Looooooonnnnnng day with way too much driving. I miss my copilot! Driving seemed to go on forever when by myself.
I got up a little bit later than planned since I got distracted by good TV last night and went to bed late. What I didn't think of the night before was that I was setting myself up to drive through morning rush hour. Oops! I put on the morning news as soon as I woke up and it was already saying things were bad, though it was still way early. I packed up and checked out as quickly as possible.
I decided to stop by my storage place and get a winter jacket, because apparently it's decided to be winter out now. Besides the storage place is right on the way to the highway. Unfortunately, when I got there I couldn't figure out where I'd packed my jacket. I found my ski coat but decided to leave that one with my ski gear. I couldn't find my usual "wear around" coat. So instead I just grabbed a warm hat and figured that would have to do. It was nearly 8:00, which is when morning rush hour starts getting really thick, so I knew I had to get on my way. I figured I would drive until the traffic got sucky and then stop for breakfast, thinking it wouldn't be long at all.
Apparently there's a way to keep the roads clear during rush hour. Drive on an empty stomach hoping to find traffic for an excuse to stop. I hadn't eaten a granola bar or anything. And we all know how not happy Lacey is without food. But traffic kept moving, and I was afraid if I got off anywhere to grab food, it would build up while I was gone. There were a lot of cars on the road, but things were still moving at regular speeds. It was right at that point where things get really exciting....way too many people going way too fast. When it gets to that point I almost prefer the stop and go. Almost. It really wasn't too bad...just a little frightening when I needed to change lanes. But it's a REALLY good thing I don't live in a "real" city, cus I know Denver traffic is nothing compared to some places.
I finally cleared the metro area and began my search for food. But as hungry as I was, nothing looked good. I'm not sure what I was looking for. Really my only stipulation was "not McDonalds," but McDonalds seemed to be the only place open for breakfast I could find.
When I was almost to the Wyoming border and still hadn't found a place, I finally settled on the Burger King in itty bitty Wellington, CO. I gotta say, my crissonwich wasn't half bad. Waaaaaaaaaay better than the egg mcmuffin debacle! So I guess BK is my new breakfast spot...though i'd be happy to avoid fast food breakfast all together for a long time to come!
So then it was back to driving. Althought it was FREEZING outside (I was so glad to have my hat!) the roads were clear and dry and the sun was shining. Until I got to Wyoming. Just a few miles into the state I saw these strange dark clouds that seemed to be floating there in the middle of nowhere. It was really strange actually. They looked like thick smog that had been blown from an especially stinky semi that had forgotten to disipate. I actually questioned for a minute what they were. As I got closer I realized that they were random fog clouds. I noticed the emergency sign overhead giving a fog warning. Next thing I knew I was in the midst of some very thick fog. It wasn't terrible, but bad enough that I slowed way down. Of course everyone around me continued to fly by me. I was just waiting for the pile-up but surprisingly enough it never came.
After about 20-30 miles of fog, things cleared up and Wyoming returned to it's usual level of boring. Though really, after driving both Nebraska and Kansas in the last few months I gotta give Wyoming a bit of credit. Though painfully desolate, it does have an occaisonal hill, a couple of shrubs, a random turn or two, and a rare mountain background to keep it interesting. Kansas and Nebraska, but especially Nebraska, are just flat. And straight. And nothingness. I never thought I'd say it, but in comparison Wyoming is downright nice. Plus, today the wind actually wasn't blowing! Literally, this is the first time I've EVER driven through Wyoming without feeling as though I was going to get blown off the road. And the first time I've been able to get gas in the state without shivering from the freezing wind. It was actually a bit creepy. Maybe that's why the state seemed nice today!
I kept saying I was going to stop for lunch, but I just never got hungry. I did have a bag of popcorn to munch on, so that kept me going for most of the way. I finally stopped in Livingston, the little town 20 or so miles from home. I probably could've made it the rest of the way, but the sun was right in my eyes and I was getting tired of having to readjust the visors around every turn. Besides, I was getting a bit punch drunk. I'd even written a song about how I was hungry and I had to pee. (And no, I'm not going to repeat it. Ever.) I had actually been craving Taco Bell for quite a while but hadn't seen one, so had finally decided to stop at the Subway. For those of you interested in the food critic side of things, it was decent, but over-mayoed and under-flavored. But it was food, and warm, so it made me happy.
The rest of the drive went by quickly. It's great being back in my town again, especially after having been here so recently. This is the first time in a long time that I've come back and haven't felt like everything has completely changed on me. There were a couple of spots on Main Street that I didn't recognize, but it's only been about 5 months since I was here last, so the differences are minor. All together the drive took almost exactly 11 hours. I left Denver just before 8 am and arrived home home just before 7 pm. It's been a quiet night of hanging out with my parents, which is great because I am so totally beyond exhausted! No idea what tomorrow will bring but it sounds like it's going to be cold again. We shall see.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Hmmm....
I feel a bit silly blogging about today since so little happened, but I'm not ready to give up my nightly blogging routine just yet.
I slept really well last night. Aside from waking up wide awake at 2am, I slept for a full 10 hours. It was bliss! Even with an almost 3 hour nap during the day i'd really needed it!
I woke up to freezing rain/snow and very cold temps. I realized that I would need the room for another night because even though I could talk someone in to letting me stay with them, I really needed a home base for the day to get stuff done. Of course after paying for another night and having no check out time, I was free to be lazy for way too long.
When I finally got going I set to work cleaning out my car. Of course, with it snowing hard and puddles everywhere, I couldn't get too far in emptying things out. So I did a bit of cleaning, found my puzzle, and went back upstairs to finish it. Surprisingly enough, my little puzzle roll up thing that I bought months ago managed to hold on to all but one piece of the puzzle. I've gotta say, for all that thing has been through bouncing around in the back of my car, that's pretty impressive! So finally I finished the puzzle, made some phone calls, and then just hung out for a bit. Mostly I was bored because everyone I know here was at work, and it was too wet and cold to go play on the bike trail or anything like that.
So, with how bored I was today, I've decided to head home home, to my parents house, tomorrow morning. I'm going to have to return to Denver to get my winter stuff from storage, so I'll plan a weekend and let people know ahead of time when I'm coming. That way I'll actually have stuff to do instead of pacing, waiting 'till 5:00.
Some good did take place today though. I got to cash in on my Rodizios with Rosalba rain check. Yep, twice in one week! :) Probably not too good for me, but hey, meat is healthy right? And I got a salad from the salad bar! And I ate veggies yesterday! :) I went a little overboard, but didn't stuff myself as bad as I have there in the past. It was really great to see Rosalba again catch up on things. It's only been a few months since I last saw her, but it seemed like forever. We missed each other a lot! I also got to see her boyfriend Kyle and their new house. They've got a really nice place, though I admit I'll miss her close to downtown location. (Though I'm glad she got out of her apartment there...not a good building or good landlords at all!
So now I'm fully stuffed and ready to sleep, so I can get up early and drive, drive, drive.
I slept really well last night. Aside from waking up wide awake at 2am, I slept for a full 10 hours. It was bliss! Even with an almost 3 hour nap during the day i'd really needed it!
I woke up to freezing rain/snow and very cold temps. I realized that I would need the room for another night because even though I could talk someone in to letting me stay with them, I really needed a home base for the day to get stuff done. Of course after paying for another night and having no check out time, I was free to be lazy for way too long.
When I finally got going I set to work cleaning out my car. Of course, with it snowing hard and puddles everywhere, I couldn't get too far in emptying things out. So I did a bit of cleaning, found my puzzle, and went back upstairs to finish it. Surprisingly enough, my little puzzle roll up thing that I bought months ago managed to hold on to all but one piece of the puzzle. I've gotta say, for all that thing has been through bouncing around in the back of my car, that's pretty impressive! So finally I finished the puzzle, made some phone calls, and then just hung out for a bit. Mostly I was bored because everyone I know here was at work, and it was too wet and cold to go play on the bike trail or anything like that.
So, with how bored I was today, I've decided to head home home, to my parents house, tomorrow morning. I'm going to have to return to Denver to get my winter stuff from storage, so I'll plan a weekend and let people know ahead of time when I'm coming. That way I'll actually have stuff to do instead of pacing, waiting 'till 5:00.
Some good did take place today though. I got to cash in on my Rodizios with Rosalba rain check. Yep, twice in one week! :) Probably not too good for me, but hey, meat is healthy right? And I got a salad from the salad bar! And I ate veggies yesterday! :) I went a little overboard, but didn't stuff myself as bad as I have there in the past. It was really great to see Rosalba again catch up on things. It's only been a few months since I last saw her, but it seemed like forever. We missed each other a lot! I also got to see her boyfriend Kyle and their new house. They've got a really nice place, though I admit I'll miss her close to downtown location. (Though I'm glad she got out of her apartment there...not a good building or good landlords at all!
So now I'm fully stuffed and ready to sleep, so I can get up early and drive, drive, drive.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Lazy day
Jody and I didn't sleep much last night. At all. We had to make the most of our final night together.
