Finally Going to Colorado!

After the great times we had at the Cadillac Ranch and the Palo Duro Canyons, it was finally time to head out of Texas. So we started driving...and driving...and driving. I had my newly acquired nose bleed issue and had to lay low in the passenger seat so Eric had to do most of the driving that day.

Now entering Colorado! We finally made it! I think it was somewhere around 8...maybe. This was my first experience with driving in the snow. At first I wasn't sure how to handle it so I decided to turn on the windshield wipers and quickly realized that it was doing squat because the windshield wasn't wet. (What else would a Floridian do?) By this time we were getting hungry and needed a break from the road. We stopped at Walmart in Denver to get some long johns, an ice scraper, and some windshield washer fluid that wouldn't freeze when it hit the windshield; got a good hearty, calorie filled meal from wendy's and then the destination was Glenwood Springs for some rest. The hotel was so nice, but we didn't really care at the moment. All we cared about was getting in, taking a shower and hitting the pillow.

The next morning was cold, but it was beautiful! The snow is spectacular, especially in the mountains. This is the first time I have seen the snow in the day light since a little boy and the first time I can remember it.

Then it was off to the slopes for my first snowboard / ski trip! Let me just say ouch. Lessons were $135.00. That was a bit more than I was willing to pay. Like $135.00 more. Eric could give me lessons in skiing, but I wanted to go for the snow board. After being denied availability to ski on the kiddie hill for practice, I decided to teach myself on the mountain - bad idea. It started off like this: I fell getting off the lift. I fell the first time I tried to stand on the snow board. (every sentence here on out starts with an understood "I fell when I...") So, I didn't snowboard down the mountain, I tumbled. However, there was a good hundred yards or so that I was up and going. The rate of gravity is 32 feet per second per second. I learned physics all over again - the hands on way. I was probably going about 30 mph when I realized that I don't know how to stop, or slow down for that matter. So what did I do? I fell. (yes, there is another understood "I fell when I..." on the previous sentence too). I figured a controlled fall would be less damaging than an unexpected fall. I would imagine if you were watching me do this, it would probably look a lot like a circular saw trying to cut the mountain in half. I boarded head over heels the rest of the way down directly into the rental shop and exchanged my board for a pair of skis. Then it was on!

This is me skiing like an Egyptian down the hill.

This is me showing Eric how to ski.

I flew past Eric like he was standing still!...

Oh wait, he was standing still...

...This is Eric coming to my rescue.

It was GREAT skiing for the first time. I finally started to get the hang of it after Eric's expert (sometimes a little parenting) guidence.

Note the snow on my head. That is not from the sky. It hit the ground before I moved it around the mountian. It is kind of like pollination, right?

Ok. I have beaten myself up enough! I was done and on top of the world. No broken bones. No fractured skulls and no concussions. I went to the truck to put on some dry clothes, but first I had to dig it out...

After about 45 minutes of Eric and I dodging each other, we were back on the road. The drive through the mountains is absolutely breath taking...

We drove what should have been 2.5 hours back to Denver. It took us much longer than that. The snow was falling, the 18 wheelers had to put chains on their tires, and we could barely see the dividing lines for the lanes if at all. It was definately a good learning experience for me. On the way bakc to Denver, we saw the coldest temperature I have ever seen. The thermometer in my truck read 0 degrees.

We stopped off a mile down the road from the hotel to have something to eat at what looked like an old warehouse turned italian restaurant. This is some of the best italian food I have ever had. The place cost $4.3 million to build and could seat 500 people. There were about oh, 6 people when we were there. Our waiter said that on a busy night there is over an hours wait! The place was amazing. The walls and the ceiling were all hand painted and there was a big stage in the center of the back wall. From any seat in the building, you had a clear view of the stage. There are italian bands that play on the busy nights. When Eric and I were there, they had a recorded concert of Andrea Bocelli playing on an enormous projection screen. I just wish I could remember the name of the place.

After that, it was back to the hotel to sleep, get up in the morning, and drop Eric off at the airport for his ride home.

Um, so what now? Reality set in and I was clueless. There I was in the airport without Eric, without anyone I knew and without a place to live. I figured that the first thing to do was find a place to get some work done and determine the next step. I went to the Denver Library. Wow! Nice library. I spent an hour there writing a post to this blog and that was about all I got done. Oh yeah, I also checked my email. I left the library and putz around the town for a while. Nice place. For those of you who haven't been there, it is a smaller metropolitan area with anything you could want. I figured I could find a place there and settle in for a while, but it was a little too fast paced for me. I thought about various places in Colorado to move to and honed in on Colorado Springs. Boulder is too much of a college town (which I would get into too much trouble). I figured that the larger ski resort towns like Vail and Aspen are too expensive to live in and Colorado Springs was a central location. Some good friends had spent some time out here and had a lot of great advice. Thank you Barbees!!!! They even recommended the place I am living in right now.

When you walk out my front door, you are starring Pike's Peak right in the face! It is the picture I have at the top of my blog. So far most of the people are very nice and very helpful. This state is an outdoorsman's kind of place. Great mountain bike trails, rock climbing, hiking, etc... I haven't found anywhere for base jumping yet, but am eagerly looking. The days here are beautiful! Most of the time there is a bright blue sky with inviting mountainous scenery. From my place, you can get to just about anything you want to do [except the beach :( ] within 15 minutes. There is Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, The Cave of the Winds, Seven Falls, a zoo, and even a place to look out at the lights of the city at night. It takes about an hour and a half to get to a decent place for sking. Coming from the flat lands of Florida, this is a nice treat. I will post pictures of most of this soon, but like I have said before, you really need to be here to grasp how amazing it is.