(no subject)
Today is Pungenday, day 19 in the season of Bureaucracy, 3271.
First off, I was up way too late the night before. I ended up staying at work until around 8:30 trying to finish stuff up, so I didn't get as much packing done early as I'd hoped. There was the initial round of packing followed by a round of culling, and I still way overpacked. (For example, I brought "going out" clothes and strappy little sandals, but I turned out not to need them because I didn't actually go out all that much in the evenings.)
The flight to Dallas was uneventful, I even surprisingly got a row to myself in what was a mostly full flight. The trip from Dallas to Denver, however, was a different story. I had the window seat, and sitting next to me was a roughly two-year-old child who spent all but about 20 minutes of the two-plus hours either shrieking because she was upset about something, shrieking because she was laughing at something, throwing Goldfish crackers all over the floor and getting them in my shoes, and kicking me in the hip as she wriggled around in her seat. Guh. There was nowhere to move to, since this really was a full flight. Naturally, the *one* screaming child on the plane was seated right next to me. (I do understand crying about ear pain during descent when half the time I want to do exactly the same thing, kids get a pass on that. It's the temper tantrums and kicking mid-flight that made me want to stow her in the overhead bins.)
By the time I got to Denver, got my bags and my rental car I was extremely tired and had a splitting headache. To make life even better, the "scattered clouds" they said Denver had were actually "pitch black clouds off to the northwest and huge amounts of lightning, with a lot of rain for good measure". I don't do well driving in the rain someplace I don't know well and the directions given weren't the clearest, so I ended up missing my exit; I didn't realize this until the signs started reading "25 North to Ft. Collins". Oops. Turning around, it seems that at one point, due to construction, the lanes shift to the right. Since it was twilight and raining and the road had been milled, I couldn't see the lane markers at all, and so nearly ended up in a traffic accident within 45 minutes of getting on the road. *facepalm* Finally I end up headed the right way towards Boulder and decide to turn on the XM receiver to listen to music to calm my nerves; this is where I discover that the cigarette lighter fuse is blown and it has no power. I didn't bring any CDs because I brought the iPod and the Roady, both of which run off the lighter. At this point, my mood is about as black as the clouds overhead, until I come to the outskirts of the city. Even with the rain, it's gorgeous. I find the hotel with no problem, check in and debate going out to see the Fringe Festival act I had a ticket for. I decided against it since with all the mishaps I got to my room only half an hour before the scheduled start and I was too tired to go look for the venue. I thought briefly about heading to The Hill and finding someplace for a cold beer and ruled that out quickly too in favor of staying in the room with a cool shower, room service, a book and a few phone calls.
After nine hours of sleep and a shower, my mood was much improved and it was only helped by finding another power outlet in the car that would let me have my music after all. After a quick swing through the Safeway next door to the hotel I headed out to NCAR's Mesa Lab because I am a nerd. ;) After wandering the exhibits inside, I took a stroll around the Weather Trail. Naturally, this is the point where the batteries on my camera died. After walking the trail, I decided to head back to the hotel and clean up a bit, then drove around town a bit to get myself oriented. I actually spent a fair amount of time on this trip getting purposely "lost" so I could see things other than the major tourist spots. Speaking of which, the later part of the afternoon was devoted to wandering around Pearl Street, where the "Best of Boulder" festival was going on. I should really try to remember next time that while books and alpaca sweaters are glorious things, I do need to carry them home somehow. I was saved from having to check another bag by the fact that High Crimes is closed on Sundays and doesn't open on Mondays until after I'd planned to be on the road.
I did make it to that evening's planned Fringe event, A Paranoid's Guide to History; the chosen topics for the evening were "The Foundling Father: The Singular Life of Thomas Paine" and "TV, Reality and Politics". (The other possibilities which should give you a clue as to the slant: "Post-Industrial Consumer Society Made Easy", "Deprogramming Tom Cruise", "America and Iran, Closer Than You Think", "The Peloponnesian Wars: Demagogues Over Democracy", "Burning Bushes, Golden Tablets, Monsters, and Other Oddities: Mental Illness and Religion"; "The American Revolution?", "James Bond and the War on Terror", and "Irwin Allen Master of Disaster".) I think the four of us who were there for that performance really enjoyed it, and we all drank the Kool-Aid. Literally -- they gave us all cups of cherry Kool-Aid at intermission.
