What would you do after driving 10,000 miles across the country in 5 months, the last six or eight hundred miles across some of the most barren landscape the continent has to offer in 100 degree weather with an air-cooled car with serious heat-retention issues, and finally arriving at the Rocky Mountains? You'd take a break, right? Well, who cares what you would do, that's what we're doing. The month of July will be Colorado Month.

For our first week in Colorado, we decided to drink a lot of beer. Celebrating our nation's birthday with Liz's sister, brother, brother-in-law, not-quite-sister-in-law, and several dogs, we took up the tradition of family pickling begun last summer in New Jersey. This year it was micro-brews instead of a bag of Franzia, but one can't be too choosy. Ducking golf balls in the back yard isn't quite floating down the Delaware River, but it has a certain charm.

National Beer and Blow Stuff Up Day over with, we're focused on our Colorado Rest Stop tasks: fix the car, make some money, play some pinball. We also intend to explore some mountains we spotted out the window, they look interesting.

From amber waves of grain

to purple mountains' majesty.