We’ve arrived in the Denver area and it finally feels like we’re starting our scenic adventure. It also felt like one of us had to go potty (this time it was ME, Ann). Pressure changes and all. Ugh. Anyway, we were meeting up with Ben’s brother and our nephew at one of those ginormous park and ride spots to say a quick “hi” as we rolled into town. They hadn’t arrived yet, so I took the opportunity to have a scenic twosie back in the Airstream. As the mission was complete and I was walking back out of the Airstream , a white SUV pulled up and the window went down. The couple in the vehicle identified themselves as a reporter team from the local Denver channel 7 news. Oh geez. Do they know I was pooping not even 45 seconds ago? The weirdest things seem to happen when we pull over for me to poop because next thing we know Ben is being suited up with a mic and the news camera pops out of the backseat of the SUV. Somehow me having a scenic poop got us live on the five o’clock news to talk about traveling through Denver for the Memorial Day holiday. I wanted to tell them the roads, particularly I-70 coming into Denver is poopy, but I kept quiet. I let Ben do all the talking because all I could do was stand there, nervously wondering if they knew I had pooped or if they knew that was my banana peel in the grass, by the passenger side of their vehicle. Ben and I are now in a tie for embarrassing bathroom stories, on this journey.
Once we left the park and ride spot, we kept rolling up into the mountains to Central City, CO. One of us had a slightly wagging tail when we first spotted the snowcapped peaks and one of us did NOT. It can’t seriously be that bad. It’s May, nearly summer, so our expectations are high for decent weather. Of course, what constitutes decent weather is different for both of us. But here were the current weather facts when we arrrived at the campground high above Denver, approaching the continental divide, 20% humidity, 9000 feet of elevation, and 60° temps, dropping down to 43° overnight ((WHAT?)). It didn’t take long to notice that all the SW Florida moisture had been robbed from our bodies, starting with hands and lips. When you’ve lived in Florida for a while, you forget that chapstick is a thing. As you can see, despite feeling a bit dried out, we seem warm and happy on our mountaintop.
This is our campsite at the Denver West KOA campground. We’ve now been here twice, both times in the same spot. It’s a really a high class campground. So classy that if you dial up the front office, they’ll bring you fresh propane tanks, firewood and pizza right to the camper! Lickity-split!
However, one particular issue we didn’t encounter here on our initial visit was a super chatty Chuck or a super nosy Nora from Someplace, Colorado who told you everything about themselves, their kids, their grandkids and every pet they’ve ever owned in the first three minutes of their arrival. It all came out of Nora’s mouth so fast that I didn’t catch anything but their names and for all I know, those are the wrong dang names. Either way, we were so very happy to see whatever their names were tottle into their RV and shut the door, after our initial round of introductions. Finally, we were able to relax a little once they disappeared. We opened the windows in the Airstream to air out the different travel aromas, kicked on some tunes and we started to make dinner. Out of freaking nowhere, Nora’s head pops under the raised glass of our Airstream dining room window and apparently she wasn’t done chatting because we got the “Howdy neighbors” greeting through the screen. Ugh, obviously all campground etiquette is out the window with this woman. One of us likes to cook in just a t-shirt and underwear and this is when things got a little weird. But oh no, it wasn’t weird for Nora. Every trick in the book was tried with this woman, including full out ignoring her, but nothing kept her from finishing her life story. We ended up liking Chuck a lot more than Nora because he came and pulled her away. Thankfully, we were safe for the rest of the evening. The trick is to avoid eye contact haha
Once dinner was cleaned up and additional hyper-local social obligations were avoided, we decided to venture five minutes down the road into Central City. While Central City and neighbor Black Hawk were originally the site of the first gold strike in the region back in 1859, leading to the point where the area was known as the richest square mile on earth, the eventual bust hit the area hard. We quickly learned that there are two main types of businesses in Central City. Weed shops and casinos. Now, yes, on the surface that seems truly exciting, but it was actually depressing. It’s a horrible feeling when you’re a lover of classic slot games with three rolling wheels and all that can be found are slot machines from hell with a bazillion lines, overwhelming electronic beeping and booping, and more buttons in front of you than were mounted in the space shuttle…I swear you need a graphing calculator and an abacus to calculate how much you’re spending per spin. With $100 gone in under five minutes, it wasn’t long before we were back at the campground sneaking back into the Airstream for the evening.
Our first morning was a bit chilly, but manageable as long as we were wearing every piece of warm clothing that we brought, plus the two extra down comforters we had stashed away “in case.” We cooked up some gluten free pancakes and were ready for a day in Denver with family. First we had a quick little detour to Duluth Trading because one of us nearly froze to death last night. A mere $400 later “we” felt we had the necessary gear to make it through the blustery 40° temperatures. Plus we felt we had done our part to stimulate the local economy.
The rest of our day was spent having fun while visiting with David, Katie and Super Toothless Peter. They always have great restaurants to introduce us to and different projects we can have fun with. As a result, Ben got a sweet origami samurai hat that fit nothing on his body lol. Always fun visiting family along our journeys!
TaterTotTales 