25-27 August 2012
I immediately missed the convenience of the little
Albuquerque airport when I landed in busy Denver, Colorado. Getting to the rental car proved to be a much
lengthier process requiring me to take a shuttle bus blaring Christian rock to
which the other bus riders sang along. I
felt a little out of place. I was also surprised at the landscape as I looked
around. I had pictured Denver to be a city
surrounded by green hills and snow-capped mountains. The area around the airport is flat, brown
and arid. I almost wondered if I had
gotten on the wrong plane.
After waiting at least thirty minutes in line at the rental
car office, I was getting antsy to start exploring Denver. When I got to the front desk, the woman told me
that I could either wait awhile for my compact car or take the Ford Explorer
she had ready right now. Although the
green conservationist within me cringed at the idea of driving a massive,
gas-guzzling SUV, I had had enough of Fox Rental car for one day so I sold out
and caved in.
I had procrastinated on reserving a hotel room that night in
Denver until the morning of my departure. I had hoped to get a room in the same
hotel where the University of Colorado was putting me up the following night,
but thanks to my slacking, the hotel was fully booked. While driving from Sante Fe to Albuquerque
airport that morning, I had done a quick google search to find a hotel. Yes, I realize Googling while driving is not
the safest maneuver, but its what I did.
I even managed to find a hostel in downtown Denver for just $39 per
night for a room with a shared bathroom.
The man on the phone didn't even make my leave a credit card, he just
promised he would hold me a spot.
My Google maps lead me a bit astray on the way to the
hostel, taking me to the south part of Broadway, just about 3 miles away from
downtown. It turned out to be a cool
neighborhood with lots of bars, eateries, hippie cafes and even medical
marijuana shops. I had skipped lunch and
was starving at this point so I pulled off to grab a slice of pizza at a place
I had passed. Being a New Jersey pizza
snob, I wasn't too impressed with the pizza slice. I was, however, quite impressed with the man
who I saw walk out of one of the bars wearing an outlandish costume of very
short 1980s gym shorts, a T-shirt with Bill Murray’s face on it, and a matching
sweat band. It looked like these Denver
folks knew how to have a good time.
Eleventh Ave Hostel was right in the heart of downtown
Denver, as it had been described. When I
walked into the lobby, I began having serious reservations about my decision to
stay here though. Maybe I should have
paid more attention to the reviews I’d read online that spoke of one traveler’s
experience acquiring bed bugs there….
The under-construction lobby of the hostel reminded me of a
run down post-office with drab colors, yellow fluorescent lighting, gray
furniture, and sketchy patrons. In one
of the couches, there was a very thin and anemic looking older black man,
sullenly sitting there staring into space.
A short and stout mentally retarded man with coke-bottle glasses paced
around the lobby holding a glazed donut with sprinkles while talking to
himself.
I was greeted by a man wearing a nametag that read “Mark H”
when I walked up to the front desk. I
recognized him as the same man I spoke to over the phone with his unmistakable
raspy smokers voice. He was a middle-aged man who had clearly lived a rough
life. His thinning hair was slicked back
into a greasy little ponytail, his skin dyed a nice yellow hue either from the
years of tobacco exposure or perhaps the a bit of jaundice from the drinking.
His right arm had a large scar on the forepart, an injury that rendered the
limb barely useable. I wondered what
kind of accident had caused the wound; perhaps a late-night bar fight, an
aggressive attack dog, or maybe a former job on a factor line.
Mark H was friendly enough and remembered me from the
phone. He was one of those people who
likes to use your first name a lot in conversation. I told him that I’d like to see the room
before I committed to staying in it. I
was really just buying myself a little more time to decide if I wanted to cut and
run to the closest Best Western I could find.
He walked me upstairs through long corridors with red wooden doors,
slightly reminiscent of the hotel in “The Shining.” I spotted a few European tourists in the
hallways and felt a bit more at ease to know that the hostel wasn’t really a
half-way house for recovering addicts and semi-homeless folks. The room was clean enough and for $39, I
figured why not. I handed over my credit
card, $5 deposit for a key, and another $3 to rent a towel. Mark H promised it would be the fluffiest one
he had.
I was ready for some exercise after sitting in airplanes and
cars for the last few hours and I was anxious to be out in the late afternoon
Denver sun. As I was changing into my
running gear, my phone rang. It was my
cousin, Drew. Drew lives in the Boulder
area and we had been talking about the possibility of meeting up while I was in
town. Drew told me, “I am parking right
now.” When he said this, I assumed he
meant he had just pulled into his own driveway when in actuality, he was
parking down the street. When he heard
from his dad (my uncle), that I was in town Saturday night, he figured he’d
better head down since I wouldn't be here long and just drove to downtown
Denver. Fortunately, he just so happened
to have parked his car a few blocks from my hostel, even though he hadn’t a
clue as to what part of town I'd be staying in.
We took a walk through downtown Denver which was light up
with afternoon sun. There were some
architecturally interesting art museums and a beautiful capital building. Outside of the capital, there were bleachers
and other festivities being set up.
Tomorrow, this spot would be the finish line for the ProAM cycling race,
a professional ride that summits many mountains in Colorado over a 10 day
period. I was happy to see that Denver
had a downtown that appeared thriving even on the weekends, unlike many
cities. This place was really growing on
me.