We had to get up fairly early to get Jody to the airport. Well, early considering that the sun was about to start coming up as we finally went to sleep. So yeah, I was a bit worn out today. :) And we were both sad to have our trip coming to an end. It was a sad drive to the airport, and we both admitted harboring secret thoughts about maybe the flight would be cancelled. Of course it wasn't, and I now know she made it home safely, which is good. Though I think we're both feeling a bit strange and solitary after being together 24/7 for the last week.
Once I dropped Jody off, I realized I had no idea what to do next. It was only about 10:00 and all I could think of was taking a nap. But I had nowhere to go to nap, since it was too early to check in to my hotel. I ran a few errands and then decided to try to check in early. Thankfully, they had a room ready! Yay!
It's strange being back here again. I have almost the same room as last time. I think I'm actually immediately below my last time room. Same great view of "recess" at the doggy daycare across the parking lot. I have such distinct memories of this place because it's where I stayed between classes during field quarter. It's even where I slept in, missed the departure for one of the field quarter classes, and almost got kicked out of the whole field quarter. That was such a bad time in my life. I mean field quarter was awesome but that was right in the heat of when I was really struggling with school and life in general. Thankfully, it was also then that I found my wonderful academic advisor and wonderful doctor that got me out of my slump.
Anyway, my room is wonderful, and after checking in I had a quick lunch (leftovers from Teds) and then took a looooooong nap. Once awake and feeling a bit more alive and functional, I took care of a few more errands. And I've got to put in a BIG plug for REI here.
One of my errands was to take my broken tent poles in to REI to see if they could help me out. I just brought in the tent poles and the box, and they asked me why I didn't bring the rest of the tent. I told them the rest of the tent was fine, I just needed replacement poles. So they sent me down to the rentals area to see if they had extra poles. No luck, so they had me go get the tent and they replaced the whole thing! No questions. Brand new tent even though I originally bought it close to 2 years ago. The only difference was that because it was more than a year after purchase (I didn't need the receipt since they had it on record since I'm an REI member), the return value was decreased. But only slightly. So in the end I got a brand spankin' new tent for $25. How strange is that....to finish up an almost 2 month camping road trip and come out of it with a brand new tent?! My last one was getting VERY grimey just from dust/dirt, mud from the rain storms, and tons and tons of sap. So yeah....BIG props to REI! I know there's cheaper places out there to buy outdoor gear, but there's a good reason to work with the people who know the stuff and will work with you.
After REI and a bit of car cleaning, it was dinner time. I had initially planned to just pick up food, but instead decided to take advantage of the hotel room kitchen. It's been a long time since I've been able to cook, so it was really fun. My body was clearly craving veggies, so I ended up making spaghetti with meat sauce, broccoli, and mushrooms, with corn and green beans on the side. It was really great to eat so much fresh stuff, and get to do something as simple as cooking it myself. It'll definitely be nice to be not on the road anymore.
My dinner was awesome, and now it's bedtime. Despite the nap I can barely keep my eyes open!
We had to get up fairly early to get Jody to the airport. Well, early considering that the sun was about to start coming up as we finally went to sleep. So yeah, I was a bit worn out today. :) And we were both sad to have our trip coming to an end. It was a sad drive to the airport, and we both admitted harboring secret thoughts about maybe the flight would be cancelled. Of course it wasn't, and I now know she made it home safely, which is good. Though I think we're both feeling a bit strange and solitary after being together 24/7 for the last week.
Once I dropped Jody off, I realized I had no idea what to do next. It was only about 10:00 and all I could think of was taking a nap. But I had nowhere to go to nap, since it was too early to check in to my hotel. I ran a few errands and then decided to try to check in early. Thankfully, they had a room ready! Yay!
It's strange being back here again. I have almost the same room as last time. I think I'm actually immediately below my last time room. Same great view of "recess" at the doggy daycare across the parking lot. I have such distinct memories of this place because it's where I stayed between classes during field quarter. It's even where I slept in, missed the departure for one of the field quarter classes, and almost got kicked out of the whole field quarter. That was such a bad time in my life. I mean field quarter was awesome but that was right in the heat of when I was really struggling with school and life in general. Thankfully, it was also then that I found my wonderful academic advisor and wonderful doctor that got me out of my slump.
Anyway, my room is wonderful, and after checking in I had a quick lunch (leftovers from Teds) and then took a looooooong nap. Once awake and feeling a bit more alive and functional, I took care of a few more errands. And I've got to put in a BIG plug for REI here.
One of my errands was to take my broken tent poles in to REI to see if they could help me out. I just brought in the tent poles and the box, and they asked me why I didn't bring the rest of the tent. I told them the rest of the tent was fine, I just needed replacement poles. So they sent me down to the rentals area to see if they had extra poles. No luck, so they had me go get the tent and they replaced the whole thing! No questions. Brand new tent even though I originally bought it close to 2 years ago. The only difference was that because it was more than a year after purchase (I didn't need the receipt since they had it on record since I'm an REI member), the return value was decreased. But only slightly. So in the end I got a brand spankin' new tent for $25. How strange is that....to finish up an almost 2 month camping road trip and come out of it with a brand new tent?! My last one was getting VERY grimey just from dust/dirt, mud from the rain storms, and tons and tons of sap. So yeah....BIG props to REI! I know there's cheaper places out there to buy outdoor gear, but there's a good reason to work with the people who know the stuff and will work with you.
After REI and a bit of car cleaning, it was dinner time. I had initially planned to just pick up food, but instead decided to take advantage of the hotel room kitchen. It's been a long time since I've been able to cook, so it was really fun. My body was clearly craving veggies, so I ended up making spaghetti with meat sauce, broccoli, and mushrooms, with corn and green beans on the side. It was really great to eat so much fresh stuff, and get to do something as simple as cooking it myself. It'll definitely be nice to be not on the road anymore.
My dinner was awesome, and now it's bedtime. Despite the nap I can barely keep my eyes open!
Monday, October 19, 2009
More from Denver!
What a day, what a day....
We awoke to the best hotel breakfast we've seen thus far. It was a buffet of real food rather than just crappy donuts and muffins. After eating and hanging out in the hotel room for a bit we made our way to Cherry Creek and the bike trail. After renting Jody a bike (the smallest one they had which was only slightly too big) and making our way through the mall parking lot, we headed east on the trail towards the resivoir.
It was a BEAUTIFUL day. Not too hot, not too cold, with a beautiful blue sky. Leaves had fallen along the trail, but the beautiful colors were still present in the trees along the creek. I hadn't realized just how much I missed the bike trail. I just love it so much. It's a mix of a little bit of everything...cyclists and triathletes out training, people in business clothes on their way to or from work, random people commuting, friends going for walks, people walking their dogs, etc. etc. Everyone out being active and enjoying the outdoors. It's a beautiful thing. :)
And I gotta say, I really enjoyed watching Jody ride. Every time I looked back she was grinning from ear to ear (except on the steep hills when the focus was solely on breathing our thin mountain air). She just looked happy to be out biking with me, and I was so happy to have the chance to take her out there. (Mom, remember you're "biking in Cape Cod" smile? Yeah, like that.) We had a really great time and managed to cover 8 miles before it was all said and done, with only a few quick breaks.
At one of our break points we decided to sit in the grass next to the trail by a hotel. Apparently the hotel was testing its sprinkler system because just as we were really getting comfy the sprinklers came on all around us. Luckily, they went off right away, so we went back to chatting and hydrating. Next thing we knew they came on again so we figured we'd best get back to riding. As we started to get back on our bikes, another one came on that was stuck pointing directly across the trail. Hey at least I got my shower in, right?
After biking it was time to take Jody to the surprise I'd planned out for her. Indoor skydiving. Jody isn't quite the adrenaline junky I am, so I figured moving the craziness indoors would be a good compromise for the two of us. And I had to get Jody to do at least a little something wild and crazy with me!
Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what I expected to be. I knew it was in an air tunnel, but I just expected something bigger. I tried to still be excited....it kind of looked like an astronaut zero-gravity chamber thing, so I figured it'd still be fun.
We went through a short classroom session where we learned about proper flying position and each had to go up and do it on this funny shaped bench thing. We then got dressed in the most hilariously amazing one-piece flight suits I had ever seen! Unfortunately they'd made me leave my camera so I didn't get pictures, but they were awesome. They were mostly black with colored hilights (red for me and purple for Jody) along the legs and shoulders. They also had padded handles for the instructors to grab us by in case we got lost or started to float away.
Next we had to put in ear plugs, and then our instructor jammed a way too small set of helmet and goggles on my head. He seemed convinced that my head was a whole lot smaller than it actually is, and when I told him it was crushing my head he tried to explain that this was a lot of wind and it had to be tight. I talked him in to changing it just soon enough...I was already getting a pounding headache.
The "flight" itself was interesting. When I first got into the air chamber I felt like I was getting bombarded and beaten to shreds by the wind. It turns out that once there's 100 mph wind underneath you it's really hard to get in to that nice little position they taught us. I could barely figure out which way was up, I couldn't really understand what the instructor was telling me to do, and it felt much more chaotic than fun. Jody, however, jumped in and looked like a natural. Maybe she was a skydiver in another life!
