The vastness of this country is simply astounding. But Living on the east coast only provides you with a limited perspective. When a young Virginian native flies into the unknown world of the Midwest, basic tasks, like breathing, take on a completely new form. For a young boy this is frightening and exciting at the same exact time.
             Every summer I used to visit my grandparents in Denver, Colorado. From departure to arrival back into the east, this trip was always full of interesting experiences. My senses were propelled into an amazing roller coaster ride of smells, sights, sounds, and feelings.
             Leaving my home in Alexandria on a typical, sweltering summers afternoon I didn't feel unusually uncomfortable, as I was immune to the otherwise horrid conditions. Crossing over the small eastern mountains and above the corn and wheat fields of the central plains I arrived in1 Denver. Just outside the airport the sights were endless, as the parched earth didn't house any significant foliage to block my view, and partly because the air was so thin, and undisturbed by modern man and their machines.
             After driving for miles upon miles of freeway the car pulled onto a smaller road where we climbed a steep grade called green mountain. It was on this mountain that my grandfather lived, about half of the way up, surrounded as usual by the other houses.
             On a beautiful day I walked out of the house and decided that I should try to walk to the top of the mountain. I trekked up what seemed to be miles and miles of road having trouble remembering where I came from. I was lost in vertical maze of modern suburbia. Reaching the last house on a dead end street I knew I was almost there. Climbing natures highway, uninhabitable by any human household I reached the top. My body felt as if there was a rip in one of my arteries where oxygen rapidly escaped, leaving me huffing and puffing. The view was simply amazing. The city o
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