Impromptus today is the second (and final) installment of a journal called “Down East and Out West.” I have notes on New Hampshire, Colorado, Seattle, and Alaska, with a couple of other places mentioned just for fun — for diversity’s sake.

Wish to throw some reader mail at you. But will have to do some setting up.

In Part I, there’s this little blast:

If I had to draw up a top-ten list of Bad Things about America, the following would make it. Hell, I think it would make my top five.
You can’t open a window in a hotel room (many of them). A case in point: It’s a beautiful New England night. Maybe 60 degrees. And, of course, you can’t open the window. So you have to have air conditioning, and bad air conditioning, with a smelly carpet.
Oh, to open that window, with that glorious air!
Come on, America, you moron!

A reader writes,

Favorite place (maybe in the world) for my wife and me — the River’s Edge Motel in Ouray, Colo.
Windows do open, the Uncompahgre River is about 50 feet away, and you can go to sleep with that intoxicating mountain air and the sound of the river — if it’s not too cold.
Scenery’s not too bad either.

At the beginning of today’s installment, I write,

On the other side of the tracks in Colorado Springs, there is a bail-bonds establishment. In fact, there are two. I didn’t know they really existed, at least anymore. I thought they were the stuff of old television shows and movies.
Do you remember The Bad News Bears? That Little League team was sponsored by Chico’s Bail Bonds.
Here in Colorado Springs, one of the establishments has a sign that says, We Support Our Troops. Military and Senior Discounts.
I’ll be damned.

A reader writes, “I see those signs all the time! You’ve really been in Manhattan too long. You ought to get out more.” Yes, but do you see those signs on bail-bond shops? That’s what I was talking about.

(A general note: I was born in Ypsilanti, Mich., known as “Ypsitucky” for the Appalachians who moved there to find work. You don’t have to worry about me, populism- and elitism-wise, trust me!)

Another reader writes,

When my son is playing ball and they start throwing the ball around like crazies, another parent and I have a running joke: We say either “Cue Carmen” or “Chico’s Bail Bonds.”

Beautiful. (Incidentally, the Bizet opera is the soundtrack to the movie — to The Bad News Bears.)

Finally, I have this to say:

Inside the airport is Elway’s — a restaurant owned (I guess) by John Elway, the former Bronco great (and eternal Bronco great, I should say). For dessert is a ding dong, like the Hostess product — but a homemade one, a gourmet one. It is inspired and heavenly.
I tell the waitress — the beautiful, charming Oksana, from Belarus — “You should do a Twinkie!” An American to her fingertips, she answers, “Right? Totally.”

A reader reports that he shed tears on reading that. I understand. The Oksanas of the country will do that to you, and so will the really good ding dongs, and Twinkies . . .