My second try wasn't much better. The instructor kept telling me over and over to bend my knees and not my hips, but because of the position I was in I couldn't figure out how to do it. I was getting frustrated, which made it harder, and the instructor was keeping me close to the ground until I got it so I never really got to fly. The sessions were each only a minute long, so there was never really time to get the feel of it. I had expected it to just be fun and playful.....I never expected it to be hard. Add to that the flight suit was very warm so I was getting a bit claustrophobic.
So yeah, indoor skydiving is definitely a been there, done that, kind of thing for me. But Jody liked it and did amazingly well so I can still be very happy with the fact that my plan was a complete success. Being the water person that she is, she said she was thinking it was just like swimming in the air. Ironically, she kind of looked like she was swimming, but she looked really good. Maybe she should consider a career in skydiving! :)
After our flight experience we made a quick stop at the hotel and then went to Ted's Montana Grill for dinner. I think in the back of my mind I always knew Ted's was a chain, but living in Ted's Montana I'd always sorta wanted to think that ours was the only one. Who knew it's all over the country and was started in Ohio of all places! Even though I now know it's a chain though, it didn't feel chain-like to me. It actually gave me a feeling of being at home away from home. And, since Ted's is somewhere my family goes often when we're all together, it was like being able to show Jody a bit of my hometown and my family without actually being able to take her there.
They had a newly added spinach artichoke dip on the menu, which was beyond amazing! As much as I hate to say it, it knocked the "usual" sliders right out of the water! It came with parmesan bread which was also amazing. I got my usual burger for dinner, and it too was wonderful and amazing, as expected. We both stuffed ourselves and enjoyed wonderful, sugary, fruity, strawberry margaritas.
And then, after leaving the restaurant, we went for a looooooooong walk to walk off our drunkeness. Here's some exciting and oh so shocking news. I've found someone who is even more of a lightweight than I am!!! Yay! Jody and I each had a single drink, and while I was merely happily buzzed, Jody was stumbling. She was kind of an adorable drunk though, even when someone almost ran us over after "pretending" to stop for us at a crosswalk. It was a lot of fun and probably a really good thing to keep us from the stress of our future travel plans.
********Jody, don't read this next part, it might make you sad! At least wait 'till after you get home. Really, I mean it! **************
Jody is flying home tomorrow morning. It's going to be hard for us to separate....it's been one hell of a trip! We covered 8 different states, saw the Louisville Slugger factory, saw Churchill Downs, went up inside the St. Louis Arch, camped in the freezing cold, toured downtown Denver, and wandered through heaps of random Lacey nostalgia. When thinking back to St. Louis, it feels like it was months ago! It's hard to believe that was just last week.
This was Jody and my first time spending so much time together just the two of us and we got along really well. Surprisingly well. Almost scary well. We've pretty much talked non-stop the entire time we've been together (except times like now when we're both busy blogging) and we haven't run out of stuff to say. We were both worried about having too many awkward quiet times stuck in the car together, but instead we keep coming up with more and more stories to tell. On top of that, we both bring this amazing silliness out in each other. We both have laughed so, so hard this week! We really just get each other.
It's been so great for me after spending so much time solo to have such a great companion. It's been a really really great end to my road trip.
Of course, it's not really the end of my trip as it's not November yet. So I'm still working on my exact plan. It's looking like I'm going to be spending a day or two more in Denver getting organized and hanging out with people, and then heading to home home in MT. From there I'll probably head to Park City, unless I end up needing to go back to Denver to deal with storage or something like that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to take all my PC stuff home home with me. I mean of course I can, but that will require adding a lot more stuff, and I hate to have to travel with all that extra crap (mainly the stinky hockey bag which is not fun to share space with). But logically it's probably better to minimize the driving as much as possible. Maybe I'll go to PC first to drop stuff off, and then to the Bozone. We'll see. I'm sure I'll keep you all updated!
We awoke to the best hotel breakfast we've seen thus far. It was a buffet of real food rather than just crappy donuts and muffins. After eating and hanging out in the hotel room for a bit we made our way to Cherry Creek and the bike trail. After renting Jody a bike (the smallest one they had which was only slightly too big) and making our way through the mall parking lot, we headed east on the trail towards the resivoir.
It was a BEAUTIFUL day. Not too hot, not too cold, with a beautiful blue sky. Leaves had fallen along the trail, but the beautiful colors were still present in the trees along the creek. I hadn't realized just how much I missed the bike trail. I just love it so much. It's a mix of a little bit of everything...cyclists and triathletes out training, people in business clothes on their way to or from work, random people commuting, friends going for walks, people walking their dogs, etc. etc. Everyone out being active and enjoying the outdoors. It's a beautiful thing. :)
And I gotta say, I really enjoyed watching Jody ride. Every time I looked back she was grinning from ear to ear (except on the steep hills when the focus was solely on breathing our thin mountain air). She just looked happy to be out biking with me, and I was so happy to have the chance to take her out there. (Mom, remember you're "biking in Cape Cod" smile? Yeah, like that.) We had a really great time and managed to cover 8 miles before it was all said and done, with only a few quick breaks.
At one of our break points we decided to sit in the grass next to the trail by a hotel. Apparently the hotel was testing its sprinkler system because just as we were really getting comfy the sprinklers came on all around us. Luckily, they went off right away, so we went back to chatting and hydrating. Next thing we knew they came on again so we figured we'd best get back to riding. As we started to get back on our bikes, another one came on that was stuck pointing directly across the trail. Hey at least I got my shower in, right?
After biking it was time to take Jody to the surprise I'd planned out for her. Indoor skydiving. Jody isn't quite the adrenaline junky I am, so I figured moving the craziness indoors would be a good compromise for the two of us. And I had to get Jody to do at least a little something wild and crazy with me!
Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what I expected to be. I knew it was in an air tunnel, but I just expected something bigger. I tried to still be excited....it kind of looked like an astronaut zero-gravity chamber thing, so I figured it'd still be fun.
We went through a short classroom session where we learned about proper flying position and each had to go up and do it on this funny shaped bench thing. We then got dressed in the most hilariously amazing one-piece flight suits I had ever seen! Unfortunately they'd made me leave my camera so I didn't get pictures, but they were awesome. They were mostly black with colored hilights (red for me and purple for Jody) along the legs and shoulders. They also had padded handles for the instructors to grab us by in case we got lost or started to float away.
Next we had to put in ear plugs, and then our instructor jammed a way too small set of helmet and goggles on my head. He seemed convinced that my head was a whole lot smaller than it actually is, and when I told him it was crushing my head he tried to explain that this was a lot of wind and it had to be tight. I talked him in to changing it just soon enough...I was already getting a pounding headache.
The "flight" itself was interesting. When I first got into the air chamber I felt like I was getting bombarded and beaten to shreds by the wind. It turns out that once there's 100 mph wind underneath you it's really hard to get in to that nice little position they taught us. I could barely figure out which way was up, I couldn't really understand what the instructor was telling me to do, and it felt much more chaotic than fun. Jody, however, jumped in and looked like a natural. Maybe she was a skydiver in another life!
My second try wasn't much better. The instructor kept telling me over and over to bend my knees and not my hips, but because of the position I was in I couldn't figure out how to do it. I was getting frustrated, which made it harder, and the instructor was keeping me close to the ground until I got it so I never really got to fly. The sessions were each only a minute long, so there was never really time to get the feel of it. I had expected it to just be fun and playful.....I never expected it to be hard. Add to that the flight suit was very warm so I was getting a bit claustrophobic.
So yeah, indoor skydiving is definitely a been there, done that, kind of thing for me. But Jody liked it and did amazingly well so I can still be very happy with the fact that my plan was a complete success. Being the water person that she is, she said she was thinking it was just like swimming in the air. Ironically, she kind of looked like she was swimming, but she looked really good. Maybe she should consider a career in skydiving! :)
After our flight experience we made a quick stop at the hotel and then went to Ted's Montana Grill for dinner. I think in the back of my mind I always knew Ted's was a chain, but living in Ted's Montana I'd always sorta wanted to think that ours was the only one. Who knew it's all over the country and was started in Ohio of all places! Even though I now know it's a chain though, it didn't feel chain-like to me. It actually gave me a feeling of being at home away from home. And, since Ted's is somewhere my family goes often when we're all together, it was like being able to show Jody a bit of my hometown and my family without actually being able to take her there.
They had a newly added spinach artichoke dip on the menu, which was beyond amazing! As much as I hate to say it, it knocked the "usual" sliders right out of the water! It came with parmesan bread which was also amazing. I got my usual burger for dinner, and it too was wonderful and amazing, as expected. We both stuffed ourselves and enjoyed wonderful, sugary, fruity, strawberry margaritas.
