Tumbling Tumbleweeds...

This is likely the last night I'll have internet access for a while. We used to have a back-up for Akron, vis-a-vis a very mediocre dial-up connection, but I cancelled it last year as that was the only time it was getting used. It's been a good trip ... other than the cloudburst as I was trying to climb the stairs to the labelled highest point in the park. I might have kept climbing anyway, except the thunder was getting closer and closer, and it's a wee bit exposed at the top. Also it was hailing. As a result, I got drenched, and wound up buying a dry pair of shorts in Grand Lake, as I had shortsightedly left my clothing bag at the hotel. It is a quite nice pair of shorts, with lots of large pockets.

The primary things I wanted to find this trip were a new coat and some new gloves. Both goals are now fulfilled. At the Nepal-Tibet import store, I found a quite beautiful coat with a wool exterior and cotton lining. The sales clerk informed me that it was a Sherpa coat, and that it was quite warm and good in the wind. The wool is thinner than on the wool coat that I currently have, but the lining may make the difference. My current wool coat is apparently from South America, btw. I had someone in a store ask me where I'd gotten it, as he recognized the design (around Pocatello, that likely means he went on a "mission" to S. Am.). It's the warmest coat I've ever owned. My only complaint is that the buttons have a nasty tendency to come off.

Anyway. Gloves. I lost one of my good gloves this winter. I found a very similar pair at the Twisted Pine. Better yet, it was on sale. See, I can't wear polyester-lined anything. I can't wear Thinsulate. I can't wear any of the fake-fleece, etc., garbage that is easily found and cheap. I can wear leather, and wool, and rabbit. So I got one leather pair lined with rabbit fur and one deerskin pair lined with cashmere. As if to reproach me, there's a rabbit hopping around the parking lot right now... I would love it if there were a natural plant fiber that would (a) keep my hands warm and (b) stand up to hard work (shoveling, for instance). To be honest, the artificial fibers are pretty lousy at (a), though decent at (b), but I can't wear them.

From a few web-searches, I found out that there's a dedicated gluten-free store between Loveland and Estes Park. It's called Granny's Gluten Free Zone. Most of the brands I'd seen before. One that I hadn't is called "Outside the Breadbox" and is apparently based in Colorado Springs. I highly recommend their multigrain crackers. Hmmm... those must be new, as they don't show up on the product page. Anything not frozen is supposed to be available to order, though it looks like the ordering process isn't quite automated. Still, you might be able to find them here, at the company's site. While it's hard to describe them exactly, they remind me a lot of wheat-thins, only with better flavor. *shrugs*

Okay, I think it's time to stop rambling now, and try to figure out where (if?) I want to hike in Rocky Mountain National Park tomorrow.