I slept for a fair amount of the drive to Central City on Saturday, with the wife driving. Youngest son stayed home, having to work that afternoon, so eldest son and wife's godson had the back seat. And the heelers got to stay home (not a good thing, from their point of view, but certainly simplified things for us).

Did manage an hour's worth of work on the drive up, in between snoozes and snapping pics of the countryside as it whizzed by at 65 mph.

Don't know if she still reads here, but if she does, Badsnake, this is where our mutual friend lived in this country, until she got married.

Place was built by hand by a retired man who came to be known as a hermit. Friendly enough in person, but he was also the one who called and threatened to shoot our helicopter (and us) down when we flew by on a deer survey years back.

Eldest son and wife's godson managed to occupy themselves for most of the trip with a game of Magic the Gathering. For those in the know, yes, eldest son plays green.

His elf deck is renowned in our circles. Wife's godson countered with his Serra deck,

complete with Avatars and Worship.

Didn't work. Got wiped out somewhere along the Platte. Hard to survive long when you're being hit with 56 damage at a turn.

Was admiring the changes in the mountain along the canyon, a result of recent wildfires, when I noticed the golden eagle looking for a place to land.

Wasn't until I got the photo up on a screen that I noticed it had lunch in its talons.

Got into Central City right at lunch time. Convinced the crew to try a chinese buffet on the west end of town, known to me by the name given to it by a young daughter of a co-worker..."the Monkey on a Stick place."

But it was closed. So we opted for eldest son's choice, the Flaming Wok in the mall. Clear on the eastern edge of town.

Now, this is your basic mall food court, although plain compared to most more modern ones. Fast food stalls on the left and right, with the single-story mall behind you, and outer doors in front. Small round tables filling the space between, and customers entering the mall having to work their way through the lines at the food places. Crowded at the best of times.

Needless to say, this was noon, on a Saturday, when the Class 4A basketball championships were in town.

No place to sit. At all.

So we shopped. And shopped. Finally, a quarter-after one, the wife's godson and I snuck in and snagged a table. And I sat and stared at the main mall as I waited for him to fetch the rest of our party. Getting accusing looks from the lady at the next table, with her teen daughter.

Never seen a person in a trance of fatigue before, lady?

Wife's godson opted out of the Flaming Wok, settling on plain ol' Subway. But we three got the high MSG Chinese food we were craving.

With chopsticks.

A little girl passing with her family turned to stare. Apparently never seen anyone eat with sticks before, except maybe on TV.

Lady at the next table with the teen daughter stared as well.

After lunch was a quick stop at the bedroom place. And lo and behold, after searching locally for only a couple years, there was our new headboard. No, it didn't have the closed door storage space we wanted, but it had reading nooks and drawers instead (one for the wife's small white gloves). And it should fit.

And then off to the downtown. Quick stop at the game store for more Magic cards (We didn't open the box until Sunday morning, but I got my Akroma. Just had to threaten eldest son to get it.), and then the theater. And our seventh viewing of The Two Towers.

This is one of the older theaters, remodeled. Felt like a kid following the wife up the steep stairs into the balcony. But you couldn't even see the bottom of the new, long screen, so we returned to the main floor. Followed soon by the son and godson.

Have to say I enjoyed the film yet again, and completely forgot to look for some of the errors that were listed on the site Melissa told me about.

And fell asleep in one boring part, too. And got totally enthralled by all the scenes with the Rohan themed music, all over again.

Worth the two bucks.

But their seats are the most uncomfortable I've found in any theater. The cold stone benches at Carlsbad Cavern were better.

And we have never had to suffer the rudeness of folks using cell phones in a theater before.

Never.

Twice, in this three-hour movie. With the first idiot, sitting in the row in front of us and three seats to the left, taking his call and chatting for a minute or two.

He had to raise his voice to be heard.

Seriously.

For a moment or two, I seriously considered sliding over and just closing the damn thing on his conversation. 'Cause now all hundred people or so in the theater knew that someone was going to send him a fax. Wish he had had to give out his fax number. Would love to have sent him a few.

The second idiot was a little more discrete, but stayed in his seat up front to take the call. Half expected wife's godson, seated immediately behind, to take the phone and heave it across the theater, but he restrained himself. Man doesn't know how lucky he was.

Rudest people I've come across in a loong time.