Denver!!

Yeah, I'm in Denver. We got in at 6am and had no idea what we were doing. We first decided that we needed to store some of our gear so we could wander and orient ourselves with the city. Luckily there were short term lockers, so we stowed our packs and found the nearest wifi signal to look for a place to stay. We wandered around the 16th street mall, a pedestrian strip with lots of shops and people. We found some homeless people, one of which offered us food and advice on city living without money. One of our new street kid friends followed us around while we found the Hostel we are now staying at, The Melbourne. Good place, $16 a night per bed, full kitchen, full bathrooms, lots of nice people passing through. In general, my first 6 hours in Denver have been very pleasant.
Backtracking a couple days, we spent Tuesday-Thursday in Omaha, NE, couchsurfing at Hotel Frank, which is a misleading name because its not really a hotel. Its just a big party house with 8 tenants and a constant stream of couchsurfers passing through Omaha. The day we left there were 6 more people arriving. They sure know how to make travelers feel like special guests.

On Monday we spent the day exploring Stillwater, MN while we spent the night at Heather's grandparent's house. Very nice little town with a classic charm. The town center is best summed up as a bunch of antique stores, cafes, art galleries and candy stores (plus a bitchin co-op!) at the edge of the St. Croix river.

Whew, ok, i think i'm caught up on the basic points. Hopefully i'll have more time later to write some more about the details.