Finally Made It

Here I am, as promised, keeping a blog of my travels. I know many were skeptical as to whether or not I would I would do this; to be honest, so was I. However, I think I'll follow through with this. I'm sure I'll have lots of time on my hands.

I guess I should start from the beginning. I pulled out of town about 3:18 on Wednesday afternoon. I had no idea how far I was planning to drive, I only knew I had to be in Denver at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday for the Rockies game. About 4 hours into the drive I really asked myself, 'what are you doing?', I knew there was no turning back now. Missouri was not a bad drive, then I hit Kansas.

All I hear from everyone about Kansas is that it's flat. I beg to differ with them on this one. I felt like I was constantly going up and down little 'hills'. When I get done with this, I'm going to look up a topographical map and see if I am right. The wind in Kansas was ferocius, truckers and myself were getting blown all over the road, it was a little scary at times. The one thing I didn't hear about Kansas was how far apart the gas stations are. My low fuel light came on and I started to get a little worried. No fear though, I had my stop planned perfect.

I decided to try and make it through Kansas so I would only have a couple hours left in the morning. After 11 hours and 2 energy drinks, I finally arrive in Burlington, Co. You may ask yourself, where does one stay in Burlington?? That's right, the Burlington Inn. It was nice enough for me, not somewhere I would take someone on a first date, but it was ok.

Got up on Thursday and continued my trek into Denver. I arrived early enough to check into my room (Eric's apartment) before the Rockies game. The weather was beautiful, lower sixties and bright sun. You couldn't have asked for a better day for baseball. While standing inline to pay for my parking, which is a hot commdity in Denver, a scalper comes by and tries selling me a ticket. Unfortunately for him, his negotiating skills weren't up to mine. After haggling, he walks away with no sale. A couple minutes later he comes back and gives me a ticket 11 rows off the field for $10.

Coors field is a beautiful stadium, nothing special though. I was all set, perfect weather, bag of peanuts and a scorecard. After about the 2nd or 3rd inning the clouds moved in. What was once a perfect day went downhill fast, even bought a beer and that didn't help. By the end of the day, it was cloudy and 52 degrees with 20 mph winds. Yeah, it was cold! On the bright side, the Rockies won by scoring 3 runs in the 9th, at least is was an exciting game.

After the game, I walk back to Eric's and warm up. We went and found a street to park my truck on for free for the weekend. It's pretty close, only about a mile away...but it's free! After walking back from that we grab dinner at this place down the street called Illegal Pete's. It's a neat little place, they have a menu like Qdoba but they also have a bar and a really laid back atmosphere. Needless to say, after stuffing myself and a couple beers, I was ready for bed.

I woke up this morning refreshed and ready to see what this big city has to offer me. The bike trails here go forever, and there's several to choose from. One bike trail goes right behind Six Flags and to the doorsteps of Invesco Mile High Stadium, everything is so close to Eric's place, it's really nice. After riding, I decided to see the 16th Street Mall. It's a street, but it's just like a mall, store after store and lotsa restraunts. The buses run free up and down the street, get on or off anywhere. I went and saw the state capitol building and the city/county building. This afternoon, I decided I better start on this blog thing. So, here I sit outside Illegal Pete's, drinking a frosty Bud and typing away. I think I can get the hang of this vacation thing!