Blogs from Golden, Colorado, United States, North America

Geo: 39.7566, -105.225Dejo & I left the house in separate vehicles, for reasons that will be clear shortly. We headed up to Golden, and stashed the Durango in a government office parking lot (they wouldn't need the spaces on a Saturday, correct?) and carpooled into Golden.We wandered about a bit, stopping to talk to one of the photo motorcycle drivers. He was very friendly, and gave us a little insight as to the logistics of the race. A tiny part of the logistics -- my head swims, thinking of all that has to go into putting this event on.After a quick turn about the festival grounds, we headed over to find the team buses. Again, we decided to divide & conquer. It worked this time. I got autographs from Taylor Phinney and Mathias Frank from BMC ... read more

Started out early this morning, but couldn't figure out why my parents were not showing up for breakfast. Apparently, they were locked in their room! The rooms lock broke and they couldnt get out! After that fiasco, we were back on the road. Our next stop was Estes Park, Colorado. This is a beautiful, but very busy and touristy town outside of the Rocky Mountain National Park. We made a quick stop at the visitor center and headed for the Fall River entrance. We were told by the ranger that we could find nice picnicking just up the road. We were able to get a spot and have a nice lunch and then back on the road through the park we went. It was absolutely beautiful! The mountains and the glaciers were stunning. The pictures do ... read more

The day began with a trip towards Arches National Park on a clear, calm, sunny morning. The ride in was again very beautiful with red rock cliffs along the road. We rode through the park and saw a lot of the main arches they have viewpoints of, but didn't do a major hike through the park to some of the others. Delicate Arch is the one on the Utah license plate and we saw it from a distance instead of a 3 mile round trip hike. We also saw Balancing Rock, which really boggles the mind how a large boulder can be perched on top of a rock spire like that. Overall, the park was amazing, and it's really impressive how many hiking and off road trails they have that would be amazing to spend more ... read more

Oh airports! December 16th: What a love-hate relationship I have with airports. I love to watch people, and generally speaking there is no other one place where you can find five million different types of people meandering about putting on a show purely for your own entertainment. Airports also mean that I am getting to escape from my everyday life to go somewhere new and do something different. While I love airports for this very quality, I despise them for the ensuing prolonged stomach ache that they are destined to cause me. I love traveling, but getting to places usually ends up with me feeling nauseous and needing to find the closest restroom both pre and post flight. It starts with the excitement of going somewhere new and ends with the anticipation and fear of the ... read more

We left Estes this morning to head south to Golden. Our first stop in Golden was to the Coors Brewery. This has been a staple of our visits to Golden since the first time we visited this area. With the merger with Miller the tour has become self guided but the same free beer exists at the end of the journey. This town is also home to the Colorado Railroad Museum - you know we couldn't take a trip without a visit to a local railroad museum. Saw some old steam engines made at Philly's Baldwin Locomotive Works along with all types of other equipment. Also passed the Colorado School of Mines - a dream school for any engineer - yes we are geeks. We were worried about the showers that happened on and off today ... read more