Monday, December 16, 2019

Denver 2019 Day 1 Nil sine Forum


June 20, 2019


Based on previous airline issues, we decided to get up at Stupid O’clock in the morning for this trip.   Naturally, the limo to take us to the airport went to the wrong Boonton leading to piles of early day stress.

We loaded up and were driven down in a rain that was annoying but not flight threatening. 

The airport wasn’t crowded, but security was a party.  My tray of stuff got stopped by what turned out to be a new inspector, concerned that my dinosaur belt buckle was not allowed on the plane.  A more senior member, after much cajoling, convinced him it was acceptable.

While I reshoed, we heard the two have a more complex exchange about the family behind us as the young un’ seemed to have never heard of Play Doh, and was paranoid about letting it into an aircraft.

Because we were returning separately, my magic United credit card didn't guarantee us all group 2 boarding. However, Abuelita’s wheelchair guaranteed us all pre-group 1 boarding. Woo! 

We were on the plane early, as was everyone, yet another benefit of Stupid O’Clock.  Then, as a detriment to it being us, the captain came on, more audibly pissed off than I’ve heard a flight crew in a while, and informed us they put excessive fuel in the plane.  There would be too much for an allowable landing, and we had to wait for a truck to come suck it out.

Speaking of sucking- this lost us our place on line, and put us way back in the queue.  Even using the power of the Stupid O’Clock departure didn’t fully protect us from our family’s Colorado traveling curse.

At least we got out before the thunderstorms, meaning a bumpy, if swift flight to Denver. Once in the air. I worked my way through a chunk of Stephen King’s excellent non-fiction treatise on horror Danse Macabre.   Anabelle finished Moby Dick, which she was reading on her own.
That’s my girl.
She also gave me a Lincolnian history lesson on why the farmland we flew over was all in squares.

Rosa worked her way through latching onto my arm in the turbulence and distracting herself with whatever she could watch on the United app, since her curse of having the behind the seat screen not work also continued.

A highly nutritious Stroopwaffle and juice (them) or Coke Zero (me) breakfast later and we were landing just east of the Rockies and ready to start our adventures in the rent a car center.

There were no Silvermist Fabulous Blue vehicles to choose from. In fact, landing around lunch time instead of the dead of night lessened the selection considerably.  The pick-ups were still uncapped, and didn't come with a method of hoisting Abuelita into them.  We stuck with safe driving over style changes and picked a Silver Tucson.

Due to the confused state when I fly in general, and my caffeine-o-meter being low, the car was named “Hi Ho Silver Hooray” before I knew what was happening.

Knowing crossing that Colorado plateau with a low caffeine-o-meter was a peril, I pulled in to the first gas station we saw to acquire a bottle of Diet Dew to remedy it. I also picked up a Colorado Lottery ticket to remedy having to go home in a few days without my family, but that plan was less effective.

We arrived at Titi Luzma’s and Uncle Roy’s to find a couple of fun surprises.

Uncle Roy was already barbecuing various buffalo meat products to stave off crazy hungry before the vacation began!  Also we had a new neighbor in our basement home away from home. While we inflated the air mattresses, we were introduced to a relative of the teleporting Carrot the Bunny named Hope.  He had taken up residence in the caged in space next to the downstairs window.  He must have dropped in when small enough to fit through the top grating, and they had adopted him, making sure his area was stocked with food, had hiding spaces and was kept clean.

As part of our setting up procedure, Anabelle was sure to find a place to magnetically hang the Travel Version of her Disney Countdown Whiteboard. Because even in our other favorite vacation spots, the Disney countdown continues.

Science reared its head when Titi brought out a bag of Barbecue kettle cooked chips, and we all noticed it was inflated like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade balloon.  Anabelle brought up the ideal gas law (Woo, chemistry!) as we theorized all chips are packed in the same plant and bringing them to the high altitude makes them puff out more due to the lower pressure.

We’re very educational to have around.

We had gotten most of the supplies we needed for the week pre-arranged due to Walmart online order home delivery, because the future is groovy.  Possibly due to the same pressure issues that affected the chips, they would not deliver carbonated beverages.  We drove over to get the last supplies including the case of Diet Mountain Dew that would sustain my driving over the extended long weekend...

Plus the Showa MechaGojii and Millennium Godzilla suit figures, the former I didn't know existed and the latter I’d been unable to find in New Jersey, the armpit of action figure collecting… 

And a couple of Marvel Legends, because random purchases are fine if they count as souvenirs!

Please help me.

Our entry after parking was slowed by Anabelle returning to the Artsy Flower photography hobby she’d discovered the previous year.  It was also slowed by the exhaustion of changing time zones after awakening at Stupid O’clock in the morning.

We settled in and Anabelle took advantage of the more flexible nature of her brain the exhaustion provided by reading the Gerard Way Doom Patrol books we bought because she recognized his name from My Chemical Romance.  They’re a fittingly mind bending successor to the loopy Grant Morrison stuff.

There were thoughts about taking one of our traditional around the lake walks on the first day.  However, Rosa was worn out and still suffering from the after effects of broken toes. She declined the walk that day to stay with her Mom.  Our hosts had already set out when Anabelle and I decided to take one, figuring we’d walk the opposite way around the lake a meet them that way.

We both realized we’d always followed someone else to the path to the lake, and wandered aimlessly around the development for a while, until a random turn brought the spooky tree into view. 
The field between the houses and the lake road was in need of serious scything, and it was a bug filled dash through the little path to reach that road.

As usual we saw many appearances of Carrot the Bunny, and the spore shooting flowers from Star Trek.  We did not see our relatives however, because going the opposite way around the lake doesn’t matter if they walked the complete other direction away from the lake to get the mail.

We had a light dinner upon returning, because we had no idea what time it was.

Talking happened somewhat, but mostly we focused on settling in and crashing early to begin the Coloradoing in earnest the next day.


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