October 3, 2014 / Day 2 of #ontheroad1014 (written on day 5?)

A day and a half behind, I write this sitting on the floor of a home built in the 1800’s for a doctor in Kansas City, MO. It was one of the couchsurfing situations I set up. I’m really happy I had one lined up since we arrived really late to the city. In Denver, we didn’t know where we were going to sleep but knew we had to get creative.

On October 3, we went from Durango to Denver, with a few hiccups in the morning.  Our rental said the tire pressure was off, and Dan needed to get more sustenance than the one oatmeal packet he ate.  That led us to trying to find a market that carried natural peanut butter and bread with no sugar. The slow giddy up in our drive, had us racing to Denver to make the Molly Brown house museum’s last tour at 3:30pm. The GPS said our arrival was 3:45pm and I was rehearsing my pitch to get us in mid-tour. I love Molly Brown, she was an intelligent strong Irish women. A feminist spit fire and a women before her time. I’d like to think I have a little Molly Brown in me.

Once we got into Denver, we took a wrong turn and it caused my anxiety to really shoot up. I really wanted to see the Molly Brown House! We got to the house by 3:40, parked the car, and ran to the ticket booth/souvenir shop, and I mean ran. The girl in the tickets heard my desperate plea, and said depending on where they were in the tour she could bring us in but if they were on the second floor we might be out of luck.

The ticket booth girl, fiddled with a lock on the door. It was stuck and the suspension was killing me, are we going to get to see Molly Browns house. Praying to the lord the door would open, it finally budged and we were taken into the dining room where the tour group was getting the last of the info before moving upstairs.

The museum house was everything I could imagine, Victorian, ornate, well designed, I swooned. The tour guide inside, Cat, was really kind to us and said since we came late she’d go through the first few rooms with us and then finish the history outside. We soaked it up, and after enjoying hearing all the additional Molly Brown tid-bits the other tour participants didn’t get to hear, I pushed my luck with Cat.

Having already given so much of her time to us, I felt selfish for asking if she might have a place or know anyone open to hosting two travelers for a night.  She informed us she had cats, and since I’m allergic, I informed her I had pills and a nasel spray to handle that. We exchanged numbers and in a few hours after cleaning she called us, and we had an amazing night in Denver.

Cat and I clicked, I knew there was a lot of potential seeing as she was a cool girl. There was a patch on the back of her jacket, that really gave me that extra push to throw out the “can we couchsurf pitch”. But her Patsy Cline ringer and my traveling Fraggle really solidified we are two people that get each other. She’s also partied with my favorite band Lucero, being a true Memphis woman and really is just an interesting and fun person. She warned us, once she gets drunk she is a food pusher. A crock pot filled with the best pea soup I’ve ever had was warming on the counter, and we came back from a night of drinking at Denver bars, to a home cooked meal.

  Wembley channeling a classy Kerouac at Charlie Browns

We are forever in Cat’s debt and we hope we’ve made a forever friend.

That same night we also met up with a Facebook Friend, who I had never met before, had one postcard correspondence with and the story about how we are connected is too long for one post. But meeting him, his awesome friend Xavier (who I’m hoping texts me with potential people we can stay with in Nashville and Charleston) and gal pals who’s names I can’t remember; was also what made our night in Denver feel like a night in a second home.

OTHER THINGS I LOVE ABOUT COLORADO/ DENVER:

I’ve always been a mountain girl more than a beach bunny, so the scenery is to die for!

Nico’s off the 285 has the best tamale I’ve ever had, and I’m from California

The Victorian Homes on every block, and it’s not even in seedy neighborhoods

The alcohol is dirt cheap! Dan and I had two whiskey cocktails and in LA that would have been $75 in Denver, it’s $29. A good beer is $4. When we shared that a PBR is $6 minimum in LA, jaws had to be swept up from the floor.

Well we are off to our next adventure, and running out of time – but I’m glad I was able to get this up grammar errors and all (be kind)