And then, after leaving the restaurant, we went for a looooooooong walk to walk off our drunkeness. Here's some exciting and oh so shocking news. I've found someone who is even more of a lightweight than I am!!! Yay! Jody and I each had a single drink, and while I was merely happily buzzed, Jody was stumbling. She was kind of an adorable drunk though, even when someone almost ran us over after "pretending" to stop for us at a crosswalk. It was a lot of fun and probably a really good thing to keep us from the stress of our future travel plans.
********Jody, don't read this next part, it might make you sad! At least wait 'till after you get home. Really, I mean it! **************
Jody is flying home tomorrow morning. It's going to be hard for us to separate....it's been one hell of a trip! We covered 8 different states, saw the Louisville Slugger factory, saw Churchill Downs, went up inside the St. Louis Arch, camped in the freezing cold, toured downtown Denver, and wandered through heaps of random Lacey nostalgia. When thinking back to St. Louis, it feels like it was months ago! It's hard to believe that was just last week.
This was Jody and my first time spending so much time together just the two of us and we got along really well. Surprisingly well. Almost scary well. We've pretty much talked non-stop the entire time we've been together (except times like now when we're both busy blogging) and we haven't run out of stuff to say. We were both worried about having too many awkward quiet times stuck in the car together, but instead we keep coming up with more and more stories to tell. On top of that, we both bring this amazing silliness out in each other. We both have laughed so, so hard this week! We really just get each other.
It's been so great for me after spending so much time solo to have such a great companion. It's been a really really great end to my road trip.
Of course, it's not really the end of my trip as it's not November yet. So I'm still working on my exact plan. It's looking like I'm going to be spending a day or two more in Denver getting organized and hanging out with people, and then heading to home home in MT. From there I'll probably head to Park City, unless I end up needing to go back to Denver to deal with storage or something like that. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to take all my PC stuff home home with me. I mean of course I can, but that will require adding a lot more stuff, and I hate to have to travel with all that extra crap (mainly the stinky hockey bag which is not fun to share space with). But logically it's probably better to minimize the driving as much as possible. Maybe I'll go to PC first to drop stuff off, and then to the Bozone. We'll see. I'm sure I'll keep you all updated!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Denver, Steamboat, and back to Denver, CO
Wow it's been a while! We've got a lot of catching up to do! Get comfy...this one's going to be a marathon! (Like the Denver Marathon, that I was almost going to be doing this weekend....except actually not at all like that. But anyway...)
To start out with, poor Jody had a rough introduction to camping in Colorado. I knew we might be in trouble when the clouds were starting to clear. As beautiful as the weather was while light out, it was looking like a cold night.
However I didn't realize just how cold. We woke up to not just frost but everything being completely iced over. It was a cold, cold night. Like that night so long ago in Burlington, VT where I nearly froze. Only probably colder.
I got Jody all the blankets I could but she still didn't look too comfortable. Being used to camping in the cold I fell asleep right away, but every time I woke up and looked at Jody she looked awake and miserable. I don't think she slept much at all!
To add to it, the highway noise never quit, and there was a train passing just a bit away on the other side of us. I slept decently well. Jody was a trooper and stuck with it until about 5:00 when I woke up to pee. I stayed up with her after that and we tried to stay warm until the sun came out enough to get up and get going.
I think both of us were pretty excited to get out of there and in to Denver. It was really fun to have a chance to show Jody one of my towns, though it was really hard for me to feel "at home" there right away. I drove her around some of my regular spots, and a couple of the places I used to live. I also took her to my Brueggers that I used to go to all the time, even though she claimed she didn't like Brueggers. I wanted to go there because I knew they had internet and I wanted to do some research on stuff going on in the area. Well, the internet was out, so that didn't work...but we both got a good breakfast out of it. (I think Jody liked it but she may not admit it since they don't have the "right" Detroit kind of bagels).
We then went to the library to get internet, and discovered that the library computers really really suck. But it was functional internet, so it did the trick.
I had to go to an Urgent Care to get a new prescription written. Such a horrible pain, but at least this time they were really quick about it. The dr. I saw was super helpful, and Jody got to sit in the lobby watching endless news about "Balloon Boy". We were both shocked to learn that apparently CNN had nothing else to talk about!
Unfortunately, Walgreens had to undo any amount of good time we were making. They told me it would only take 30 minutes but apparently they actually meant an hour and 30 minutes. Not even I can stay entertained in Walgreens that long. Jody and I did have some fun in the toy aisle, playing with this crazy squishy ball thing, but I ended up grumpy and bored. Thankfully Jody is amazingly wonderful and patient and put up with a big chunk of the day's Denver tour taking place inside of Walgreens.
The joyous tour continued with a hunt for a hotel room. I tried my usual cheap spot in the DU area but they had nothing. I decided to be stubborn and try to find somewhere on my own rather than check the place the woman at that hotel told me about (too far south) or go to one of the places listed in my magic coupon book (too far north). As I drove around I realized that I had no real idea where I was going since most of the places I was thinking of I'd stayed with my parents and I really couldn't afford them on my own. And I was exhausted and tired of driving, so after a point it just seemed like wandering aimlessly.
So I finally decided just to head up to the place listed in the book. We found an....interesting...hotel in North Denver. The place didn't seem too bad when we first came in, but our room was horrifying! It seemed just a little strange at first as we noticed tons off color parts and putty marks on the walls, as well as a piece of the smoke detector sitting on one of the beds. We then noticed a big chunk of the base of the shower plastic missing. And the stucco ceiling was apparently raining, leaving chunks of white everywhere. But the clincher was when we sat down on one of the beds and the entire end of it fell to the ground. Yeah, not going to work!
We went to the front desk to complain, and the woman (who just barely spoke english) questioned us extensively, seeming to think that we had caused the damage since we'd had the room an hour before asking to switch. But, when she finally got us a new room, it was waaaaaay nicer than the first. Even if the first one hadn't been falling apart, it still wouldn't have been as nice as the new one. It wasn't luxury or anything, but it was plenty decent and had a mini-fridge so big it was almost a full-sized fridge!
And the even better news is that we weren't far at all from the light rail station to head downtown. I got to show Jody all around 16th street and take her to my most favoritest restaurant in the world (Rodizios). I called Rosalba to go with us since it just seemed wrong to go without her, but she had already eaten dinner. So sad!
After a wonderful dinner at Rodizios, we walked all over 16th street and enjoyed the absolutely beautiful night.
The next morning I made a valiant effort to get up early, but it was a struggle. We snuck into the hotel breakfast at the very last minute, and then finally got on the road. Sort of. We were all set to head north and drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. But we noticed a small note on the map saying that the one and only road across the park closes in the winter. Not knowing the dates they call winter, I called my Dad to look it up for me. He got me the ranger station phone number from the website so I could call. (Thanks Dad!) The ranger I talked to said that though the hikes on either side of the park are still open, the road was in fact closed. Since we were planning to go to the park on our way to Steamboat, a closed road really wouldn't work for us.
So instead we took the trusty direct route through Silverthorne. After a quick stop for Good Times (ah wonderful burgers and fries that I've missed so much!) we were heading in to the second stop on the towns Lacey's lived in tour. It was AMAZING for me to be back in Steamboat. Steamboat Ski Resort, and apparently the downtown area as well, went through a huge rennovation right after I left so everything looked totally different. I dragged Jody around to see the ski hill, sit on the new lift, and check out the new map. It was very cool to see and made me want to ski really really badly. It really made me want to ski Steamboat too. I miss that place! It's unfortunate that my instructor job didn't go better there, because I do love the area and the town.
We checked in to our hotel and then went to explore downtown. Our hotel, the Steamboat Inn, was interesting. It was far cheaper than any of the other options, and quite a bit nicer than any of the other budget hotels I've seen (except for the Rabbit Ears, but that place has gotten expensive!). I think it used to be the Super 8 but it was bought out and turned into a semi-tacky but nice western themed place. I don't know if it was local or still owned by a chain but it had a nice local feel to it.
Anyway, on to downtown. I had a few scares at first when it appeared that a couple of my favorite stores (Off the Beaten Path and All that Jazz) appeared to have gone out of business. Instead it turned out that both had been so successful they'd moved into bigger places. Unfortunately Felix and Fido (the most amazing store for pet stuff) really is going out of business and was holding their final sale. It was almost empty in there. Soooo sad! A lot of the buildings along Lincoln Ave. (Steamboat's main street) had been added on to or completely redone so a lot of places looked totally different. It was really bizarre and a bit sad to walk through. I've always loved Steamboat's rustic downtown, and for the most part it's its same beautiful self, but some of the new, fancy, bright colored buildings are way, way out of place.
After lots of random wandering and window shopping, we went to dinner at Rio Grande, one of my favorite restaurants downtown. After dinner we went up to the Strawberry Park Hot Springs. It was totally dark by the time we got there, so we got to do all sorts of random, complicated wandering trying to figure out where to change and where to go. You couldn't just get in anywhere because there were random people hanging out in many of the random dark corners. And it was very, very dark. I thought I remembered there being at least little lights along the stairways, but no such luck.
