To The Rockies!

I had to travel to Colorado for work, so I suggested to Abby that she go with. It was the closest thing to a vacation we would see this year. As an added bonus, she got to see her friend Ginger who moved back this way a couple years ago.

We flew into Denver Friday afternoon and booked it to the hotel. Denver weather was pretty yuck — foggy and rainy. Which made mountain-viewing nigh impossible. Ah well, there’s still plenty of time to see if the weather improves, right? We popped down to Black Hawk that evening to see the casinos. Can’t say it was all that exciting, as we left after an hour or so. It was late and still foggy and wet, so not a lot of mountains to see to and from the casinos.

Saturday brought promise. We woke up and tore open the curtains to see… rain. And lots of clouds. Crap. But the breakfast in bed was rather nice. We patiently refreshed the Weather Underground site to see if the doppler radar would bring some good news. Success! There was a break in the rainfall down I-25 toward Colorado Springs. I was wanting to check out Pike’s Peakand the path all the way there looed clear. So we hopped in the car and zoomed off to Pike’s Peak! …only to find it closed. Flash floods. To add insult to injury, we encountered heavy rain all the way back to Denver. Abby had been talking to an online friend of ours that we would meet later, so we decided to go back to the hotel. Only I passed the exit. So we whipped it around and we decided to head straight to the pub since we lost time. Abby got directions to the locale on her phone, so we hit the appropriate exit. This put us right in the middle of traffic heading to Mile High Stadium for the Broncos-Cowboys preseason game. Ouch. At long last, we managed to get to Pint’s Pub to meet up with some friends… what a joint! They have many many varieties of single malt scotch and a few microbrews. We got the scotch sampler from the four main regions of Scotland. I discovered I’m definitely a fan of the Lowlands scotch, so I picked up a shot of Inverleven…goooood stuff. I also had some brews made right in the pub — the Black Ajax Stout and the Gael Force Ale, both excellent brews.

I believe Ginger was quite excited at the news of Abby’s visit. She made us an itinerary for the drive to Grand Junction! Which, by the way, was gorgeous! Clear skies and lots of mountains as far as the eye can see!  I drove as Abby took many pictures. We met Ginger in Silt where her mom, Deb, lives. Deb treated us to a wonderful lunch and some back stories of the area. Ginger then led us in a convoy on to Grand Junction, where we checked into the hotel and then proceeded on to Colorado National Monument…absolutely stunning. Pictures galore. We went on to dinner at Olive Garden with Ginger’s cousin and some of my co-workers.

Monday started around 5:45AM. I got my things together and kissed Abby goodbye, for she was off to Utah with Ginger! Suffice to say, my business visit went well. And what’s the best way to end a successful business day, you ask? Beer, of course! I went with the hospital staff to the Rockslide Brewery & Pub. Had the special of the day — Peach Glazed Pork. Washed it down with a couple of brews made there — Big Bear Stout and the Raspberry Wheat. Both were rather tasty.

Today’s visit went extremely well as the staff got to test what I had been working on since, oh, November of 2006. Much blood, sweat and tears went into these moments, and it definitely paid off. So well, in fact, that we left much earlier than expected. So I carted my co-worker on to Denver, and she decided to book an earlier flight. Knowing policy, I was compelled to do the same. We did not plan on the traffic backed up in the Eisenhower Tunnel area, so we ended up missing the flight. She managed to find another plane, where as I did not. The pisser, though, is that I had to pay $100 to book the earlier flight…whcih I missed, only to end up right back where I started. I had the travel agency rebook the hotel I cancelled earlier and got to the room. Went out to Ruby Tuesday’s and grabbed a burger and had another local brew — Odell Cutthroat Porter, made in Fort Collins. Another good selection.

The original plan was that Abby would fly out of Salt Lake and then we would connect in Denver and fly home. I think heading home with Abby would be the best way to end the trip , and so it shall be tomorrow. Until then, time for more episodes of The Office and Family Guy.