Monday morning I threw the hiking boots into the back seat and went back to NCAR with fresh batteries for the camera to do some walking and picture-taking before the planned long drive. After an hour or so there, I hit the road to head to Taos. I think I already whined about this a bit already, but it took much longer than I expected thanks to 1) crappy Denver traffic, 2) torrential rain that nearly required pulling off to the side of the road in several spots, and 3) a side trip outside Colorado Springs to Garden of the Gods. Of those, the third was enjoyable, the others I could've done without. I picked a reasonably short hike from the map and walked up to the Siamese Twins formation. I wish I'd had a bit more time to do more hiking, but a thunderstorm was coming in and I didn't want to get to Taos after dark and so I got back on the highway. I have to say that the bit of Colorado Springs I saw didn't hold much appeal, and that's even without the Focus on the Family headquarters. I was tempted to go to the visitor's center and take pictures to horrify friends with, but I couldn't make myself go near the place.
The drive out 64 to Taos through Cimarron Canyon was gorgeous, but the last twenty miles or so were kind of dangerous since it was starting to get dark, I was very tired (it took about eight and a half hours total to get there what with delays and I'd been up since roughly 6:30 AM) and it was a windy, twisty road with frequent 25 MPH speed limits for good reasons. I did finally find the hotel, got checked in and enjoyed not being in the car for a few hours.
Tuesday I wandered up into the Plaza area for a few hours. The Plaza itself seems to be mostly filled with tourist-oriented gift shops, but if you wander over a few blocks there are a bunch of more interesting places like bookstores and galleries. (And fabric stores and a yarn shop! I was good, didn't buy anything in either of them.) Later in the day I hopped into the car again and headed out to drive a bit of the Low Road between Taos and Santa Fe. It's pretty in a different sort of way from the drive in through the canyon. I'd wanted to go back and take a bit of the High Road, but I got back to Taos later than I'd planned.
Wednesday morning I woke up ungodly early (for me, but right in line with when I'd been waking up all week) and got on the road to Denver by 8 AM. I could appreciate Cimarron Canyon much more in the daylight when I'd been rested, and stopped several times, including once to spend about 20 minutes in a clearing next to the Cimarron River. The pictures don't capture the real appeal of the spot: cool morning air and sunshine, curious deer checking out their visitor, and the sounds of birdsong and the water bubbling over the rocks. I could easily have stayed there for another hour at least, but I didn't want to risk missing my flight. Up 64 to 25, where I was disappointed to see that on the way back I wouldn't get a picture of my new second-favorite road sign: "Gusty Winds May Exist". Eh, it's probably funnier if you've been driving for seven hours. The trip back took six and a half hours total, I dropped my car off a couple of hours before my flight, and had enough time to get reorganized and watch the "Mah-na Mah-na" skit from "The Muppet Show" on DVD before boarding my flight to Dallas. I thought I was going to miss my connection in Dallas since my flight left from a different terminal, I only had a bit over an hour layover and it took us 30 minutes (no joke) to get to the gate after landing thanks to traffic jams on the ramp. Ugh. I did make the flight with some time to spare though and had a nice, quiet flight back to DC.
I've determined that I need much more time in either place next time I go back, I didn't have nearly enough time to do both and be able to do either justice. The problem with travelling alone though is that there's nobody to split hotel bills with. =) Maybe next time I'll bring my tent. I've also been reminded that I hate to go out to dinner by myself; dinner is much more a social experience and I find myself at loose ends without a conversational partner. I'll probably go back to Taos to spend another couple of days at some point, but I was in no danger of staying there for good. It's nice enough, but it didn't particularly speak to me. Boulder, on the other hand... Ever go someplace and immediately it just feels right for no specific reason you can put your finger on? That's the feeling I got there. And if I can enjoy a place that much even in the middle of move-in week at the University, it must be good. ;) Boulder is definitely getting another trip, for more than two days next time.