We found the bathrooms to change, and then made the FREEZING cold journey out to the pools. We only had to make it a few steps from where we left our stuff to the nice hot water, but the rocks we were standing on were painfully cold and the handrails felt completely iced over. I held the flashlight while Jody went first, and for what might be the first time ever I heard some not nice words coming out of her mouth! For those brief moments she was not too happy with me! I'm sure she was wondering what the hell I'd gotten her into, but thankfully she soon reached the beautiful hot springs water and all was forgiven.
I had pictured us having a nice, quiet evening under the stars. However I forgot it was Saturday night. A huge, drunken group of college students also thought it'd be a nice night for a soak. With clothing being officially optional after dark (that's written on the official sign), it was definitely interesting. We still got our nice night under the stars, it was just punctuated with some often entertaining shouting and an occaisonal brush with random naked (and non-naked) people made nearly invisible by the darkness.
Though it was a struggle, I made myself get up semi-early the following morning (this morning) so we could get to Winona's (the most amazing breakfast in Steamboat, and possibly the world) before the church rush. We managed to get in with no wait and Winona's did not disappoint. I got eggs benedict with artichoke hearts, spinach, and tomato, and Jody got some sort of bacon and crab scrambler thing that was a bit too odd and bacon-filled for me to try but she gave it a good report.
I was feeling exhausted, but in a surprise turn of events Jody wanted to be active and go hiking, and convinced me to get up and moving. When we were still in the planning stages, Jody told me she was worried about keeping up with my usual level of activity. Instead, without her I may have just slept the day away! Of course I have no idea where I would've slept since we had to check out of our hotel room, but I would've found somewhere. Instead, we drove down to Rocky Mountain National Park (much easier to access from the west side) and went for a hike. We hiked a total of 2.54 miles up to a waterfall, a beautiful meadow surrounded by snow-covered mountains, and many other beautiful river and forest sites. It was a great day to be outside. Of course, being us, we stopped often to take pictures, chat, and just hang out contemplating nature. Jody did amazing, especially considering it was her first hike at altitude, experiencing the wonders of shortness of breath in Colorado's mountains. (I was definitely feeling it too. I've been too low for too long!).
After our hike we were back on the road through the beautiful scenic drive through Winter Park and down to I-70. As much as I hate having to drive that road in the winter amid hurried ski traffic, it really is beautiful. The fall colors were great, and everything was just beautiful. Around every corner was a new view of the mountains that seemed to go on forever. It made me realize how much I love my mountains, have missed my mountains, and how I really really really can't wait to ski! But I think I mentioned that already. Maybe Jody will come visit me and ski with me this winter. I'm still working on that.
By the time we made it back to Denver it was almost dark and we had reached the point of complete giddy exhaustion. We both laughed ourselves to near tears as we were finding and checking in to our hotel room. Once in our room, I got to witness Jody going into one heck of a giggle fit. I was so sad that I didn't have my camera on me to video it. She was lying on the bed in full hysterics (snorts and all) over something that really hadn't been all that funny. But of course, the more I watched her laugh, the more I had to laugh too. Ah the joys of over-exhaustion.
I looked online and discovered that there was a Noodles and Company nearby...one of my favorite restaurants even though it is a chain. I was so excited to go there but unfortunately my usual just wasn't that good. So, so sad. I guess that's what I get for cheating on my regular Denver Noodles with one from Lakewood. Lesson learned. It was decent...just not its usual amazingness.
We decided that since we were so tired it would make sense to stick with a hotel on the western edge of town rather than dealing with driving through the city and searching for places. It's a good thing we did because we found a super nice Hampton in way west Lakewood for way cheap. This place is super nice....beautiful lobby and hallways, plush beds, and they even folded a towel and washcloth into the shape of a shirt and tie. For those as easily entertained as we are, that's about as awesome as it gets! So we're happily tucked in for the night and I am very, very, very ready for bed.
I've got a couple of surprises up my sleeve for tomorrow. I'll let you all know how that goes tomorrow. :)
To start out with, poor Jody had a rough introduction to camping in Colorado. I knew we might be in trouble when the clouds were starting to clear. As beautiful as the weather was while light out, it was looking like a cold night.
However I didn't realize just how cold. We woke up to not just frost but everything being completely iced over. It was a cold, cold night. Like that night so long ago in Burlington, VT where I nearly froze. Only probably colder.
I got Jody all the blankets I could but she still didn't look too comfortable. Being used to camping in the cold I fell asleep right away, but every time I woke up and looked at Jody she looked awake and miserable. I don't think she slept much at all!
To add to it, the highway noise never quit, and there was a train passing just a bit away on the other side of us. I slept decently well. Jody was a trooper and stuck with it until about 5:00 when I woke up to pee. I stayed up with her after that and we tried to stay warm until the sun came out enough to get up and get going.
I think both of us were pretty excited to get out of there and in to Denver. It was really fun to have a chance to show Jody one of my towns, though it was really hard for me to feel "at home" there right away. I drove her around some of my regular spots, and a couple of the places I used to live. I also took her to my Brueggers that I used to go to all the time, even though she claimed she didn't like Brueggers. I wanted to go there because I knew they had internet and I wanted to do some research on stuff going on in the area. Well, the internet was out, so that didn't work...but we both got a good breakfast out of it. (I think Jody liked it but she may not admit it since they don't have the "right" Detroit kind of bagels).
We then went to the library to get internet, and discovered that the library computers really really suck. But it was functional internet, so it did the trick.
I had to go to an Urgent Care to get a new prescription written. Such a horrible pain, but at least this time they were really quick about it. The dr. I saw was super helpful, and Jody got to sit in the lobby watching endless news about "Balloon Boy". We were both shocked to learn that apparently CNN had nothing else to talk about!
Unfortunately, Walgreens had to undo any amount of good time we were making. They told me it would only take 30 minutes but apparently they actually meant an hour and 30 minutes. Not even I can stay entertained in Walgreens that long. Jody and I did have some fun in the toy aisle, playing with this crazy squishy ball thing, but I ended up grumpy and bored. Thankfully Jody is amazingly wonderful and patient and put up with a big chunk of the day's Denver tour taking place inside of Walgreens.
The joyous tour continued with a hunt for a hotel room. I tried my usual cheap spot in the DU area but they had nothing. I decided to be stubborn and try to find somewhere on my own rather than check the place the woman at that hotel told me about (too far south) or go to one of the places listed in my magic coupon book (too far north). As I drove around I realized that I had no real idea where I was going since most of the places I was thinking of I'd stayed with my parents and I really couldn't afford them on my own. And I was exhausted and tired of driving, so after a point it just seemed like wandering aimlessly.
So I finally decided just to head up to the place listed in the book. We found an....interesting...hotel in North Denver. The place didn't seem too bad when we first came in, but our room was horrifying! It seemed just a little strange at first as we noticed tons off color parts and putty marks on the walls, as well as a piece of the smoke detector sitting on one of the beds. We then noticed a big chunk of the base of the shower plastic missing. And the stucco ceiling was apparently raining, leaving chunks of white everywhere. But the clincher was when we sat down on one of the beds and the entire end of it fell to the ground. Yeah, not going to work!
We went to the front desk to complain, and the woman (who just barely spoke english) questioned us extensively, seeming to think that we had caused the damage since we'd had the room an hour before asking to switch. But, when she finally got us a new room, it was waaaaaay nicer than the first. Even if the first one hadn't been falling apart, it still wouldn't have been as nice as the new one. It wasn't luxury or anything, but it was plenty decent and had a mini-fridge so big it was almost a full-sized fridge!
And the even better news is that we weren't far at all from the light rail station to head downtown. I got to show Jody all around 16th street and take her to my most favoritest restaurant in the world (Rodizios). I called Rosalba to go with us since it just seemed wrong to go without her, but she had already eaten dinner. So sad!
After a wonderful dinner at Rodizios, we walked all over 16th street and enjoyed the absolutely beautiful night.
The next morning I made a valiant effort to get up early, but it was a struggle. We snuck into the hotel breakfast at the very last minute, and then finally got on the road. Sort of. We were all set to head north and drive through Rocky Mountain National Park. But we noticed a small note on the map saying that the one and only road across the park closes in the winter. Not knowing the dates they call winter, I called my Dad to look it up for me. He got me the ranger station phone number from the website so I could call. (Thanks Dad!) The ranger I talked to said that though the hikes on either side of the park are still open, the road was in fact closed. Since we were planning to go to the park on our way to Steamboat, a closed road really wouldn't work for us.
So instead we took the trusty direct route through Silverthorne. After a quick stop for Good Times (ah wonderful burgers and fries that I've missed so much!) we were heading in to the second stop on the towns Lacey's lived in tour. It was AMAZING for me to be back in Steamboat. Steamboat Ski Resort, and apparently the downtown area as well, went through a huge rennovation right after I left so everything looked totally different. I dragged Jody around to see the ski hill, sit on the new lift, and check out the new map. It was very cool to see and made me want to ski really really badly. It really made me want to ski Steamboat too. I miss that place! It's unfortunate that my instructor job didn't go better there, because I do love the area and the town.