For dinner that night, I met up with an old college friend,
Erin. Erin had been one of my closest
friends during the 6 month period I spent studying abroad in England. We hadn’t seen each other since around 2003
and certainly a lot had happened since then, namely her getting married and
having a new baby. She picked a trendy
and delicious restaurant called Colt & Gray where hipster-type servers
brought us hand-made cocktails and lots of delicious things to eat like foie
gras terrine, beet burgers, house made charcuterie, and cheesecake in a mason
jar. Erin and I still had lots in common
after all these years, including a love of food.
In my gigantic SUV, I followed her to her house after dinner. The city was busy with nightlife that Saturday. I spotted quite a few brewpubs I’d love to come back to on the way and was happy to see many people using bicycles for transportation too. I got to meet Erin’s husband, his sister, and the cute baby. Erin was excited that I could possibly be moving to Denver in the near future. She told me she had a friend who ran a CrossFit gym and that I could go hiking with her other friends. Matt’s sister was talking about her recent “fourteen-er.” It appears that in Colorado, there are lots of people who keep track of the number of mountain peaks over 14-feet that they summit. There are about 53 of them in the state. She had most recently done 2 peaks in one day. I was ready call home and tell them I wouldn't be returning to Texas any time soon.
Before I left for the evening, Erin asked if I was sure I
didn't want to stay at her house on the air mattress that night. She thought my hostel experience sounded a
bit sketchy, and although she was right, I was excited for my possible
adventure that night. Back at the
hostel, I found a parking spot in the dark, graffiti covered back alley. A few smokers sat on the patio and I could
hear the loud music from the bars nearby.
I was thankful for earplugs.
I am happy to report that I made it through the night
unscathed and without bedbugs or scabies (as far as I can tell). I woke up to a beautiful, cloudless
morning. I got into my running clothes
and found the closest café that Yelp reviews promised would have a great
espresso bar. I washed down by raspberry
scone with a latte while I planned out a running course.
Sufficiently caffeinated, I set off towards Cheesman Park. I realized my pace was fast and my legs felt
strong, but I was struggling to breath and violently thirsty thanks to the
altitude in the Mile High City. There
was a rose garden with on a hill with views of mountains beyond so I took
advantage of if to catch my breath. From
Cheesman Park, I ran down to City Park which was quite a bit larger and also
apparently preparing for the ProAM ride to pass through it that morning. I got in a good seven mile run, and although
my lungs were burning, it felt good to run in the cooler and dryer weather
while I toured more of Denver.
I said goodbye to Mark H, the man with the donut, and the 11th
Ave Hostel. Before leaving town, I
picked up a fruit and yogurt smoothie from a health food shop called,
Parsley. A sign on the wall implored you
to cut up your American Express card as an act of defiance against corporate
greed. They even provided the
scissors. Juice in hand, I started my
drive up to a town called Longmont, not far from Boulder. I was heeding the suggestion of my friend,
Luke, who told me I should check out the Oskar Blues taproom there. It promised dozens of locally brewed craft
beers and live bluegrass so he knew I’d like it. I also figured I could visit with my cousins
a bit more as I’d learned last night they would be right down the street. My friend Shan Shan met me there and we
shared a huge plate of barbequed ribs and pulled pork, drank good beer, and
caught up while listening to an impromptu bluegrass session complete with
fiddle, mandolin, bangos, and even an Irish stepper.
After lunch, I visited my cousins Drew and Seth at a test
kitchen down the road. They are trying
to start a business making “mochi.” I
always thought mochi was just the fluffy white sweet rice candy that one can
find in frozen yogurt shops as a topping, but it turns out there is more to it
than that. They showed me around the
industrial test kitchen while they waited for their brown ride to boil. Later they would make it into a sort-of paste
and eventually it would look like a flat thin square that one could use like
toast. In the storeroom of the test
kitchen I also saw a lot of other health food items, like granola, gluten-free
cakes and chai tea, in various stages of production. The whole place smelled wonderfully of
cinnamon granola. I hadn’t seen my
cousins since our grandmother died in 2010, so it was good to catch up.
As I drove back to Denver that afternoon, I enjoyed the
rural beauty of Colorado. Expansive
farmland and horse corrals led up to massive mountain ranges. This was the Colorado I had envisioned. I wished I had more time, but I had to get
back to Denver for a work function that evening.
The University of Colorado put all of the interviewees up in a cute little boutique hotel in the affluent Denver neighborhood called Cherry Creek. There were tons of shops within walking distance, including a very bustling Whole foods. I picked up an excellent cortado at a very hipster café which used Intelligentsia coffee beans. I got back to the hotel just in time to meet the rest of the group for an awesome dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant using mostly local ingredients on their menu. I saved room for dessert and met up with my friend, Casey, at a very popular ice cream spot. The place is an open-air creamery that serves its ice cream out of a circular building that looks like a giant, old fashioned milk jug. After waiting in a very long but quickly moving line, I ordered a mix of peanut butter pretzel and banana chocolate chip ice flavors. Somehow in 24 hours, I had managed to visit with 3 friends, and 2 family members, run 7 miles, take a drive through the country, listen to bluegrass, and eat and drink lots of wonderful new things. I was satisfied. It was now time for the work portion of my trip to begin!