Now to keep slogging through, organizing, and editing photos.
First off, I was up way too late the night before. I ended up staying at work until around 8:30 trying to finish stuff up, so I didn't get as much packing done early as I'd hoped. There was the initial round of packing followed by a round of culling, and I still way overpacked. (For example, I brought "going out" clothes and strappy little sandals, but I turned out not to need them because I didn't actually go out all that much in the evenings.)
The flight to Dallas was uneventful, I even surprisingly got a row to myself in what was a mostly full flight. The trip from Dallas to Denver, however, was a different story. I had the window seat, and sitting next to me was a roughly two-year-old child who spent all but about 20 minutes of the two-plus hours either shrieking because she was upset about something, shrieking because she was laughing at something, throwing Goldfish crackers all over the floor and getting them in my shoes, and kicking me in the hip as she wriggled around in her seat. Guh. There was nowhere to move to, since this really was a full flight. Naturally, the *one* screaming child on the plane was seated right next to me. (I do understand crying about ear pain during descent when half the time I want to do exactly the same thing, kids get a pass on that. It's the temper tantrums and kicking mid-flight that made me want to stow her in the overhead bins.)
By the time I got to Denver, got my bags and my rental car I was extremely tired and had a splitting headache. To make life even better, the "scattered clouds" they said Denver had were actually "pitch black clouds off to the northwest and huge amounts of lightning, with a lot of rain for good measure". I don't do well driving in the rain someplace I don't know well and the directions given weren't the clearest, so I ended up missing my exit; I didn't realize this until the signs started reading "25 North to Ft. Collins". Oops. Turning around, it seems that at one point, due to construction, the lanes shift to the right. Since it was twilight and raining and the road had been milled, I couldn't see the lane markers at all, and so nearly ended up in a traffic accident within 45 minutes of getting on the road. *facepalm* Finally I end up headed the right way towards Boulder and decide to turn on the XM receiver to listen to music to calm my nerves; this is where I discover that the cigarette lighter fuse is blown and it has no power. I didn't bring any CDs because I brought the iPod and the Roady, both of which run off the lighter. At this point, my mood is about as black as the clouds overhead, until I come to the outskirts of the city. Even with the rain, it's gorgeous. I find the hotel with no problem, check in and debate going out to see the Fringe Festival act I had a ticket for. I decided against it since with all the mishaps I got to my room only half an hour before the scheduled start and I was too tired to go look for the venue. I thought briefly about heading to The Hill and finding someplace for a cold beer and ruled that out quickly too in favor of staying in the room with a cool shower, room service, a book and a few phone calls.
After nine hours of sleep and a shower, my mood was much improved and it was only helped by finding another power outlet in the car that would let me have my music after all. After a quick swing through the Safeway next door to the hotel I headed out to NCAR's Mesa Lab because I am a nerd. ;) After wandering the exhibits inside, I took a stroll around the Weather Trail. Naturally, this is the point where the batteries on my camera died. After walking the trail, I decided to head back to the hotel and clean up a bit, then drove around town a bit to get myself oriented. I actually spent a fair amount of time on this trip getting purposely "lost" so I could see things other than the major tourist spots. Speaking of which, the later part of the afternoon was devoted to wandering around Pearl Street, where the "Best of Boulder" festival was going on. I should really try to remember next time that while books and alpaca sweaters are glorious things, I do need to carry them home somehow. I was saved from having to check another bag by the fact that High Crimes is closed on Sundays and doesn't open on Mondays until after I'd planned to be on the road.
I did make it to that evening's planned Fringe event, A Paranoid's Guide to History; the chosen topics for the evening were "The Foundling Father: The Singular Life of Thomas Paine" and "TV, Reality and Politics". (The other possibilities which should give you a clue as to the slant: "Post-Industrial Consumer Society Made Easy", "Deprogramming Tom Cruise", "America and Iran, Closer Than You Think", "The Peloponnesian Wars: Demagogues Over Democracy", "Burning Bushes, Golden Tablets, Monsters, and Other Oddities: Mental Illness and Religion"; "The American Revolution?", "James Bond and the War on Terror", and "Irwin Allen Master of Disaster".) I think the four of us who were there for that performance really enjoyed it, and we all drank the Kool-Aid. Literally -- they gave us all cups of cherry Kool-Aid at intermission.