We checked in to our hotel and then went to explore downtown. Our hotel, the Steamboat Inn, was interesting. It was far cheaper than any of the other options, and quite a bit nicer than any of the other budget hotels I've seen (except for the Rabbit Ears, but that place has gotten expensive!). I think it used to be the Super 8 but it was bought out and turned into a semi-tacky but nice western themed place. I don't know if it was local or still owned by a chain but it had a nice local feel to it.
Anyway, on to downtown. I had a few scares at first when it appeared that a couple of my favorite stores (Off the Beaten Path and All that Jazz) appeared to have gone out of business. Instead it turned out that both had been so successful they'd moved into bigger places. Unfortunately Felix and Fido (the most amazing store for pet stuff) really is going out of business and was holding their final sale. It was almost empty in there. Soooo sad! A lot of the buildings along Lincoln Ave. (Steamboat's main street) had been added on to or completely redone so a lot of places looked totally different. It was really bizarre and a bit sad to walk through. I've always loved Steamboat's rustic downtown, and for the most part it's its same beautiful self, but some of the new, fancy, bright colored buildings are way, way out of place.
After lots of random wandering and window shopping, we went to dinner at Rio Grande, one of my favorite restaurants downtown. After dinner we went up to the Strawberry Park Hot Springs. It was totally dark by the time we got there, so we got to do all sorts of random, complicated wandering trying to figure out where to change and where to go. You couldn't just get in anywhere because there were random people hanging out in many of the random dark corners. And it was very, very dark. I thought I remembered there being at least little lights along the stairways, but no such luck.
We found the bathrooms to change, and then made the FREEZING cold journey out to the pools. We only had to make it a few steps from where we left our stuff to the nice hot water, but the rocks we were standing on were painfully cold and the handrails felt completely iced over. I held the flashlight while Jody went first, and for what might be the first time ever I heard some not nice words coming out of her mouth! For those brief moments she was not too happy with me! I'm sure she was wondering what the hell I'd gotten her into, but thankfully she soon reached the beautiful hot springs water and all was forgiven.
I had pictured us having a nice, quiet evening under the stars. However I forgot it was Saturday night. A huge, drunken group of college students also thought it'd be a nice night for a soak. With clothing being officially optional after dark (that's written on the official sign), it was definitely interesting. We still got our nice night under the stars, it was just punctuated with some often entertaining shouting and an occaisonal brush with random naked (and non-naked) people made nearly invisible by the darkness.
Though it was a struggle, I made myself get up semi-early the following morning (this morning) so we could get to Winona's (the most amazing breakfast in Steamboat, and possibly the world) before the church rush. We managed to get in with no wait and Winona's did not disappoint. I got eggs benedict with artichoke hearts, spinach, and tomato, and Jody got some sort of bacon and crab scrambler thing that was a bit too odd and bacon-filled for me to try but she gave it a good report.
I was feeling exhausted, but in a surprise turn of events Jody wanted to be active and go hiking, and convinced me to get up and moving. When we were still in the planning stages, Jody told me she was worried about keeping up with my usual level of activity. Instead, without her I may have just slept the day away! Of course I have no idea where I would've slept since we had to check out of our hotel room, but I would've found somewhere. Instead, we drove down to Rocky Mountain National Park (much easier to access from the west side) and went for a hike. We hiked a total of 2.54 miles up to a waterfall, a beautiful meadow surrounded by snow-covered mountains, and many other beautiful river and forest sites. It was a great day to be outside. Of course, being us, we stopped often to take pictures, chat, and just hang out contemplating nature. Jody did amazing, especially considering it was her first hike at altitude, experiencing the wonders of shortness of breath in Colorado's mountains. (I was definitely feeling it too. I've been too low for too long!).
After our hike we were back on the road through the beautiful scenic drive through Winter Park and down to I-70. As much as I hate having to drive that road in the winter amid hurried ski traffic, it really is beautiful. The fall colors were great, and everything was just beautiful. Around every corner was a new view of the mountains that seemed to go on forever. It made me realize how much I love my mountains, have missed my mountains, and how I really really really can't wait to ski! But I think I mentioned that already. Maybe Jody will come visit me and ski with me this winter. I'm still working on that.
By the time we made it back to Denver it was almost dark and we had reached the point of complete giddy exhaustion. We both laughed ourselves to near tears as we were finding and checking in to our hotel room. Once in our room, I got to witness Jody going into one heck of a giggle fit. I was so sad that I didn't have my camera on me to video it. She was lying on the bed in full hysterics (snorts and all) over something that really hadn't been all that funny. But of course, the more I watched her laugh, the more I had to laugh too. Ah the joys of over-exhaustion.
I looked online and discovered that there was a Noodles and Company nearby...one of my favorite restaurants even though it is a chain. I was so excited to go there but unfortunately my usual just wasn't that good. So, so sad. I guess that's what I get for cheating on my regular Denver Noodles with one from Lakewood. Lesson learned. It was decent...just not its usual amazingness.
We decided that since we were so tired it would make sense to stick with a hotel on the western edge of town rather than dealing with driving through the city and searching for places. It's a good thing we did because we found a super nice Hampton in way west Lakewood for way cheap. This place is super nice....beautiful lobby and hallways, plush beds, and they even folded a towel and washcloth into the shape of a shirt and tie. For those as easily entertained as we are, that's about as awesome as it gets! So we're happily tucked in for the night and I am very, very, very ready for bed.
I've got a couple of surprises up my sleeve for tomorrow. I'll let you all know how that goes tomorrow. :)
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Strasburg, CO
I'm in Colorado! Yay! One of my 3.5 home states. (Montana, Colorado, Utah, and sort of Connecticut). It feels great to be back, though I'm still not to an area of the state that I've actually been in. I actually keep forgetting that it is CO and am surprised by the many CO liscense plates and Broncos stuff. It's still sorta flat and Kansas like out here. (We're about 40 miles east of Denver on I-70 right now).
The drive across Kansas really wasn't that bad. Not nearly as bad as I was expecting after the nightmare that was my Nebraska journey on my way east. It really helped a lot having a copilot! Even when we weren't talking (though we talked a lot!) just having another somebody there and awake with me, pushing me to keep going when I'm tired helped a lot. The miles really flew by. And best of all, the sun came out! Yay! It felt so so SO amazingly good to see and feel the sun again. At first we were noticing just a few random stripes on the ground that seemed a bit more brightly lit than the others. If we looked just right we could see where the sun was coming from to make those stripes, though it was still behind clouds.
Then, the moment happened. Blue sky! Just a speck of it but I was so excited I made Jody get out my camera and take a picture. It's been almost an entire week of no blue at all, and a couple of weeks that have been mostly gray. Sooooo not my style! The blue speck started to grow, and became a larger blue stripe. Then we started seeing more and more blue stripes as the clouds seemed to be peeling apart in front of us. Considering that we could see forever (one of the advantages of flatness) we could watch the clouds separate and move apart, turning the sky from thick and gray to beautiful blue.
All afternoon and into the evening the clouds were incredible and the lighting was perfect. For a little bit the sky was almost completely clear (and I got to be out in a t-shirt without freezing!), and then the clouds started making all sorts of crazy patterns in the sky. As the sun began to set, the clouds to the east were still thick, creating an amazing dark backdrop as the sun lit up the golden grasses and the green trees before it. Nearly every time I looked I saw something that belonged on a postcard.
So overall today was just a lot of driving, though we did spend a bit of time relaxing in the sun in Burlington, CO. I admit, I got off the highway because they had a carosel exciting enough to warrant a sign on the highway and I had to check it out. (And I was getting hungry and was hoping to find some "local grub" in an "adorable downtown locale"). Unfortunately we had no real luck on either front. No cute local restaurant, and the carousel is only open in the summer. However we did get to read the sign about the carousel, which described the animals it had....including a bear, a giraffe, and even a hippocampus. Yeah. Apparently along with the bear and giraffe there was a piece of brain matter. Or somebody relying far too heavily on spell check. The frightening part is that the town posted this as the large, official sign, and nobody noticed. I only skimmed the sign and didn't notice either, but Jody, an even better editor than I am, noticed and pointed it out to me. Unfortunately neither of us remembered to take a picture before we left.
While enjoying the grass and sunshine we decided it might finally be a good night to camp rather than heading all the way in to the city. We decided on the Strasburg KOA, the closest option to the metro area.
The place reminds me a lot of the KOA in Arkansas. The tent sites were most definitely put in as an after thought. We are again sandwiched between an interstate and a railroad track, with a patch of dry grass as our "site". Granted, there's nobody else out here so we really could use whatever area we wanted. To make it worse, they're no longer selling firewood so we couldn't build a fire. A rather pathetic introduction for Jody to Colorado camping, but it's turning in to one of those so ridiculous it's amazing kind of nights. Oh, but my personal favorite part of all of this is that the main street in Strasburg is Colfax, so tonight I am camping off of Colfax. I'm pretty sure that's the one and only time in my life that those words will be able to be uttered in a sentence!
