Advertisement
DSCN0986
Claire rolling the dice at the hotelDay 17 - Tuesday, 6/5/18, Wheat Ridge, CO - Denver, CO (Near Airport)
mileage: 111 miles
Yesterday, coming in from a long, flat day, we forgot to get the mileage; it was 509 miles. Our hotel, the Holiday Inn Express, was a different from the rest. The elevator bell, indicating when each floor passed, sounded just like the buzzer in the game Operation. It kind of scared us each time it went by a floor (ha! ha!) like you accidentally hit the side trying to retrieve the Adam's Apple. Each day, this hotel selected a guest to roll the dice for a chance to get a better rate or points. Since Claire saw someone else do it for the night we stayed and asked about it, the hotel's front desk clerk, Linda, allowed Claire to do it for funnies this morning in the front lobby. We even persuaded Linda to join in the fun.
Because we got into the Denver area a day before expected, we now had a day to enjoy all the things around the area that we've been so quick to miss two previous times through this way. First stop was to Denver Botanical
20180605_120422
At the botanical garden Gardens. We figured that we'd be able to take a relaxing stroll through the cool gardens on an off-day, Tuesday morning with no crowds and it'd be a great way to beat the rising temperatures outside. It was already over 90o and sunny by mid-morning. What's this?? Cars everywhere, no parking places, people everywhere - was everyone in Denver here? Finally, we scored a parking place as someone left then we found out . . . "it's FREE day" at the Botanical Gardens and, it turns out, everyone in Denver really was here including all the school children in the area on field trips. The gardens were lovely and we would have spent more time there if it hadn't been so crowded and so hot, but we had cut our visit short. However, before we left, Susan spied a Chihuly piece that we all liked. CJJ and Minnie even got their pictures made there.
After that we were too hot to do too much of anything out in the heat, so we searched for a place to have a cool picnic lunch. A shady spot in nearby "City Park" fit the bill. While enjoying our cooling lunch and just
DSCF1517
i didn't realize there were so many tornadoes in the Denver area. after Susan made the comment, "Boy, in Denver, when it's hot it's hot, but when it's cold, it's cold", a temperature inversion must have occurred because it certainly looked as if it was snowing all around us and was even beginning to lie on the ground. We tried to catch some pictures.
Following lunch, we headed to the Colorado Capitol building, but Dorothy took us to Capitol Hill instead, a residential neighborhood and not even a hill!! After her mistake, she rerouted and got us nearby the real thing. We had seen the Capitol building on our 1922 Coast2coast trip, but didn't stop because there were protestors all over the steps out front. Today, we were on a silly mission, though. Susan had seen where the 13th step to the Capitol Building was exactly "1 Mile" above sea level and we wanted to be a mile high. Since there were all kinds of steps around the Capitol starting at different heights, we didn't know which ones were the official ones, but finally found it marked on the front steps. Apparently they need to go back to a math class, because instead of the 13th step the "mile high level"
was marked on the 15th step. Pictures were made (with Minnie and CJJ, too) and we walked back to the van. It was blazing hot walking around downtown Denver and we were all overheated at this point, so we decided to head to cooler Golden, CO for some relief. On the way out of town, we saw the "Big Blue Bear" at the Convention Center that Susan told us about, but didn't do the traditional hug, and we got some pictures of Denver Bronco's Football stadium (Susan was still mad at them about the Super Bowl).
In Golden, it was at least 10-15o cooler and mostly cloudy - a much welcome relief to the heat. There, we had decided to eat at the same restaurant that we ate at the first night of the trip - as it opened at 5 pm. That gave us several hours so we browsed through just about every shop in town. Pam bought a few small things including a "Au" sticker (appropriate for chemistry) and Claire nearly bought another vase (and still may get it). We specifically wanted to go to the "Rock Shop" and saw signs leading down the street. After walking
DSCF1527
Chihuly glass at the gardens down and back up the street, we still couldn't find it. Claire pulled out Dorothy who said we were right on top of it, between the same two streets. We looked and looked and walked around. Suddenly, Dorothy said, "You have arrived" as we were looking at an empty store. We were puzzled. Then, Pam saw a tiny sign in a store window across the street that said "Rock Shop" and a much larger sign on the door said M-F 10-5. We hustled across the street only to find it was closed. Then on a small piece of paper in the window it had written, "Closed on Tuesdays!! Ugh . . . after all that work to find it and was closed.
