The first time I went to Colorado, I was impressed by how flat it was. I had crossed Kansas and when I got to Colorado it didn't look any different. I drove a long time before I realized that those clouds in the distance were really the Rockies.

I left the Mississippi River at an elevation of about 300 feet, drove across a really big flat place and wound up at 5000 feet. The whole big flat place was tilted.

A short distance west of Denver, I was in unbelieveable mountains, with passes as high as 11,000 feet. The second or maybe third pass was called "Rabbit Ears Pass." You don't ever forget where you were when the engine blew up.

Many years later, actually this year, we changed planes at the Denver airport. It's on the high edge of the flat place, and the horizon is a straight line. From the terminal, I was never able to spot the mountains, or even Denver.

I still wonder how you can tell the eastern end of Colorado from the western end of Kansas, considering that they look just alike.
Howard