Colorado

My summer vacation was amazing.  I was accompanied by my dear friend Tamara. We took a roadtrip in her brand new car.  Our destination was Denver or the mile high city.  FACT: Tamara and I would both like to eventually end up in Colorado.  The journey was 13 hours, that’s 767 miles through the Texas Panhandle and the finger of Oklahoma.  We passed Amarillo and Dumas.  We paused at Loafs-n-Jugs gas station in Springfield.  An old timer asked, “What kind of car is that?”  “It’s a Mini Cooper.”  Bugs the size of golf balls kept colliding with the windshield.  We waved at a bus of Christians and no one smiled or waved back.  DOH!  I saw only one deer, but a multitude of adult video stores plus dirt and potholes. In Claude, I observed a motel called “It’ll Do.”  Nice. We paused in Clarendon to refuel and eat our sandwichs.  I made toasted multigrain bagel sandwiches with cucumber, tomato and avocado.  After lunch, we made good time.  Once we were in Colorado, we stopping briefly in Lamar.  According to mountain time, we lost an hour.  The weather was arid, humid, hot.  We encountered a few minor hiccups with my navigation.  During the drive, we created a code.  If one of us said, “Charlie Sheen” it meant “get me away from this guy.” If we said “Recreation Room” it meant “let’s leave, this sucks.”  Allistaire (the car) performed beautifully.  On the drive, the fields appeared bleached blonde.  Once we were within the Denver city limits, I went to change lanes.  Bump!  The sound was so loud, I was scared half to death.  Tamara had me pullover so she could inspect the car.  Luckily, there was no bodily damage.  We arrived at the hotel, finally, at 11:30 our time.  A large round man (who hummed a lot) checked us in.  As expeditiously as we could, we unpacked and got to bed.  On Saturday, we ate the continental breakfast and watched the local news.  It is not a good sign when you hear: fire rages on, a local professor busted for cross-dressing and hooking, rabies found...all before you have been able to drink your first cup of coffee.  It reminded me why I don’t watch the news.  At 9am, we made it to the Denver Crossfit gym.  A hulking sweaty guy with a chest the size of a tree trunk was finishing lifting his set (minus a shirt).  I couldn’t stop looking at him. We waited for the 9am class to start.  The workout was very challenging: run, throw a wall ball, air squats, pushups using rings, jump rope, and situps. Tamara and I both left red-faced, huffing and puffing.  Now, before this trip, I made a serious effort to create social possibilities.  For example, I chatted with local Denver residents on Craigslist.  I joined a Denver Meetup Group so we could attend one of their mixers.  Saturday at 1:30 was a live music patio meetup at The Corner Office Bar and Grill.  I had trouble navigating on my phone to find where this place was.  After we parked we ended up having to walk 8 blocks in hot hot sun.  We were both dressed up and wearing heals.  The sun baked us!  My blood sugar was getting low.  Finally we made it to this place, but sitting on a hot patio no longer sounded fun.  We ordered food inside.  I perked up.   On the walk back to the car, we passed an elephant all dressed up in traditional Indian dress for a wedding.  The newly married Indian couple got on top of the elephant to ride around the city.  It was impressive.  The next place we went was a bar called Linger.  We arrived at 4:30 only to learn that the doors don’t open till 5:30pm.  DOH!  We ended up trying to find a shady spot to sit and wait.  An ice cream place was close by with outside seating.  We sat there.  Tamara played a game on her phone, while I people watched.  It was still very hot.  Beads of sweat would appear randomly and frequently on my skin; I tried to ignore it.  Finally 5:30pm arrived, we walked back to the bar and there was a long line of people waiting to get in.  I felt myself start to panic, but I pushed the feeling away.  Luckily, it did not take too long for us to get in.  We walked straight to the bar.  The guy from the Crossfit gym, remember treetrunk chest guy, apparently he worked at Linger (he had a shirt on this time).   After much consideration I concluded, that I liked him better ‘shirt-free.’  The bartenders all wore shirts.  Blah!  Two of them spent more time talking to us.  I briefly conversed with a local.  After we left Linger, we ate Thai food.  Yummy!  We returned to the hotel and 20 adults stood around the lobby drinking beer and talking.  I observed that small gangs of children ran around freely.  I asked a woman in the elevator about the friendliness of the folks here.  I said, “I have never seen such a sense of community in a hotel.”  She said, “Oh we all know each other.  We are all from the same small town.  We’re here for a baseball tournament.”  So the whole town of Sterling, Colorado had congregated in our hotel.  On Sunday we ate breakfast then ran at Standley Park in Westminster.  The park was beautiful.  I  encountered a family of prairie dogs.  It was heaven!  We jogged the trail.  I took pictures.  I never saw one piece of trash.  Denver people seemed to have more pride in their state (versus Texas where I frequently see trash).  Afterwards, we visited Panera Bread for a pastry and a latte. I saw a Coors Credit Union which struck me as odd.  It didn’t seem logical to work hard, save hard, only to let a bank named after a beer ‘watch-over’ your money.  We went to the Butterfly Pavilion.  I saw the biggest spider I had ever seen in my life.  The butterfly’s were beautiful.  Then, we watched Dark Shadows (the movie with Johnny Depp) at a local theater.  Luckily, no shootings.  Dinner was at La Sandia Cantina.  I had cheese enchiladas.  By this point in the vacation I was much improved at being the navigator.  Tamara was driving.   Once we got back to the hotel, we did adult madlibs, read them aloud and laughed.  On Monday(our last day) we walked around at Boulder Mountain Park.  I saw another deer.  Since we couldn’t really jog the mountain, we drove to Chataqua Park and hiked a trail instead.  It was a perfect day.  I did not mind the sun.  Afterwards, we returned to the hotel, cleaned up and went to Strange Brewing Company.  It was a small warehouse filled with regulars.  The brewing company was the highlight of the vacation for me because I finally got the social interaction that I wanted.  We did a tasting, then ordered a pint.  I didn’t want to leave.  Tamara talked to a tourist who was from New Zealand.  It was perfect.  I drank the Zora Pale Ale and conversed with the head brewer Tim.  Lila was the minister of frothy libations (what a great title).  Before we left, Tamara bought a growler for her dad. I bought a hat for mine. The New Zealand guy, upon learning, that I’m a Texan guessed I was from Austin (since I’m so weird).  I told him weird people live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area too!! So there.