After having walked all of Golden and checking out all the stores with more than an hour before the restaurant opens, we decided to go visit Idaho Springs. By the name, you'd think it was in Idaho. Nope, it's only about 30 mins from Golden and the drive was a gorgeous twisting drive through deep rock canyons, tunnels, and gulches all running right next to the swift moving Clear Creek. As we went through the tunnels, they
DSCF1529
We are a mile high. Family portrait. were numbered: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 ??? Where was Tunnel 4? Did they not know how to count here either? Then we passed a sign for the "Big Easy Trailhead". We all said, "Yea, right. With steep canyons going straight up, there aren't any trails through here that would be easy." But then, just a quarter mile down the road, we saw the flat, paved "Big Easy Trail" running on the opposite side of the trail. We could do that trail and said we'd stop on the way back. Idaho Spring was a nice mining town with a quant, historical downtown. Since we didn't have long, we did a drive through, but had to stop for a pit stop. There was only one place to stop so we had to do it. Okay, let me explain. On this trip, we kept seeing all these gas stations that were called "Kum and Go". If it had been spelled differently, it wouldn't have bothered us, but we said it was vulgar and trashy and we avoided them throughout the trip. Great, forced to stop, because we had to go! On the way back, we saw tunnel 4 all boarded up in
DSCF1534
Denver state capital a bend in the road. We thought maybe it had collapsed or something, but Claire looked it up and, apparently at some point, they rerouted the road and leaving the tunnel out of the loop. Then we felt sorry for Tunnel 4 thinking that the other tunnels probably made fun of it for no longer being in use.
Back to Golden, we had another delicious meal and headed to our hotel near the airport, a Hyatt House. On the way there, Dorothy made us go way out of our way and as we stopped to get gas under dark, looming clouds, a violent "dustnado" hit us. Claire was pumping the gas, when she saw the cloud of dust coming, by the time she ran around the van (hose still in the tank), it was so fast it was already hitting us. We thought we were going to lose Claire and would have if she hadn't made it inside. Like a tornado, debris and violent winds were moving the van back-and-forth under a shaking cover over the gas pumps. A motorcycle parked in front of us was moving all over the place. The locals said it was a violent dust
storm, but as we continued to drive to the hotel, we saw more cross in front of us and tear all sorts of things up on both sides of the road. It was a scary way to end our time with the van.
At the hotel, it was still very windy as we quickly cleaned every last thing out of the van and took it to the room. The room was a 2 bedroom suite (each with king beds) and a complete kitchen (even had a peninsula/island). By far the nicest hotel room on the trip, too bad we'd have the least time to actually enjoy it. Off we went to the car rental to return Cassidy. We'll miss her, but she was a great van despite her leaks and lack of amenities. We said our goodbyes and even got a picture with her before taking the car rental's shuttle bus to the airport. On the way, Claire called the hotel to have their shuttle come pick us up - should meet us at the airport in about 15 minutes. At "island 3" where hotel shuttles load and unload, we waited and waited, and waited some more. Where were
DSCF1536
At Golden they? Claire called again. They said they would be there soon. We waited and waited some more. Claire called another time and they said that the shuttle driver had been pulled. Seriously???? For over 45 mins, we’d been sitting at the airport under the covered shelter and we got this news! What if those "dustnados" in the distance hit the airport. This is wonderful . . . and that's just what you want to hear about your driver. So, we settled in. Eventually, it arrived and the shuttle driver said that a girl was covering for him while he took a break and she was the one who was pulled. By the time we got back, it was so late, we didn't have time to do much more than pack our breakfast and lunch for tomorrow and fall into bed. What a night!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.11s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0412s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
