Tooleing Around: Day 32

I’m in Colorado .

Don’t think it will be just t-shirts from now on. Getting a bit chilly as I drive east.

Headed to Deja Brew Coffed , best rated in Glenwood Springs, and had an Apple Jesus with my cappuccino , some type of muffin with baked apple, thankfully no whiskers . Nicely decorated little spot with vintage Sanka posters. 

Glenwood Springs is known for its public hot springs , opened in the 1880s. It’s a pristine, medium sized town, nestled under the mountains and hills, with the White river running through.

They have an interesting looking throw back vaudeville theatre with a remarkably ugly mural on the side town center. Did Judy and Mickey always have dentures? Do people still watch vaudeville and what type of people are the viewers and performers?

On the history side, Doc Holliday is buried near this town. Watch Tombstone and the earlier, classics Gunfight at the OK Corral & My Darling Clementine  , kiddies. Stopped in at the bookstore, Bookstation, that was more magazine centric but bought one anyway, Janesville non-fiction. I spotted an interesting non-fiction, Dodge City, that I downloaded, keeping with the Cowboy theme.

Then chatted with four Irish  ladies , here for 10 days, from county Wexford. Laden with shopping bags. Stopped at Native Son, more bar than coffee shop despite google recommendation. Bad. My Black Mirror shirt sparked a conversation with Seth, we  fans tend to bond. He recommended Maniac on Netflix, sounds like my cup of tea.

Headed for Boulder.

Stopped in Vail, since it was on the way, and very glad I did. Gorgeous town, looks far more Alpine than American . They are in full fall foliage here. The town only incorporated in 1966. Yetis Grind; great name; great coffee ; great looking and great gluten free amond poppyseed cake. Of course gluten free.

Seemingly a photo with Einstein a must in Vail. Margaret and Abby , from San Antonia,performed the duties. Margaret, a professional photographer , made me pose. No problem.

Stumbled on The Gilded Spruce, a delightful little perfectly located Christmas store and spent unnecessarily again. As might be expected, Vail is an all out Holiday town, made all the more Christmasy as it has no street lights, and is completely lit up with festivities lights.

You can get a nice little two bedroom here for $1.9m. Bargain.

Vail has a real fairytale quality, one of the prettiest towns I have been in.

176 miles later I’m in Boulder, a third of the journey through torrential thunderstorms.

I booked a great room at a great rate at The Marriot in Boulder. Unfortunately when I went to check in I discovered I booked a great room at a great rate for a week from today. Tonight the price would be triple that . The staff were super nice and arranged a refund on my non refundable booking. Big thank you, I am a moron.

 

Turns out it’s a college football home game for Colorado State AND parents weekend so everything is booked out. But , I got a great room in Drurys, Westminister 16 miles east.

Went to dinner at Rock Bottom, a smaller chain of microbreweries and restaurants and had a chat with Perry at the bar. He’s a pilot with United, was with Continental, 32 years between the two. He’s here on training for a few weeks, the main airline hub being Denver. This is the first of four weeks training and he’s established Rock Bottom as his local.

Perry has 50 acres of Olive Groves at his Texas home, helps with the taxes. They are handled by a co-op so he needs to do little to manage it.

He hopes to retire to Chile in the next years, he loves South America. He’s hoping to maybe do it all on a boat , he has owned and sailed in the past. Nice retirement dream.

Each floor on the hotel has a nice laundry room, so I threw everything in. I’ve been the man in Black this trip.

Hotel: $150

Gas: $53

Dinner: $16