Line Dancing.......!?
Denver - 39°44'44.49"N 104°59'23.28"W
Breckenridge - 39°28'53.93"N 106° 2'16.13"W
The flight to Denver was uneventful - no embarrasing toilet moments or snoring passengers - but coming into land at Denver was quite impressive.
There was nothing but huge flat squares of dry looking farmland on both sides of us........., which probably meant that Denver was somewhere in front of the plane and the Captain wasn't going to attempt to reverse park.
Huge dust storms were kicking up massive funnels of dirt and as we got closer to the ground I could see hundreds of tumbleweeds racing across the ground. It looked something like when my Dad cracks a joke and nobody laughs. (I look forward to the next comment Dad).
The guy I was meeting with from the University of Denver picked me up from the airport and we went for a beer and met up with a colleague of his who would kindly put me up for the next two nights. The two days at the UoD were great and I'm still getting plenty of worky type stuff done.
Thursday night though, things took a turn for the worse. I checked into my hotel, got a bite to eat and then headed downtown in the evening to see what I could see.
There's a chance maybe that I sank a couple of beers in a bar called Coyote Ugly and watched a woman drink snakebite from a barmaids boot, but that might have just be the altitude making me hallucinate. Truth is though that the altitude in Denver is an issue. It took me a couple of hours worth of light headedness and headaches when I first arrived to get used to it - it's over a mile above sea level.
Anyway, leaving Coyote Ugly I noticed a queue, and a sign that said "Corona" on it. Enthused by the prospect that this might be some sort of Solar Sun fanatics event, I joined the back of the line......
Turns out it was a club, and only after I'd paid to get in did I hear the sound of Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achey, Breaky Heart". A man wearing a cowboy hat and a belt buckle the size of the World Wrestling Federation championship title brushed past me and I started to feel like this might not have been a good idea.
As I rounded the corner and looked for the bar I was pleased to see that the cowboy was in a minority and there were plenty of normal young Americans stood around having a drink - then, in a moment reminiscent of the final scene of Teen Wolf (the bit where all the school kids pull off a hugely choreographed dance scene), people took to the dancefloor on mass at the sound of their favourite tune and started.........line dancing.
I didn't know where to look and I couldn't even drink my beer with my jaw on the floor. What made it worse was that the song being played wasn't a Dolly Parton classic, but "Bye Bye Bye", by the one time boy band N-Sync!!!
In the toilets were signs that read "you know you're a red-neck....... if your mom makes a mean road kill stew" and ......."you find dog hair in your belly button" - nice.
I couldn't breath and I had to find somewhere to sit whilst I laughed out loud - altitude again I think! I was only sorry that some of my mates couldn't be there to see it with me.
Denver itself though is a really nice city and the view out to the mountains is amazing. The University of Denver sits on a bit of a hill and from the classrooms and libraries you can take in the view. I might have gone to a few more classes or library sessions if I'd been able to see the Rocky Mountains like that........maybe.
Friday night I went to see the University of Denver's Ice Hockey team, the "Pioneers", play the Michigan Tech "Huskies" at the university arena. The Pioneers won 1-0, and I enjoyed wathcing them kick seven shades of dulux out of each other for 60 minutes. Well worth the money. - a less enjoyable moment came when the puck left the ice at close to 80 miles an hour, sailed over the protective screen........and hit a woman sat 20 seats to my left in the face. Much like the line dancing situation, I didn't quite know where to look as her boyfriend started looking for her teeth and holding her nose in place at the same time.
So - now it's Saturday, and I'm at my hotel in Breckenridge in the mountains. I had to get a Greyhound bus up here though which I didn't enjoy - if only for the bus station in Denver that looked like the footage we all saw on the news of the inside of the Superdome in New Orleans just after Hurricane Katrina. Hundereds of people camped on top of each other waiting for buses overnight!
I've just been and spent a fortune on ski lessons which start tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to the next few days up here before heading back to Denver and on to Salt Lake City.
I'll be in touch again soon, provided I'm not in traction with a dislocated pancreas, four broken legs and no access to the internet.
M
Breckenridge - 39°28'53.93"N 106° 2'16.13"W
The flight to Denver was uneventful - no embarrasing toilet moments or snoring passengers - but coming into land at Denver was quite impressive.
There was nothing but huge flat squares of dry looking farmland on both sides of us........., which probably meant that Denver was somewhere in front of the plane and the Captain wasn't going to attempt to reverse park.
Huge dust storms were kicking up massive funnels of dirt and as we got closer to the ground I could see hundreds of tumbleweeds racing across the ground. It looked something like when my Dad cracks a joke and nobody laughs. (I look forward to the next comment Dad).
The guy I was meeting with from the University of Denver picked me up from the airport and we went for a beer and met up with a colleague of his who would kindly put me up for the next two nights. The two days at the UoD were great and I'm still getting plenty of worky type stuff done.
Thursday night though, things took a turn for the worse. I checked into my hotel, got a bite to eat and then headed downtown in the evening to see what I could see.
