More than 9 hours on a flight was more than enough for me and it felt way longer than that on the old British Airways plane where the entertainment system breaks down (just like the Denver to London flight 5 weeks previous). Onto immigration I went where I was hauled in for a second interview. When was the last time I was here? How come I had stayed longer than I had said I would the last time? Where was I staying? When would I leave this time? Proof of onward flight please. What did I do for a living. And so it went on…Only that my passport had so many stamps from South America in it, did he believe that I was a female solo traveler (quite an unusual concept it would seem). How was i funding myself? That was the key thing he said that I needed to prove. They wanted to ensure that I was able to support myself whilst in the US. I said I could show him bank statements but he declined, so I must have said something right. If I was to return again in the near future I would get called in and grilled again. Ah well another new experience!
There was lunch catching up with the “Housewives of Denver” at Acorn in The Source which occupies a former 1880‘s brick foundry building in Denver’s River North District (locally known as RiNo). Only recently opened, it is a collective of food artisans and retailers offering visitors everything from freshly baked bread to craft cocktails, from street tacos to contemporary flower arrangements. We started with lunch and ended up checking out happy hour at La Comida. Fortunately it wasn’t as late as previous Housewife gatherings and I was somewhat compus mentus going home.
I had wanted to go to Boulder to see the sunset one evening perhaps after a home. A Google search had suggested Flatirons Vista as the place to go. After a lazy 24 hours up in the mountains near Larkspur we thought that we would get there early and get a hike in. On arrival mid afternoon we realised that we had been there before; it was where we had done our mountain biking lesson previously but as we were there we thought we may as well get a hike in and see the Flatirons on foot.
The 6km hike turned into something a little longer after I suggested we go look down a different path to get a different perspective on the area. As we headed away from the Ridge downwards we thought we were on a loop walk back to the capital; alas we weren’t. Realised this once we saw the main road and no sign of the carpark where the car way. That car park was 2 miles away and we would be walking on the main road to get to it. Also the sun was going down which at this time of year means the temperature drops too. Were we delighted to get over that hill ridge of the road, see an off road path and knew that it would take us back to the car. 13km later, very unprepared for such a walk were we delighted to get some water into us and a seat to rest in.
The next night we had tickets for the Broncos match at the Mile High stadium, my first professional football game in the US. We were up in the Gods, you feel the altitude walking up those steps to the top. The Broncos are currently the champions of the league and it was a full house. The stadium was awash with orange and navy as the local team filled the stadium up to the 80,000 capacity.
Kick-off was at 1830 but We missed the first few minutes of the game when the Houston team took the lead but after that the Broncos ran away with the game. 15 minute quarters would last way longer than that as they swooped players in and out, injury time and whatever else they were getting up to down on the pitch, I still don’t understand the game except when the Broncos scored a woman on a horse gallopped across the pitch. We left at around 2200 with still 5 minutes to be played as the Broncos had run away with it. We managed to stop by an Irish bar and grab a pint of Magners to finish the night before going back to the house to realise that Bucky had a case of diarrhea and pooped around the living room. Poor Jonny had the job of cleaning that one up.
Tuesday was my last day in Denver and time to get last minutes bits, a morning spent in the Apple store upgrading my phone along with a visit to Art from Ashes where I had volunteered to see how they were getting on.
I had a late night flight from Denver to Florida to connect onto the next flight. However they were not going to let me onto the flight as I did not have an outward ticket so I had to purchase a return ticket back to the US in mid November. They said that I could get a refund once I got to Cartagena and thru immigration but we shall see what happens… Also i don’t have a stamp in my passport to say that I have left the US so if I do go back I hope the Colombian immigration have a habit of stamping passports.
Vonn Voyage 