5-18-10: A Slice of Denver

Living high-hobo today. Man, it’s been a few days and I’m percolating with the history to reveal. We’ve covered a lot of ground yet we’re still in the Denver area. See, the van’s transmission is doing this thing in which it won’t shift out of first gear. Haha! So we drove from the Boulder mountains thru Boulder to the Denver outskirts to an Aamco shop. Well, we drove to two Aamco shops and the first was booked. At least the scenery is strong enough to keep one content while puttering 27mph down the road. Of course, the second Aamco was booked too, so I did what I’m best at. Thumbing through the paper at a laundromat I came across an ad for a local bar with smashing happy hours and wi-fi. Perfect! We passed the evening there and slept in the van, waiting for Aamco to open at 7:30. It did, and I directed the limping van there via back roads. We dropped it off and biked to a nearby Starbuck, where we’re camped out. The weird thing is the father behind me is rattling on and on about Justin Bieber. Go figure that one.

Some momentous times have transpired prior to the Aamco van deposit, though. We got into Denver Thursday and stayed with family friends, who treated us to their nice home, food, and showers. Before that time we were fortunate to get let into the Omaha YMCA where we showered twice and worked out once. Good times. Anyway, the 23 year-old daughter took us out in Denver to meet some of her amigos. At her suggestion we hit up a spot called the Cowboy Lounge, on a main Denver nightlife strip. The place was slammed with people, young, elderly, cowboys, cowgirls, regular-appearing people, and various other Caucasians. DJ would play 3 or 4 terrible country songs then revert back to ubiquitous party-rap. While the music alone was enough to inspire homicidal thoughts, the sheer volume made it impossible to function. Our party wasn’t dancing (thank Yoshi) so I first tried to talk with the friends. The ladies essentially had to shriek to be audible, so the talking didn’t last long. I resorted to plan B, which was to blend in with a column for the duration.

Next Up: Two Nights in Boulder with the Bongo-Making Hippies & Back-Country Snowshoeing/ Camping at 11,000 ft AND new photos!