Beautiful! Thank you Michael for taking me there!
Today is Nov. 27, 2008 (Thanksgiving day) It’s 6 am and I have been working in this Emergency Room since last night at 11 pm. My flight to Denver, Colorado leaves at 9:30 am and I know a long day still waits for me. I will be traveling this time with a friend of mine: Daly, which is a PE teacher in Puerto Rico. She is waiting for me at the hospital’s parking lot so once I leave at 7 am we continue toward San Juan Int’l Airport Luis Munoz Marin. Eventually my twin brother should go to the hospital and take my car back home. It’s finally 7 am, time to leave, I gave report to oncoming nurses and everybody wished to have a great time. I have a full agenda: skiing, seeing old friends, hot springs, meeting new travbuddies in Colorado and then continue toward Texas for the Austin and San Antonio meetup.
My friends
We arrived to the airport around 8 am and checked our luggage, after that we had some time to eat breakfast at Subway. After talking for a while we were already boarding the plane. At 930 am we left for the trip I have planned for around 9 months.
We had a long flight from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Houston, Texas and after a short stop in Texas we finally arrived Denver, Colorado around 5:30 pm local time. PR is 3 hours more, so my biological clock continues telling me its 830 pm for me and I haven’t sleep the whole night. We picked up our luggage and headed to the car rental co. after trying to get the 4x4 I paid online, they told me they do not have any 4x4 left, so I had no other option to take a minivan.
I turned on my cell phone and I had a text message that said: “Hi Travbuddy, welcome to Colorado and happy thanksgiving! Call me when you arrive, come straight here if ur hungry! Lots of good food and fun.
Driving around
Amy”. Amy is a Travbuddy I contacted before traveling to Colorado, she likes snowboarding and I love skiing so I thought is going to be a great idea getting together, but I never thought she will invite me for thanksgiving dinner with my friend. I gave her a call, she gave me directions and after a while I was in Amy’s house. Amy and her family received us and make us feel like at home. We had a great time with them and the food was delicious. It was maybe around 10 pm and we had to leave, this was our first day in Colorado and we had a great time. I talked with Amy and we decided to ski during the week so I will contact her later. We stayed in a hotel that night and finally got some rest, but not for so long.
On Friday Nov.
My rental, is not a 4x4 but did the job.
28 my friend woke me up early, its black Friday and she wanted to go shopping.. oh my … so we went to couple stores. We had a relaxing day, just shopping, eating and enjoying eachother company. The following morning we have skiing in our agenda...
On Saturday Nov. 29 we drove to Loveland Ski Resort. It’s the first time my friend is skiing so she is going to take lessons while I am gonna be having fun in the slopes. Weather in Loveland was so bad, I mean we had a lot of snow which is good but it was very windy so after my friend finished with the ski lessons around 12 noon we left. Too windy and too cold for me. We drove back to Denver area and checked in at the hotel. A friend of mine contacted me (Jason and his wife Michelle) to meet somewhere in Denver.
Joinning Amy and her family for Thanksgiving dinner.
I asked my friend Daly if she would join us but she was so tired after skiing for first time. So I headed to Denver area, Collfax Ave. and met Jason and his wife. After sharing a great but short time with them I received a phone call from Michael! Michael is a Travbuddy that I contacted before traveling to Colorado, so I left my friends and met Michael around 7:30 pm. Michael is a great guy! I had a great impression before meeting him. He always stayed in touch online and when I arrived to Denver he contacted me by phone as well. Then Michael asked me to get in his car and he took me around the capital building, I saw the Christmas lights, stadiums etc. Finally we went to Isla Bonita Restaurant which is one of the Michael’s favorites places since he was a child. I really had a great time there, and I love the food and the sopapillas Michael ordered. We were short of time and Michael still wanted to show me a lot, so we left and continue our tour around Denver. Thank you very much Michael for your attention while I was in Denver, I hope I can welcome you some day in Puerto Rico!
On Sunday Nov. 30, 2008 my friend Daly and me went to the Royal Gorge Bridge. This is the higgest suspention bridge in the US, after spending and taking some pics we continue toward Ouray County to visit Orvis Hot Springs. Orvis Hot Spring is a clothing optional hot water pool. What I like from Orvis is that is hasn’t the traditional shape of a swimming pool like other hot spring I have visit in US. When you go to Orvis you think you’re in a forest, it remind me El Yunque in Puerto Rico. It’s a nice convination of snow, cold and the hot water at the same time.. I love it. After 1 hour in Orvis we headed to Montrose County where we stayed that night.
On Monday, Dec 1, 08 we went to the beautiful park in Montrose, we went to Montrose Bowling Center and then ate lunch at a local Mexican Restaurant. My friend Daly leaves to Puerto Rico Tuesday in the morning so its time go get closer to Denver area, so I started driving Montrose-grandjunction-denver. We stayed that night close to the airport.
On Tuesday Dec. 2, 08 I took my friend Daly to Denver Int’l Airport, bye Daly! Around 4 pm I text my Travbuddy Amy in case she want to do something that night, and I got a quick positive response. So I headed to Ft. Collins and met Amy one more time. We went to El Rio, we had a nice conversation, I met some Amy’s friends, she showed me around Ft. Collins, which is beautiful and we ended up eating some icecream in town. That night I said bye to Amy but not for so long, we agreed to meet the following day (Wednesday) to go to Vail.
On Wednesday Dec 3, 08 I met Amy very early in the morning. We were heading toward Vail (to ski) when she told me she needs to stop in a gas station where they sell great muffins/pretzels (I don’t remember much) ...something she really likes but that was not the gas station, so we continue our trip. Then Amy finally found the gas station but they didn’t have what she likes, ups! So Amy pumped some gas and we continue our trip to Vail… wait! Now Amy realized she does not have windshield fluid, oh!!! Another stop!! jeje Yes, we stopped one more time in another gas station to get some deicing fluid. We continue our trip hopping next time we stop would be in Vail. When we arrived Vail, we had to pay $25 USD just for parking, it didn’t take me long to realize I was in VAIL. I rented the ski gear for an amount I don’t want to post here so you don’t make fun of me, I got the lift ticket and finally we were ready to ski. Amy was snowboarding, she has a very nice, elegant style snowboarding which I admired her ‘cause I tried snowboarding once and it was so frustrating. Anyway, we had such a wonderful day, we tried greens and some blues. We took a break for a snack and a beer and continued going down the hill many many times. Around 315 pm we were very tired. Amy didn’t want to take the lift again and decided to stayed at the restaurant but me, coming from Puerto Rico and probably not skiing again till next year, I really needed to go one more time even the paramedics have to go to take me down. I had a great Wednesday, we headed back to Denver area where I stayed at the hotel and Amy continued to her house. Thank you very much Amy for all you attention while I was in Colorado. I will never forget you! I gave Amy a big hug and left. At the hotel I tried to caught some sleep, I need to wake up at 2 am the following day to head toward the airport, return the rental car, and take my plane toward Texas for the Travbuddy meetup. to be continued...
