The Drive Back to Denver

Colorado Travelog #43
Near DEN Airport - Saturday, 9 Jul 2022, 11pm

Well, it's been another long day. We finished up our hike at Maroon Bells (previous blog) and took the next bus back down to Aspen. We left Aspen in our own car between 3:30 and 4pm.

Weirdly Aspen has no cell phone reception. Or, at least the downtown-ish area where the buses depart had no coverage. So we weren't able to check directions back to Denver until after we started. Thus I started driving by reversing our route back to Glenwood Springs, and from there to Denver along I-70.

It turns out that's not the fastest route. It's only slower by about 10 minutes, but the faster route would've had the advantage of taking us through a small part of Colorado, around Leadville, I haven't seen before. I like seeing new places, and Leadville is interesting. At elev. 10,152 feet (3,094 m) it's the highest incorporated city in the US.

On the other hand, the slightly slower route back to Glenwood Springs means another chance to drive the beautiful Glenwood Canyon:



With stops for snacks along the way we arrived at our hotel outside Denver Airport just before 8. We checked in and wheeled the bags to the room. Hawk stayed there to repack the bags for our flight tomorrow while I went back to the car to fill gas and return it to the airport.

DEN is one of those airports where everything just takes longer than it should, and returning the car this evening was no exception. After gassing up the car and returning it to the rental depot I had to shuttle to the airport then wait for the hotel shuttle. All in all it took 90 minutes. It felt like it should have taken 30.

By the time I was back to the room again it was going on 10pm... and I realized I really wished I'd eaten dinner. I didn't want another wait-for-things-that-go-slow rigamarole, particularly since I have to be up before 5am tomorrow 😖 so I walked over to a 7-Eleven two blocks from the hotel and grabbed some hot food off their rollers and a can of beer. It wasn't elegant but it got the job done.

Now that I'm fed and able to relax I'm unwinding before going to bed. I took a look at my driving log. Here are a few stats on our driving mileage this week:

Miles driven today: 268
Total miles driven the last 8 days: 1,340
Day with the least driving: Friday, 28 miles!
Day with the most driving: last Saturday, 297 miles

I'll note that 268 miles, or even 297 miles, would not be a lot of driving if driving were all I did that day. That driving is in addition to spending several hours hiking each day!

Flying Home from Colorado

Colorado Travelog #44
38,000' over Nevada - Sunday, 10 Jul 2022, 9:30am

Our trip to Colorado is just about over. That's definitely true now because we're on the flight back to California! The flight lands at SJC in about 45 minutes, and we should be home-home— as in, in our own house— in about 90 minutes.

It's been a busy day already even though it's only 9:30 (Mountain time) right now. Our alarms rang at 4:45am, and we were up and about by 5am to get dressed. The sun hadn't yet risen but the sky was already getting bright. That helped with getting going at such an early hour. I ate breakfast in the room before we met in the lobby by 5:20 to await the 5:30am shuttle to the airport.



Our flight departed from DEN's Concourse C, which has been expanded somewhat recently. Signs overhead in the terminal indicate that there will eventually be gates C1..C99. For now it only goes to about 75. The new parts of the concourse are bright and airy... but have almost no food sales. That didn't matter for me as I'd eaten enough in the room from the food I bought last night at 7-Eleven, but Hawk was hungry and couldn't find many choices.

Once aboard the aircraft I found my usual seat in the exit row, with extra legroom. Yay, elite status. And now I'm enjoying a complimentary drink.



...Yes, it's beer. At 9:30am. I know I've said before I don't drink before lunch, but given that I've been up almost 5 hours now it seems like it's almost time for lunch.

Retrospective: 12 Days Behind

Twelve days. That's the final answer: 12 days. My blogging about our recent trip to Colorado fell 12 days behind. We got home on the 10th, but I only finished pushing out my blogs about it today, the 22nd.

It totally makes sense, though. It makes sense I fell so far behind. From 9 days of travel I wrote 45 blogs. If I were to publish them all in real time that would be 5 a day. I certainly don't have time for that much publishing when I'm still on an adventure. It took effort to find time to post two a day while still traveling and 3/day since returning.

And does 45 blogs, 5 a day, seem excessive? No. Not when I'm in the thick of adventurous travel. On our trip to Sedona several weeks ago I wrote 19 blogs, and that was from just 4 days; a similar pace.