We had planned to cook, but it was getting dark, getting windy, and getting cold, so we decided to head over to the itty bitty local BBQ place next door. After all we never got our good BBQ we'd planned on last night. So the two Jewish gals ventured out again in search of the very best pork. And the place was awesome! It more than made up for the crap we ate last night. We got the sampler platter so it had a bit of everything, along with 4 different sauces. Everything tasted amazing...except for the sausage. But who needs sausage when you have chicken, ribs, brisket, and some other sort of pork-like thing. Oh, and for dessert we had a deep fried twinkie. Neither of us really had room for dessert, but it was something we both wanted to try and figured what better time than now. It was really good, but we both agree it's sort of a been there done that thing. Nothing we're likely to crave again. Hopefully.
The restaurant (if you can call it that, it was 3 tables in a room about the size of your average living room) was just brimming with all the local fun and ambiance imaginable. It wasn't a tourist place at all. It was just the little spot where local Strasburgians spend their time and eat their meat. As far as I could tell it was being run by a woman and her mother, and there were cowboys and girls of all sorts coming through. Yeah, pretty much everything we could've asked for. And a lot more awesome than spaghetti over a camp stove!
We've changed time zones once again, and that's my excuse for now being VERY sleepy. Well that and that we drove for a good 10+ hours today! I think it's time to curl up in my sleeping bag on our most beautiful of dirt patches. And hey, it's right next to the playground, so who am I to complain? :)
The drive across Kansas really wasn't that bad. Not nearly as bad as I was expecting after the nightmare that was my Nebraska journey on my way east. It really helped a lot having a copilot! Even when we weren't talking (though we talked a lot!) just having another somebody there and awake with me, pushing me to keep going when I'm tired helped a lot. The miles really flew by. And best of all, the sun came out! Yay! It felt so so SO amazingly good to see and feel the sun again. At first we were noticing just a few random stripes on the ground that seemed a bit more brightly lit than the others. If we looked just right we could see where the sun was coming from to make those stripes, though it was still behind clouds.
Then, the moment happened. Blue sky! Just a speck of it but I was so excited I made Jody get out my camera and take a picture. It's been almost an entire week of no blue at all, and a couple of weeks that have been mostly gray. Sooooo not my style! The blue speck started to grow, and became a larger blue stripe. Then we started seeing more and more blue stripes as the clouds seemed to be peeling apart in front of us. Considering that we could see forever (one of the advantages of flatness) we could watch the clouds separate and move apart, turning the sky from thick and gray to beautiful blue.
All afternoon and into the evening the clouds were incredible and the lighting was perfect. For a little bit the sky was almost completely clear (and I got to be out in a t-shirt without freezing!), and then the clouds started making all sorts of crazy patterns in the sky. As the sun began to set, the clouds to the east were still thick, creating an amazing dark backdrop as the sun lit up the golden grasses and the green trees before it. Nearly every time I looked I saw something that belonged on a postcard.
So overall today was just a lot of driving, though we did spend a bit of time relaxing in the sun in Burlington, CO. I admit, I got off the highway because they had a carosel exciting enough to warrant a sign on the highway and I had to check it out. (And I was getting hungry and was hoping to find some "local grub" in an "adorable downtown locale"). Unfortunately we had no real luck on either front. No cute local restaurant, and the carousel is only open in the summer. However we did get to read the sign about the carousel, which described the animals it had....including a bear, a giraffe, and even a hippocampus. Yeah. Apparently along with the bear and giraffe there was a piece of brain matter. Or somebody relying far too heavily on spell check. The frightening part is that the town posted this as the large, official sign, and nobody noticed. I only skimmed the sign and didn't notice either, but Jody, an even better editor than I am, noticed and pointed it out to me. Unfortunately neither of us remembered to take a picture before we left.
While enjoying the grass and sunshine we decided it might finally be a good night to camp rather than heading all the way in to the city. We decided on the Strasburg KOA, the closest option to the metro area.
The place reminds me a lot of the KOA in Arkansas. The tent sites were most definitely put in as an after thought. We are again sandwiched between an interstate and a railroad track, with a patch of dry grass as our "site". Granted, there's nobody else out here so we really could use whatever area we wanted. To make it worse, they're no longer selling firewood so we couldn't build a fire. A rather pathetic introduction for Jody to Colorado camping, but it's turning in to one of those so ridiculous it's amazing kind of nights. Oh, but my personal favorite part of all of this is that the main street in Strasburg is Colfax, so tonight I am camping off of Colfax. I'm pretty sure that's the one and only time in my life that those words will be able to be uttered in a sentence!
We had planned to cook, but it was getting dark, getting windy, and getting cold, so we decided to head over to the itty bitty local BBQ place next door. After all we never got our good BBQ we'd planned on last night. So the two Jewish gals ventured out again in search of the very best pork. And the place was awesome! It more than made up for the crap we ate last night. We got the sampler platter so it had a bit of everything, along with 4 different sauces. Everything tasted amazing...except for the sausage. But who needs sausage when you have chicken, ribs, brisket, and some other sort of pork-like thing. Oh, and for dessert we had a deep fried twinkie. Neither of us really had room for dessert, but it was something we both wanted to try and figured what better time than now. It was really good, but we both agree it's sort of a been there done that thing. Nothing we're likely to crave again. Hopefully.
The restaurant (if you can call it that, it was 3 tables in a room about the size of your average living room) was just brimming with all the local fun and ambiance imaginable. It wasn't a tourist place at all. It was just the little spot where local Strasburgians spend their time and eat their meat. As far as I could tell it was being run by a woman and her mother, and there were cowboys and girls of all sorts coming through. Yeah, pretty much everything we could've asked for. And a lot more awesome than spaghetti over a camp stove!
We've changed time zones once again, and that's my excuse for now being VERY sleepy. Well that and that we drove for a good 10+ hours today! I think it's time to curl up in my sleeping bag on our most beautiful of dirt patches. And hey, it's right next to the playground, so who am I to complain? :)
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Lenexa, KS
So I have a confession to make. Many years ago a friend sent me a postcard from the St. Louis Arch and wrote about going up to the top of it, and ever since then it's risen to the top of my to-do list. I've been thinking about it for years, but a person just doesn't end up in St. Louis all that often, and as bad as I wanted to do it it never seemed worth making it it's own trip. Well today, my wish was finally granted.
I actually drove through St. Louis on my way to Chicago, but I didn't have a lot of time then and stayed along the far edges of the city. I debated going to the arch then, but the weather was terrible (pouring rain) and I figured it'd be more fun when I'd have more time and could go with somebody.
Well today the weather still sucked, but not quite as bad. It wasn't raining, and the clouds had lifted enough that we were actually able to get a pretty decent view. However it was FREEZING! As soon as I got out of the car and started walking I had to run back to get an extra warm layer. Oh, and I wore close-toed shoes for the first time this trip (except for my Acadia National Park hike). I think my toes appreciated the warmth, but missed their freedom.
The arch is everything I had hoped for. It was huge, random, and amazing. When I first saw it I found it really hard to believe that a person could go inside it. It just didn't look built for it; not big enough and a significant lack of windows. The lack of windows thing turned out to be true, but once we got up close you could see it was plenty big!
As you approach, you see a small staircase down to an underground door. Already pretty crazy feeling! After going through a rather extensive security check, you enter into a large, round room. Around this room there are two movie rooms (which we skipped), a couple of gift shops, and a museum. The museum was all about the exploring and settling of the west, which is something I know quite a bit about but was cool to see after being east for so long. There was one picture of what I'm pretty sure is the Old Faithful Inn from many, many years ago though it looks about the same as it does now. We spent a bit of time wandering around the museum and enjoying the moderately creepy animatronic people telling us stories along the way. We then bought our tickets for the tram to the top. Yay! It's finally happening! I was disappointed that the museum said absolutely nothing about the arch itself or how it was built. I had to read a book in the gift shop to find that out.
The tram was pretty much amazing. After getting our tickets they funneled us down a little hallway, and then down to a narrow staircase where they gave us a number. The number corresponded to a tram car. After a short explanation and video about the arch, the tram arrived and the numbered doors in front of us opened. These tram cars were absolutely hilarious! They're solid white, egg-shaped things that remind me of an escape pod from a science fiction movie....or from Austin Powers. There were 5 seats in each pod, though thankfully we only had 4 people each time. I'm not sure a 5th would've fit. The seats arch around the edge of the pod, so that the person in the back is the only one that can sit up straight (remember, egg shaped...or possibly round...) The other seats require you to either lean forward, or the wall will push your head forward if you try to lean back. Everyone's knees point towards the middle, and there is no leg room, so you're forced to get friendly with whoever you happen to be sitting with. Though it turns out, this is one of the few things in the world that's perfect if you're Jody-sized. She was short enough to be able to sit however she wanted to without issue. Lucky!
The ride to the top was strange considering there's only a small window in the door of the pod, and no windows in the arch. So, through this tiny little window you can see bits and pieces of the cables and pullies that move the tram, as well as the loooooong staircase for maintenence. Of course you could only get a fleeting view of anything out the tiny window.