There's a chance maybe that I sank a couple of beers in a bar called Coyote Ugly and watched a woman drink snakebite from a barmaids boot, but that might have just be the altitude making me hallucinate. Truth is though that the altitude in Denver is an issue. It took me a couple of hours worth of light headedness and headaches when I first arrived to get used to it - it's over a mile above sea level.
Anyway, leaving Coyote Ugly I noticed a queue, and a sign that said "Corona" on it. Enthused by the prospect that this might be some sort of Solar Sun fanatics event, I joined the back of the line......
Turns out it was a club, and only after I'd paid to get in did I hear the sound of Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achey, Breaky Heart". A man wearing a cowboy hat and a belt buckle the size of the World Wrestling Federation championship title brushed past me and I started to feel like this might not have been a good idea.
As I rounded the corner and looked for the bar I was pleased to see that the cowboy was in a minority and there were plenty of normal young Americans stood around having a drink - then, in a moment reminiscent of the final scene of Teen Wolf (the bit where all the school kids pull off a hugely choreographed dance scene), people took to the dancefloor on mass at the sound of their favourite tune and started.........line dancing.
I didn't know where to look and I couldn't even drink my beer with my jaw on the floor. What made it worse was that the song being played wasn't a Dolly Parton classic, but "Bye Bye Bye", by the one time boy band N-Sync!!!
In the toilets were signs that read "you know you're a red-neck....... if your mom makes a mean road kill stew" and ......."you find dog hair in your belly button" - nice.
I couldn't breath and I had to find somewhere to sit whilst I laughed out loud - altitude again I think! I was only sorry that some of my mates couldn't be there to see it with me.
Denver itself though is a really nice city and the view out to the mountains is amazing. The University of Denver sits on a bit of a hill and from the classrooms and libraries you can take in the view. I might have gone to a few more classes or library sessions if I'd been able to see the Rocky Mountains like that........maybe.
Friday night I went to see the University of Denver's Ice Hockey team, the "Pioneers", play the Michigan Tech "Huskies" at the university arena. The Pioneers won 1-0, and I enjoyed wathcing them kick seven shades of dulux out of each other for 60 minutes. Well worth the money. - a less enjoyable moment came when the puck left the ice at close to 80 miles an hour, sailed over the protective screen........and hit a woman sat 20 seats to my left in the face. Much like the line dancing situation, I didn't quite know where to look as her boyfriend started looking for her teeth and holding her nose in place at the same time.
So - now it's Saturday, and I'm at my hotel in Breckenridge in the mountains. I had to get a Greyhound bus up here though which I didn't enjoy - if only for the bus station in Denver that looked like the footage we all saw on the news of the inside of the Superdome in New Orleans just after Hurricane Katrina. Hundereds of people camped on top of each other waiting for buses overnight!
I've just been and spent a fortune on ski lessons which start tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to the next few days up here before heading back to Denver and on to Salt Lake City.
I'll be in touch again soon, provided I'm not in traction with a dislocated pancreas, four broken legs and no access to the internet.
M
posted by Wallace at
9:41 PM
1 Comments:
Walsumsinsherwood
Phew I am all breathless and giddy up here with the Von Trapps. The merry men have been getting really restless and bored so we have been looking for things to do to keep them occupied because being lazy is an "idle vice"!
Little John has been muttering about some lonely goatherd thats been high up in the mountains acting all suspicious.
Kevin Costasnot decided that we should all dress up with hats and have handkerchiefs tied to our wrists and ankles and carry sticks with bells and have bells on our ankles too. He got a lad called Morris dancing to show us what to do. He had us all lined up hopping backwards and forwards umming some inane ditty and then would you believe we had to hit each others sticks. I ask you, can you ever imagine something like that catching on? Well it all went to pieces when Friar Tuck accidently wrapped Little John on the knuckles and they ended up in an almighty, pardon the pun, bust up and fight! Tuck was so furious he could hardly speak and was muttering some gibberish that in his northern lancs accent sounded like "Doh ray me far so la te doh" Do not ask me to translate because the bloke thats controlling this site would have my whole posting deleted and the enormous laughs you must be getting would end abruptly! Not heard much on that Virgil Skuller although we got a whisper that he was way over on the west side, the further away the better as far a I am concerned. Been snowing a bit up here so getting about has been difficult, and dangerous because we keep leaving our footprints in the snow. Kevin Costasnots at it again with another barmy idea about us sliding about on some bits of plank tied to our feet!
Fantastic views up here in the mountains, Sunrise Sunset all beautiful,but spoilt occassionally by this guy who has persisted on Fiddeling with his roof. Oops wrong musical!
Maid Marion told me 'King Richard made a surprise visit to Derby. She said our place smells a whole lot nicer now that the band of merry men have moved out, there is a plentiful supply of dock leaves in the bathroom, & it always smells fresh. She even said the nuns had been conspicuos by their abscence, but then they had solved the problem with my rear.
Got to go as we have decided to move down to a place recommended by Friar Tuck as our next hide out.
Will keep you posted when we get there.
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Anonymous, at 10:43 PM
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