Home Sweet City

Alright, I suppose I have to stop putting this off. It’s one of those situations where the longer it goes, the more there is to write, so I put it off, and on and on. You know.

We’ve been in Denver for about a week, and I gotta say, it is so nice to be back in a city! I’ve been falling in love with small Colorado towns along the way, but there was something about my first day here, reading in a coffee shop surrounded by young people on laptops and a latte in my hand that makes me go Ah, that’s better! Denver is completely fantastic, and a real contender in the Quest for a New Home. It’s got all of the elements: the coffee, the weather, the food, the music, and plenty of the must-have hipsters on bikes. Oh, and the sweet, sweet microbrews. :)

One of the main reasons I wanted to come to Colorado was for the beer. They have more microbreweries per capita than any other state, and my goal has been to try as many of them as possible, sampling as many different kinds as I can get my hands on. I’m up to seven breweries. Pagosa Springs has an awesome brewery! Their taster tray included all of their beers (usually you have to choose just a few), and all the beers were solid. But the reason it’s getting special mention was their Alaskan Salmon Fish and Chips. We made it to Durango for two days, but it’s not quite “the season,” so all the outdoor activities were pretty much unavailable. But they have four breweries! Dinner and tasting at one, then on to another taster tray at one of the others, two nights in a row. We ended up preferring the Carver Brewing Company, which had some really fantastic specialty beers. Dark Belgians and Cask ales are quickly becoming my and Sam’s favorites. (My and Sam’s? Sam and I’s? Where are the grammar nazis when you need them?)

In Denver, so far, we’ve only made it to Wynkoop and Great Divide. Wynkoop was ok… nothing to write home about, although I hear the food is really good. Great Divide, however, is awesome! They specialize in high-flavor, high-alcohol beers, and I didn’t have a single one I didn’t like. Colette, Hades and Wild Raspberry Ale are perfect for a spring or summer day. The Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti is seriously something special. Sam had a couple of IPA’s he was excited about. Not to mention the whole thing smells like a brewery, which just adds to the experience, and the bar tenders and patrons are really cool as well. Saturday will be my very favorite, Breckenridge Brewery, and it looks like there are about 17 more. Clearly we will not get to all of them.

So other than beer tasting, I went to an Earth Day fair, we’ve been to a Nuggets vs. Clippers game, a Rusko/DJ Shadow/Paper Diamond show on 420, and mostly have otherwise been hiking around parks and eating at some of Denver’s top restaurants (subsequent review blog to follow). I’ve also gotten to spend some time with my Aunt Donna and Uncle Denny, and their family of eight kids, plus a son-in-law and new granddaughter. It’s quite the zoo! Oh, and I didn’t do anything for three days besides read the Hunger Games trilogy. I’m totally on the bandwagon... I saw the movie and had to know what happened next! I’ve been only in the mood to read novels lately… I finished American Gods before that, and am anxious to get started on the next Sword of Truth book, if I can even remember what was happening! Anybody have any good fiction book suggestions?

So that’s about it for now. Voltron seems to be holding up, at least since we got here. Fingers crossed. I’m sorry to everyone I need to call… you know who you are. I love you guys, and everyone back home and I hope you’re doing awesomesauce!

Hiking and the Perfect Storm

The Tale of the Lone Hike

 

It's a still, quiet morning, and the forest is calling to me. Bear Wallow Loop. The trail seems harmless enough. In the right season, it's the most popular hike in Santa Fe - a modest 4 mile day hike on the outskirts of the Hyde Memorial State Park. I arrive at the deserted parking lot at the head of the trail, and as I check my phone to write down the numbers of the three trails that intersect to create this loop, I find I have no signal. Oh well, I’m sure it’s labeled. Despite the hype, the trail looks more ominous than expected, but I advance onto the shaded trail, where patches of snow still remain from the icy winter. I head a few feet into the forest, and hear the unmistakable crunch of footsteps in the snow. A brief glance around confirms that no other people are present, leading to the obvious conclusion that an animal is near. Being in an actual forest on the side of a mountain, I am well aware of what sort of animals lurk in the shadows, and the decision is made to turn around, sprint back to the car, and drive away.