The top was about the same. There were a number of small windows along either side, which gave it the distinct feeling of being on an airplane. Of course these were windows to outside, and the view was awesome! I'm sure it would've been more awesome on a less cloudy day, but we could see quite a bit of the immediate area, including the river and the Cardinal's stadium. You could also walk across the top and feel the rising and sinking of the top of the arch under your feet, which was also very cool. And especially impressive for something entirely built in the 60's! Including the tram, which was finished in '67. So I went from window to window and took lots and lots of pictures, as well as some pictures of the inside. Once I felt I had taken the requisite bazillion pictures (Jody took some too, though I don't think she was quite as excited about the whole thing as I was), we headed back down.
Once back on solid ground, (and after I had run over to the spot I'd been looking at to wave to the people above in the arch) we headed out. Well, almost. I had seen a sign for a Riverside cafe right on the Mississippi River and I was really excited about it. Actually, I had been even more excited about doing a river cruise, but it was just way too darn cold out for being on a boat to be any fun. I figured the cafe would be a compromise, but it was closed. We spent a bit of time trying to find a restaurant nearby, but with no luck got back on the road. We really did try for something local, but as we started to run out of options we settled on Qdoba. Jody had never had Qdoba before so it was something new for her anyway.
From there it was the I-70 parade all the way to Kansas City. It really wasn't that bad of a drive, I just have a hard time focusing staying on one highway the entire time. Especially when it's one that's relatively flat and doesn't turn. But there were a lot of pretty colored trees, and the time passed by pretty fast. As we were nearing Kansas City, Jody mentioned that KC (apparently that's what the locals call it) is known for it's BBQ. I looked in my things to do before I die book, and sure enough it was in there! So we read through the options, picked a restaurant, and went hunting for it. Along the hunt we got to drive on State Line Rd., which was really exciting to me. It was....guess where! Yep, on the state line, which I found fascinating. On the right was Kansas, on the left Missouri, for many miles. After a bit of searching and a few wrong turns, we found Gates BBQ.
I chose Gates because it was family owned and because, according to the book, their specialty was sweet, rather than spicy. The atmosphere when we arrived was definitely intimidating. A lot of people seemed to be arriving at the same time, and everyone was shouting orders from all over the place. (To their credit, they did try to let us go ahead, but we were still trying to figure out what the options on the menu meant). We finally decided to just pick something, and shouted out our orders too. I didn't see any spice options, so I just ordered the basic ribs, assuming that any spice would be added later by the individual.
Yeah that was wishful thinking. They were HOT! At least for me. They were sinus clearing, which was nice, but after about 3 I just couldn't eat anymore. It was sad to leave half a plate of ribs, but it was getting painful. (I really did give it my best though, I promise! I'm trying to be less of a spice wimp!). On the plus side, their fries were really good. Big, thick, and potatoey. I almost didn't order them but I was glad to have them as that is most of what I ate.
By the time we finished eating it had gotten late, so we went to the first hotel we could find....in the Kansas part of Kansas City. So now we're sitting in the hotel, each on our computers writing in our blogs. I'm sure it's an entertaining sight! :)
I actually drove through St. Louis on my way to Chicago, but I didn't have a lot of time then and stayed along the far edges of the city. I debated going to the arch then, but the weather was terrible (pouring rain) and I figured it'd be more fun when I'd have more time and could go with somebody.
Well today the weather still sucked, but not quite as bad. It wasn't raining, and the clouds had lifted enough that we were actually able to get a pretty decent view. However it was FREEZING! As soon as I got out of the car and started walking I had to run back to get an extra warm layer. Oh, and I wore close-toed shoes for the first time this trip (except for my Acadia National Park hike). I think my toes appreciated the warmth, but missed their freedom.
The arch is everything I had hoped for. It was huge, random, and amazing. When I first saw it I found it really hard to believe that a person could go inside it. It just didn't look built for it; not big enough and a significant lack of windows. The lack of windows thing turned out to be true, but once we got up close you could see it was plenty big!
As you approach, you see a small staircase down to an underground door. Already pretty crazy feeling! After going through a rather extensive security check, you enter into a large, round room. Around this room there are two movie rooms (which we skipped), a couple of gift shops, and a museum. The museum was all about the exploring and settling of the west, which is something I know quite a bit about but was cool to see after being east for so long. There was one picture of what I'm pretty sure is the Old Faithful Inn from many, many years ago though it looks about the same as it does now. We spent a bit of time wandering around the museum and enjoying the moderately creepy animatronic people telling us stories along the way. We then bought our tickets for the tram to the top. Yay! It's finally happening! I was disappointed that the museum said absolutely nothing about the arch itself or how it was built. I had to read a book in the gift shop to find that out.
The tram was pretty much amazing. After getting our tickets they funneled us down a little hallway, and then down to a narrow staircase where they gave us a number. The number corresponded to a tram car. After a short explanation and video about the arch, the tram arrived and the numbered doors in front of us opened. These tram cars were absolutely hilarious! They're solid white, egg-shaped things that remind me of an escape pod from a science fiction movie....or from Austin Powers. There were 5 seats in each pod, though thankfully we only had 4 people each time. I'm not sure a 5th would've fit. The seats arch around the edge of the pod, so that the person in the back is the only one that can sit up straight (remember, egg shaped...or possibly round...) The other seats require you to either lean forward, or the wall will push your head forward if you try to lean back. Everyone's knees point towards the middle, and there is no leg room, so you're forced to get friendly with whoever you happen to be sitting with. Though it turns out, this is one of the few things in the world that's perfect if you're Jody-sized. She was short enough to be able to sit however she wanted to without issue. Lucky!
The ride to the top was strange considering there's only a small window in the door of the pod, and no windows in the arch. So, through this tiny little window you can see bits and pieces of the cables and pullies that move the tram, as well as the loooooong staircase for maintenence. Of course you could only get a fleeting view of anything out the tiny window.
The top was about the same. There were a number of small windows along either side, which gave it the distinct feeling of being on an airplane. Of course these were windows to outside, and the view was awesome! I'm sure it would've been more awesome on a less cloudy day, but we could see quite a bit of the immediate area, including the river and the Cardinal's stadium. You could also walk across the top and feel the rising and sinking of the top of the arch under your feet, which was also very cool. And especially impressive for something entirely built in the 60's! Including the tram, which was finished in '67. So I went from window to window and took lots and lots of pictures, as well as some pictures of the inside. Once I felt I had taken the requisite bazillion pictures (Jody took some too, though I don't think she was quite as excited about the whole thing as I was), we headed back down.
Once back on solid ground, (and after I had run over to the spot I'd been looking at to wave to the people above in the arch) we headed out. Well, almost. I had seen a sign for a Riverside cafe right on the Mississippi River and I was really excited about it. Actually, I had been even more excited about doing a river cruise, but it was just way too darn cold out for being on a boat to be any fun. I figured the cafe would be a compromise, but it was closed. We spent a bit of time trying to find a restaurant nearby, but with no luck got back on the road. We really did try for something local, but as we started to run out of options we settled on Qdoba. Jody had never had Qdoba before so it was something new for her anyway.
From there it was the I-70 parade all the way to Kansas City. It really wasn't that bad of a drive, I just have a hard time focusing staying on one highway the entire time. Especially when it's one that's relatively flat and doesn't turn. But there were a lot of pretty colored trees, and the time passed by pretty fast. As we were nearing Kansas City, Jody mentioned that KC (apparently that's what the locals call it) is known for it's BBQ. I looked in my things to do before I die book, and sure enough it was in there! So we read through the options, picked a restaurant, and went hunting for it. Along the hunt we got to drive on State Line Rd., which was really exciting to me. It was....guess where! Yep, on the state line, which I found fascinating. On the right was Kansas, on the left Missouri, for many miles. After a bit of searching and a few wrong turns, we found Gates BBQ.
I chose Gates because it was family owned and because, according to the book, their specialty was sweet, rather than spicy. The atmosphere when we arrived was definitely intimidating. A lot of people seemed to be arriving at the same time, and everyone was shouting orders from all over the place. (To their credit, they did try to let us go ahead, but we were still trying to figure out what the options on the menu meant). We finally decided to just pick something, and shouted out our orders too. I didn't see any spice options, so I just ordered the basic ribs, assuming that any spice would be added later by the individual.
Yeah that was wishful thinking. They were HOT! At least for me. They were sinus clearing, which was nice, but after about 3 I just couldn't eat anymore. It was sad to leave half a plate of ribs, but it was getting painful. (I really did give it my best though, I promise! I'm trying to be less of a spice wimp!). On the plus side, their fries were really good. Big, thick, and potatoey. I almost didn't order them but I was glad to have them as that is most of what I ate.
By the time we finished eating it had gotten late, so we went to the first hotel we could find....in the Kansas part of Kansas City. So now we're sitting in the hotel, each on our computers writing in our blogs. I'm sure it's an entertaining sight! :)
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