Road Trip Adventure: DAY 2, Saturday, May 24th, 2008

Locations Hit:
Denver, Colorado
Aspen, Colorado

There aren’t many good things that come out of sleeping in a car, let alone one parked at a rather suspect rest stop in central Kansas. The one that shines though is that no matter when you go to sleep (in our case around 1:00A.M.) you are bound not to sleep in or sleep well. This allows for a very early start, and in our case it came around 5:15A.M.

A little shaken from the excitement of the prior day and a little soar from the less than Five Star luxury that is the Jetta hotel, we still had Denver on the mind and only about three hours to go. It was great to see mountains as we pulled into Denver bright and early around 8:30A.M. Lisl had been to the city before and we had some hot spots picked out so we set off on a day of walking in the beautiful Colorado sun.

Denver was not at all what I’d envisioned – a ski city nestled in between several snow peaked Rockies, bustling with ski bums, stellar pubs, and outdoor shops. The city was actually not very bustling at all which was surprising for a beautiful Memorial weekend Saturday and considering the Mets were in town to play the Rockies. It was calm and quiet. Lisl and Dan are both architecture students so we set off to examine the buildings.

The Denver Museum of Art is a staple building of the United States and was truly incredible, respectable by even a business student as myself. Boasting a student discount rate of $17 to enter however we had planned on simply observing from the outside. Dan somehow managed to befriend a kind older woman who worked there, telling her we were architecture students passing through and she walked us right through. It was a great museum and I’m glad we had the opportunity to see the work inside as well as the art of the exterior design.

We then continued meandering the city and ate lunch and tested some fine crafted micro-brews at the Wynkoop pub, apparently a local favorite. Utterly stuffed and satisfied from the first good meal since leaving home we set off for the R.E.I. camping store which is housed in a gigantic restored warehouse. For those with an outdoor sense it was also a great place to see, surrounded by enthusiasts stocking and restocking and trading stories in between adventures.

Around 5:00P.M. we hit the road, off to Snow Mass, Colorado, 4 hours west of Denver. This drive turned out to be one of the most phenomenal I’d ever taken, as it winded up and down the mountains and across gushing rivers. We were scheduled to meet Megan, another friend of Dan and Lisl’s from study abroad at her friend’s house, nearby in Aspen, as they were having a dinner party. A dinner party seemed like a great idea to us seeing as how we hadn’t now changed clothes, showered, or gotten solid sleep in about 2 days. Simply put, we weren’t quite looking our freshest.

Reassurance was quickly established as we walked in and were welcomed by Megan and about 10 of her friends eating burgers and drinking local micro-brews. They were truly one of the nicest groups of strangers I have ever found myself in the midst of and felt as if I was with a group of friends at college. They asked about our road trip and we asked about how they’d ended up in Aspen and Snow Mass. They filled us with good food and beer and we had a great night exchanging stories. As cliché as it may sound, this type of situation epitomizes the saying it’s not where you are but who your with. Well not only were we in one of the most beautiful locations in the United States, but we’d met a group of people that would make the best of any situation.

Dan, Lisl, and I at the Denver Art Museum.