The Non-Definitive Guide To Life

If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with rain" - Dolly Parton

Posts for Colorado

CO: My Denver Guardian Angel Molly Brown

ADVENTURES, TRAVEL - October 5, 2014

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.

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AZ & CO : We drove all night…

ADVENTURES, TRAVEL - October 3, 2014

Words can not properly describe how exhausted I am, as Bowerbird and I left for the Grand Canyon at 1:30am in the morning. After a week filled with sleepless nights due to work and planning, the day of my trip I couldn’t for the life of me actually fall asleep. I’ve been so excited and filled with anxiety, my racing mind has kept me up. Now I’m in Durango, Colorado completely zombiefied and pushing a blog post out of me so here goes.

COOL PEOPLE: 

Bowerbird had stopped at little Colorado canyon in the past and wanted me to see this beautiful formation. The thing about the Grand Canyon, although it is amazing in size, scope, pure enormity; it’s really hard to absorb all of it. Especially if you are not doing a helicopter tour, or hiking from the bottom to the top. It’s a limited experience. With the little Colorado canyon, you can see to the bottom, you can see where the horizon is and the flat land breaking off into a cavernous pit below. At the same time we were visiting the LCC,  four Irish men were as well. Their accent were distinguishable off the bat, and I wondered if they were from Belfast. (Because of Sons of Anarchy of course)

When I had the courage to approach them, I said I was assuming they’re accent was Irish and they said I was correct, in which I proceeded to ask where from. When they told me Dublin, I replied I thought it could be Belfast and we had a good laugh. As the two men walked away to their other friends, they remarked how someone else had asked if they were French. I replied, “French? You’re clearly Irish men, the 1/4 Irish in me knows this”. The men laughed again and he said well in that case, and pulled out a magnet of Ireland. I haven’t had a chance to take a picture but I found the same one online. It was truly touching to me, and I replied “It’s because I’m a Gleason”. Gleason being my grandmother’s maiden name. Personally I feel that this magnet wasn’t just a friendly Irish gift, it was a way of my grandmother telling me she is protecting me on this journey.

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NEW SKILLS:

I bought a real point and shoot for this trip for low lighting and potentially self timed pictures. Today I was able to use the 10 second self timer, and being able to get Bowerbird and I in the same shot with cool stuff in the background is kind of a huge highlight…

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…and now I’ve run out of steam, I seriously can’t think and the comfortable Airbnb bed I’m writing this on is sinking me lower into it’s mattress. I feel like my typing fingers are 20 feet away from my burning eyes and exhausted mind. As soon as I catch up on some sleep more detail reviews of the trip will come but for now GOOD NIGHT!

and wow I’m on the road.

Basically, first day was amazing but I’m EXHAUSTED!

more photos…

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