it was gone. That's the way of so many beautiful moments. You blink and you miss them. We have so many distractions today that divert our attention from the beauty around us. I'm as guilty as the next person with my nose pointed at a screen. How did we get so dependent on electronics? It is insidious. You don't even know you're doing it. How did we live before the cell phone? I'm trying. I'm really trying to unplug more often. But I write...every day. And I write at odd times when the mood strikes. I often get my material from the things I read and the interactions I have online. It's just such a habit to reach for the phone.

When your children have grown, parenting changes dramatically. Of course, long gone are the braces and swim practice and adolescent angst. Now, it's the grandchildren doing it and it is such a joy for me to watch my older daughter parent her 'tween daughter. She is so patient and so wise. Far more wise than I was at her age. She empowers her daughter to handle her own problems as best she can before stepping in. Me? I was an over-involved helicopter mom who was hyper vigilant. Yet, the girls are doing fine. Daughter #1 is a beautiful mother. Daughter #2 is still in college, unmarried, no children…still finding herself and her place in the world. My kids are very nearly 16 years apart so there is no comparison.

I had an unexpected surprise this week. I received a text from a high school friend that was coming to Denver to actively participate in the Clinton Global Initiative Group…part of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. We hadn't seen each other in 44 years and spent four hours in an Irish Pub catching up. What a delightful way to spend the afternoon!

I'm celebrating my birthday week. Well…MONTH really, but I don't want to sound greedy. I'm about to celebrate my 62nd trip around the sun. Sixty-two is NOT old. Not to ME. What does 62 feel like, anyway? What does it look like? Am I supposed to take naps and buy sensible shoes? Am I supposed to color my hair and wear purple? When my kids look askance at my fringed biker-chick bag, I tell them fringe is in…leave me alone.

I got out on my bike yesterday. I rode the area bike path east till I ran into flooding. I turned around and went west and found the same thing so I ended up circling around the reservoir, which was lovely. The altitude kicked my butt though! It's been 9 months since I've lived here so it'll take a little time to adjust.

Now that I'm here and got some rest, I'm ready to go out and ride my bike and kayak but I'd like to find some folks to join me. It will take some looking around, but I'll find some like-minded individuals. I went to the movies with the kids yesterday and saw Pitch Perfect 2. I've watched the first one so many times. This one was just as good, I think.

This is not my photo…I found it on the Internet. But, I have seen one. It occurs when there is a very bright, full moon with rain and the position is the same as a rainbow in the daylight. I went out on the front porch of my Colorado house and looked up to see a beautiful moonbow.

I love thunderstorms at night. The flashes of lightning, the crashes of thunder. I'm not crazy about it when it gets too close but overall, I've always loved them. But now I have a much bigger concern. Hail. Hail and campers aren't a good mix. I'm not worried about the skin of my camper because it is vacuum laminated vinyl over wood. But the roof is rubber and I'm not sure how well that will hold up under the hail storms Colorado is famous for. I wish TOW-Wanda was under cover. We had a really severe thunderstorm here last night. Areas north of us had five to six inches of rain in an hour with localized flooding. Tornadoes all along the plains and front range. Crazy weather.

Wouldn't you know it? I drove through the worst rain of my life when I moved to West Virginia in October. Up till yesterday, the roads were dry. I left Columbia around 10:00am and I didn't go five miles before the skies opened up and it was shades of October all over again. It rained hard till I got to the west of Kansas City. Then I started getting notices on my cell phone of severe storms hitting Denver and heading east. When I got to Hays, Kansas they were under a tornado watch till 2:00 this morning. There were no campsites till Goodland, KS (which is closer to the storms) so I decided to stay last night in a motel. Better to be safe than sorry. As it turned out, the storms turned north.

Too bad this photo doesn't do last night's moonrise justice but I had to take it with my cell phone. My good camera is under the couch in the back of the camper and just wasn't accessible. It was a beauty!

I stayed the night near Columbia, Missouri last night. I'll probably shoot for western Kansas tomorrow night to avoid severe storms predicted for tomorrow evening then slide on into Denver Thursday. I've been amazed how light the truck traffic has been but wait till tomorrow. It's always bad in Kansas. Things are going smoothly. I took a break midway to see the Lincoln family cabin. Tourist services told me how to get there. It was about 20 miles off the highway. When I got there it was closed which was disappointing. I got back on the highway and just kept on going.