Monday morning I threw the hiking boots into the back seat and went back to NCAR with fresh batteries for the camera to do some walking and picture-taking before the planned long drive. After an hour or so there, I hit the road to head to Taos. I think I already whined about this a bit already, but it took much longer than I expected thanks to 1) crappy Denver traffic, 2) torrential rain that nearly required pulling off to the side of the road in several spots, and 3) a side trip outside Colorado Springs to Garden of the Gods. Of those, the third was enjoyable, the others I could've done without. I picked a reasonably short hike from the map and walked up to the Siamese Twins formation. I wish I'd had a bit more time to do more hiking, but a thunderstorm was coming in and I didn't want to get to Taos after dark and so I got back on the highway. I have to say that the bit of Colorado Springs I saw didn't hold much appeal, and that's even without the Focus on the Family headquarters. I was tempted to go to the visitor's center and take pictures to horrify friends with, but I couldn't make myself go near the place.
The drive out 64 to Taos through Cimarron Canyon was gorgeous, but the last twenty miles or so were kind of dangerous since it was starting to get dark, I was very tired (it took about eight and a half hours total to get there what with delays and I'd been up since roughly 6:30 AM) and it was a windy, twisty road with frequent 25 MPH speed limits for good reasons. I did finally find the hotel, got checked in and enjoyed not being in the car for a few hours.
Tuesday I wandered up into the Plaza area for a few hours. The Plaza itself seems to be mostly filled with tourist-oriented gift shops, but if you wander over a few blocks there are a bunch of more interesting places like bookstores and galleries. (And fabric stores and a yarn shop! I was good, didn't buy anything in either of them.) Later in the day I hopped into the car again and headed out to drive a bit of the Low Road between Taos and Santa Fe. It's pretty in a different sort of way from the drive in through the canyon. I'd wanted to go back and take a bit of the High Road, but I got back to Taos later than I'd planned.
Wednesday morning I woke up ungodly early (for me, but right in line with when I'd been waking up all week) and got on the road to Denver by 8 AM. I could appreciate Cimarron Canyon much more in the daylight when I'd been rested, and stopped several times, including once to spend about 20 minutes in a clearing next to the Cimarron River. The pictures don't capture the real appeal of the spot: cool morning air and sunshine, curious deer checking out their visitor, and the sounds of birdsong and the water bubbling over the rocks. I could easily have stayed there for another hour at least, but I didn't want to risk missing my flight. Up 64 to 25, where I was disappointed to see that on the way back I wouldn't get a picture of my new second-favorite road sign: "Gusty Winds May Exist". Eh, it's probably funnier if you've been driving for seven hours. The trip back took six and a half hours total, I dropped my car off a couple of hours before my flight, and had enough time to get reorganized and watch the "Mah-na Mah-na" skit from "The Muppet Show" on DVD before boarding my flight to Dallas. I thought I was going to miss my connection in Dallas since my flight left from a different terminal, I only had a bit over an hour layover and it took us 30 minutes (no joke) to get to the gate after landing thanks to traffic jams on the ramp. Ugh. I did make the flight with some time to spare though and had a nice, quiet flight back to DC.
I've determined that I need much more time in either place next time I go back, I didn't have nearly enough time to do both and be able to do either justice. The problem with travelling alone though is that there's nobody to split hotel bills with. =) Maybe next time I'll bring my tent. I've also been reminded that I hate to go out to dinner by myself; dinner is much more a social experience and I find myself at loose ends without a conversational partner. I'll probably go back to Taos to spend another couple of days at some point, but I was in no danger of staying there for good. It's nice enough, but it didn't particularly speak to me. Boulder, on the other hand... Ever go someplace and immediately it just feels right for no specific reason you can put your finger on? That's the feeling I got there. And if I can enjoy a place that much even in the middle of move-in week at the University, it must be good. ;) Boulder is definitely getting another trip, for more than two days next time.
Now to keep slogging through, organizing, and editing photos.