The End.

So that day pretty much confirmed what a wimp I am! I ended up going to a different trail which supposedly had a waterfall about half a mile up. I found a creek, but no waterfall, and the whole time all I could think about was what kind of animals were surely stalking me! It was not a long hike.I convinced Sam to do the Bear Wallow with me last weekend, and I didn’t think about the animals once! It was a fantastic trail… every 30 minutes the forest would transform. There were parts of hiking through snow, parts that felt like a dry desert in the woods (like Texas trails, I would imagine); we had to cross a couple of creeks, and a good chunk of the hike was as close to a faerie forest I’ve ever been in! I never feel more alive and myself when I’m in the woods. With someone else, apparently. :)

We were planning to leave Santa Fe on Monday (after already deciding to stay through the weekend so we could receive a mail shipment), but Sam realized he hadn’t spent nearly enough time with his cousin Kira (certainly not as much time as I had), so the decision was made to spend one more night and take her to dinner. We ended up at this place called La Boca that had AMAZING Spanish tapas. For reelz. I also finally got to give him his anniversary gift – Kira introduced me to the Kakawa Chocolate House, which serves chocolate “elixirs,” rich, chocolate drinks infused with a wide variety of spices and herbs and different milks and such. I went a little nuts and got Sam two of the powdered elixirs you can make at home, as well as two of the tiny mugs they serve them in at the shop, a box of their unique truffles, and a giant slab of chocolate cake. CHOCOLEXTRAVEGANZA!

This is unrelated, but I’ve talked about her enough that I want to add a picture of Kira and Manu, the Cutest Baby Ever. Seriously. I spent weeks with this kid, and haven’t heard him really cry the whole time. This was at her daughter Oona’s faerie birthday party! Kira is seriously an amazing person, and I'm so glad I got to know her on this trip. :)

 So when we got up to leave on Tuesday, we found to our dismay that many of the roads were closed due to the last few days of snow, and even if they weren’t, we didn’t feel like it was a good idea to try our luck on icy roads. It had taken us a couple of hours to get ready to leave, and we ended up turning around and taking our spot right back. Man, and we thought Texas was hard to get out of... Santa Fe was holding us hostage! But despite the irritation at the hold up, the snow was so beautiful! These are pics of our campground!

Ok, finally we arrive at yesterday, which I will title the Perfect Storm. When we got ready to leave Santa Fe yesterday morning, there was really no way to get out of our “pull-through” site without backing up. We had already attached the Tracker to the back, which is kind of a pain, and we were thinking it was possible to back up with the tow vehicle, which turned out to be totally incorrect. (If that is totally obvious, I do NOT want to hear it.) It just pushed the car backward into the dirt and bent the towing equipment attached to the Tracker. Despite the bend, it seemed to still be attached just fine and everything went back into place after we managed to get it unhooked from the RV, get out of our spot, and reattach everything. So we carried on.

We finally, FINALLY make it out of Santa Fe, for about 30 minutes when I notice that anytime I hit the brakes, besides the normal loud squealing (bad, I know), now the steering wheel is also shaking violently. This can’t be good. We happen to be in the tiny town of Espanola, so we pull into the first auto shop we see – a tire and brake repair place. They have some experience with RVs, and say that they think it’s the rotors, but they can take a look and find out. I immediately head for somewhere I can get a margarita laced with a Chill Pill, and we get the call that it is, in fact, the rotors and the brake pads and it’s going to cost $600 to replace them. Sigh. “Another margarita, please!” They finish up around the time the shop closed, and it was nearing dark, so we only made it about halfway to our destination goal of Pagosa Springs, CO.

We pull in after hours to a little RV park in Chama, NM, and pick a spot. During the process of getting to said spot, we notice in the rear-view camera that something is weird with the Tracker hookup. Turns out the stupid towing thing was weakened enough when we bent it that it had just totally come off of the car. I’m just grateful that didn’t happen on the highway! So that was the end of our No Good Horrible Very Bad day, and today we’re going to drive the vehicles separately to Pagosa Springs and hopefully find someone who can reattach our towing stuff.  Ah, the joys of home ownership!