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Published: October 7th 2009
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Well let me think where did we leave off? Erm I think we were on the train to Denver. Well that was brilliant (apparently this term gives us away as English people, so now we are sticking with awesome!) we had our own little and I mean little cabin, that involves two seats facing each other then about 30 cm before a sliding door separating us from the corridor. The two chairs slid to meet each other to make one bed and above our heads was a let down bunk - brilliant I mean awesome! The view out of the window was mainly fields of corn as we were passing through farming country (Iowa) but none the less it was great to see the changing colour of the leaves and little wooden houses with American flags on the porch.
We had dinner on the train, which was free (well it came with the ticket) so we had the most expensive thing on the menu. It was a small portion when it arrived and Nath was about to make some sarcastic comment about starving etc but to our surprise it was really filling. Drinking the red wine on a train though,
not a great idea, I wasn’t sure by the time we had finished if it was the train or my legs!
Off to bed we went as we had to be up early to leave the train at Denver (7.15am), I had the bottom bunk and Nath awkwardly tried to get into the top bunk with the tiny amount of room left between the bunk and the door. Once in we both slept occasionally I think we could say, the train rocked so much that at times I felt like this was going to be our last journey as we derailed down some cliff. Talking to a couple the next morning at breakfast they also said that this was a much rockier ride than they had been on before. This couple were from the UK as were most of the train it seemed, it was so weird to hear all these English accents in one place and actually made a change from the oblivious loudness of some American passengers we have met so far. Anyway we arrived early in Denver so had to rush our breakfast and Nath never did get to use the shower in time (stinky) and off
Illonois
full of farm land - bit dull reallywe went via a short coach trip to Boulder.
Boulder is a very nice place, surrounded on one side by mountains, the range that join the Rocky mountain National Park. The rest of the place is very flat and clearly dug out and built purposefully. There was something quite strange about it, little pockets of civilisation carved into the ground and then miles of desert and rocks filling the rest of the space. The hotel I had booked us into as the hostel was fully booked and all of Denver was very expensive, was called the Boulder Outlook suites and it was brilliant, I can’t recommend them enough should anyone be in the region. We arrived as I said very early and on the confirmation I had been sent it said we wouldn’t be able to check in till 4, so we were prepared to just sleep in the lobby as we were knackered. Luckily the very friendly and helpful girl at reception let us straight into our room, so we both collapsed into bed for a few hours kip.
The hotel was a very “green” hotel and prided itself on recycling etc. every room had a number
of bins for all kinds of waste, they had an indoor swimming pool and hot tub that was chlorine free (so not sure how clean it was?) and all the food sold was local produce from organic farms etc, just great. We went for a walk into Boulder using the local “Boulder pass” path that is apparently 16miles long and goes from the canyons in the east to the mountain range in the west. We of course only managed some of it, walking past lots of university and college buildings, (much to Nath’s delight) and class of students being taught by the rivers edge as a lecturer told them about the wonder of gravity!! (“So class why do all rivers run down??) and signs on bridges that said “If river floods climb out” (deeeer what else you gonna do - I’m not sure how clever these Rockies folk are). We ended up in Pearl Street which is their main yuppie ski bunny kind of area with arts shops galore and expensive cafes, so obviously we only window shopped. By this time we were feeling the lack of sleep again and the change in altitude so headed back to the hotel.
Now this hotel also sells itself as the home of local Blues performances, so that evening at dinner we felt like we were really in the Rockies at a local bar, with some aging blues band singing their tunes and sport on every TV in the bar.
The next day we decided to walk up the local mountain range (how hard can it be) so set of for the Ch???????Moutain range park (It took about an hour of walking just to get to the park). I was feeling quite bunged up still so that together with the incline and cold air meant my nose and chest were sore, so we took it at a very slow pace! Boulder is already 5500km above sea level so we decided to pick the smallest increase in elevation, however as usual, as prepared as we were with food and clothing we didn’t have a map so just followed the path we found. Two hours later, we made it to the top of Flatiron 2 one of the three ridges in the mountain range. From here we could see the snow on the Rocky Mountains and the skyscrapers of Denver. The climb up was
a little treacherous in places, but the locals and their dogs seemed to take it all in their stride, we were over taken by sooo many people. Coming down was easier and much quieter traffic of people. The silence was so strange but awesome!
6 hours later we returned to our hotel exhausted and basically vegged for the rest of the evening. At dinner Nath soon perked up as there seemed to be a huge gathering of young 18-20year old girls (most in shorts and cow boy boots) for some college/church recruitment group. I had to keep myself occupied for at least half an hour whilst Nath tried to (subtly) not look and occasionally say something inappropriate that I’m sure one of his buddies would have appreciated (Tim, Steve, Stu, Trev your names were mentioned!)
We checked out the next day and headed to Denver. I’d booked one night at this b and b near the train station to make sure that we weren’t late for are train on Sunday morning, what with reduced buses etc. However this b and b was neither that near the station or a cheap place to stay. By all other Denver standards
it was reasonably priced but wow still much more than we would have liked to pay. Yet again I managed to pick the arse end of town, which made me quite nervous walking through to find somewhere to have lunch, so with this in mind and the amount we had paid for this one night, we spent the rest of the day in the room watching the giant projector screen (with such a loud fan it made listening to the films pointless), wearing the bath robe and using the spa bath!! (the last two were mainly me!!). Considering the rest of the trip would be hostels I thought I would make the most of it. We were eventually greeted by the housekeeper who looked a little concerned at two strangers just sitting in the lounge area rifling through the book case etc (considering we’d been left there with out any welcome for a while I figure they should expect to see awaiting customers in their lounge!!!). He was a funny guy in a strange way, some kind of old hippie with stories of his travels to Indian that he told us for some time (even though we didn’t ask to
Ready for bed
our seats are now bunk beds - cool eh? hear them). He then went on to tell us about the new way people are smuggling bombs onto planes (smuggling up their colon) and that soon it’ll be standard procedure to have a cavity search - “grandma ain’t gonna like that!” he added…..yeah anyway…….The room was very floral and pink, with a bed so high I had to climb onto it, loads of stupid scatter cushions (what are they for?!!!) and even a teddy bear to make you feel at home. All the same it was very nice shame we were only there one night. That night we order Chinese take away to save venturing into arse ville and as usually we should have only ordered for one as the food portions were huge (we’re eating them for lunch now)
Now we are on yet another Amtrak train bound for Salt Lake City, this time no bed as we should get there late this evening. The views as we drive literally through the mountain ranges are wonderful and breath taking in parts. (If you ever have the chance to do this train journey you really really must!!) Every western we’ve ever seen seems to have been filmed in this
area, we half expect a band of Indians on horses to come bounding over the cliff tops. Some of the people on this leg of the journey are a little “spiritful” but luckily we’re managing to do what all British people do when faced with an uncomfortable social situation…….ignore them. We have an attention seeking hippie, who is currently playing the banjo, a blood thirsty hunting oil worker, a guy whose first line to a complete stranger was “do you wanna hear a storey?” and some Mexican guy whose music is soooo loud I doubt he can actually hear anymore. Throw in a transsexual and I think we got ourselves a party!!
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Gavin Carey
non-member comment
How High?
> Boulder is already 5500km I really don't think it is!