Denver!

Oh Denver, you are interesting. I think Brenna and I saw more of outside Denver than actually Denver. And that’s ok! 

Let’s start at the beginning. I left Omaha for Denver at 9am. Things were going great. 

After Car Henge I was on my way (an hour late) to grab Brenna from the airport. It’s ok. I let her know that I’d be late She’d had quite the adventure getting to the airport and said I was lucky to be picking someone up. 

A little over an hour outside of Denver and I get a flat. 

  Amazingly I didn’t flip out. I got on the phone with AAA while I started to pull all they stuff out I needed to change my tire. Turns out that the previous owner took the jack and the key I needed to unlock my wheel from my car. So I was shit out of luck. There was this nice man named Tracy from Wisconsin who stopped to help me. He was going out to hike the Continental Divide for two months. We chatted while a few officers stopped to see if they could help and we waited for AAA.

Jimmy from AAA came and decided that I needed be towed to the shop. He didn’t have the key to my wheel and there might be a tire there. 

It turns out that I hit some metal and it sliced my tire big time. . The nice shop owner stayed open late to replace my tire and gave me a key to my rims and a bill for $140 for a new tire. Finally I was on my way to pickup Brenna 3 hours late.  

I had planned for us to stay at this hostel. All the hostels were expensive but this one, and when I read the Google reviews while waiting for my car I found out that this place was terrifying. Brenna and I talked  it out and decided to just walk in and check it out. As we got out of the car and were cat called by some vagrants outside the place we turned around and immediately started lookin for hotels. 

Then my car battery died and we had to call AAA again.  L.O.L.

 
I’m really getting my money’s worth on that membership cost. 

On our way to the hotel  I went the wrong way twice down two different roads because they were not clearly marked. That started the hashtag #nononowrongway

Finally Brenna and I settled in at a motel on the north side of town and had a good sleep. This was only after I figured out that we missed our New Belgium tour on Friday because I thought it was Saturday but we decided to go up on Saturday anyway. 

Fort Collins

I loved Fort Collins! We had brunch at Snooze where I had the best Bloody Mary I’ve ever had.  

 Then we checked into our hotel after exploring a bit. The elevator almost killed us so we took the stairs. Hotels are fun…

We went up to New Belgium. My co-worker’s husband hooked us up with merchandise, free beers, and a tour. Our tour guide, Marie was great and so was the atmosphere. If you’re ever in Denver, take the hour drive up to New Belgium and check it out. After our tour we walked through town and stopped at a new distillery call Mobb. The whiskey was good but the gin tasted like an ashtray. I did like the pretzels and mustard we had. Then Brenna and I walked (stumbled) through town checking out breweries. Finally made our way back to our hotel later in the evening.  

 Golden! 

The next day Brenna and I went to Golden while we waited for our hotel to be ready in Denver. We walked around and really like the town. It seemed a bit touristy but it was a good distraction from Denver. We had lunch at a biker bar and then got on our way to the Ramada/Super 8 that we booked solely for the shuttle to downtown.  

 Denver!

We went I the hotel pool while we waited for our room. Once in our room we realized that it was a smoking room at one time and they failed at cleaning it to get the smell out. We planned on catching the shuttle down to the city for dinner. It was supposed to come in the jour. we stopped by the from t desk to let them know we wanted to take the shuttle. Brenna and j waited and waited and finally the van shows up and the thing empties like a clown Carr full of kids. Apparently the hotel worker went and picked up her kids and their friends for a giant pool party. They all went inside and Brenna and I waited another 5 minutes before we started to walk.  We went and met Brenna’s friend Nathan downtown for dinner. We came up on a Chalk art festival and realized that we really hadn’t explored Denver proper at all. We are at Euclid for diner. It was really good. Nathan talked about things we should do in Monday before we headed out. After dinner Nathan took us toRio Grande for margaritas. They were the best margaritas I have ever had. And they were strong! So strong you could only have 3 Brenna got a little drunk and I just got tired. Something about elevation takes it out of you. 

Red Rocks

The next day we headed out to Red Rocks for a walk/hike. It was really beautiful and perfect for trail running. At one point in the trail we walked in a circle. Brenna and I were real confused about how to get the hell out of the trail. Finally we followed these people out.  

 After leaving Red Rocks I had to use the restroom and we missed the exit for the gas station. Next thing I know we are in the highway and the nearest bathroom was in the exit to Wild Buffalo Bill Cody’s gravesite and Museum on Lookout Mountain. I struggled with being excited about this little piece of history because I had to go to the bathroom so bad. We wound around roads for what seemed like 12 hrs until we came upon a park by his grave.  I found a latrine and did the thing you’re supposed to do in the place. 

Brenna saw a path that was to the historic site. We hiked it over,  saw the grave and went into the musuem.  

 Back to Denver to try out C Squared Cidery. The cider was so good and so was the food. I had the pickled eggs and chicharonnes. Brenna had a burger and duck fat fries. Check this place out if you’re ever in Denver. Food and drink were good!  We tried to go to another Cidery and winery but both were closed so we headed to Boulder  where we were planning to meet up with our friend Sam who was coming into town.  

 Boulder 

We had beers at Boulder Brewing while we waited. Soon we found out that flights were delayed so we decided to get on the road in a thunder storms. It sucked. There was thunder, lightning and hail that pelted my car. 

It took forever to get home. I won’t lie driving through the Rocky Mountains was beautiful. I loved every bit of it. However, I did not enjoy being so tired when we were near Salt Lake that I was hallucinating seeing things in the road. 

Finally 9 hrs later and one almost fall asleep at the wheel we were in Salt Lake! I was so happy to lay my head down on Brenna’s couch.