The Race to Denver
Thursday, May 28, 2009
It's been a long couple of days but the long stretch across to Denver is complete. The first day we drove from Blacksburg, VA to St. Louis, MO. It was pouring with rain for most of the way including our arrival around 9 PM in St. Louis. The Hyatt we stayed and our reservation request for a high floor and direct view of the Arch were met with a 12th floor corner room right across the street from the Arch.
The next day was another long haul across all of Missouri and most of Kansas to Hays, where Wild Bill Hickok was once sheriff, but the only attraction for us was the Hampton Inn. It was pouring with rain the entire day and had a hard time finding the hotel even though it was right off the interstate. That resulted in us seeing a lot more of the town than we had expected and both agreed it looked pretty nice actually.
Yesterday we had a relatively short drive from Hays to Denver, where I'm writing this entry from. We left Hays around 9 AM central time and arrived in Denver around 2 PM mountain time. We spent the next 3-4 hours at the Denver Zoo -- the first Zoo that Tawana had ever been to. We saw lots of cool attractions - tigers, giraffes, polar bears, etc. - but sadly the elephants were inside when we got to the exhibit for staff to clean the area and leave food out for them. While we were waiting for the staff to finish and elephants to come back out, Tawana realized she had left her iphone in the bathroom several hours prior when we first got to the Zoo. Upon realizing it, we rushed back to the entrance, passing the Cheetahs along the way before getting to the security desk...fortunately someone had turned the phone in to lost and found and disaster was averted.
Our hotel for the night was a Holiday Inn Express in western Denver and it has been a very nice stay. The night was free for starters using points and there was a great Manager's reception when we arrived with unlimited beer and food which we took advantage of. It was after about the 3rd beer that I remembered my father's advice about the impact of alcohol being much stronger in Denver because of the high altitude. Shortly after we retired to our room and went to bed fairly tired after walking around the Zoo for four hours.
Just a note: Even though we're not posting updates every day, we are doing our best to keep the map and photos section updated on a daily basis, so you can see all 400+ of our pictures in the Photos section.
The next day was another long haul across all of Missouri and most of Kansas to Hays, where Wild Bill Hickok was once sheriff, but the only attraction for us was the Hampton Inn. It was pouring with rain the entire day and had a hard time finding the hotel even though it was right off the interstate. That resulted in us seeing a lot more of the town than we had expected and both agreed it looked pretty nice actually.
Yesterday we had a relatively short drive from Hays to Denver, where I'm writing this entry from. We left Hays around 9 AM central time and arrived in Denver around 2 PM mountain time. We spent the next 3-4 hours at the Denver Zoo -- the first Zoo that Tawana had ever been to. We saw lots of cool attractions - tigers, giraffes, polar bears, etc. - but sadly the elephants were inside when we got to the exhibit for staff to clean the area and leave food out for them. While we were waiting for the staff to finish and elephants to come back out, Tawana realized she had left her iphone in the bathroom several hours prior when we first got to the Zoo. Upon realizing it, we rushed back to the entrance, passing the Cheetahs along the way before getting to the security desk...fortunately someone had turned the phone in to lost and found and disaster was averted.
Our hotel for the night was a Holiday Inn Express in western Denver and it has been a very nice stay. The night was free for starters using points and there was a great Manager's reception when we arrived with unlimited beer and food which we took advantage of. It was after about the 3rd beer that I remembered my father's advice about the impact of alcohol being much stronger in Denver because of the high altitude. Shortly after we retired to our room and went to bed fairly tired after walking around the Zoo for four hours.
Just a note: Even though we're not posting updates every day, we are doing our best to keep the map and photos section updated on a daily basis, so you can see all 400+ of our pictures in the Photos section.
