USA, September 22 2010
We totally should get a meeting up and running in Europe! :-) Angie, I'd love to see you do some karaoke. Next time, we'll do it together ;)
The last couple of days have been so weird. I arrived at Denver in the evening and went to the rental car company -- only to find out that the bank people were REALLY slow this time because the transferred money was not on the creditcard yet. ARGH! Fun thing is - as soon as you transfer money from your debit to credit account, you see the money poof from your debit account and then, you'll have to wait for two days in order for it to show up on the creditcard. I think the weekend ruined the transfer, and of course, none of the rental agencies want to accept foreign debit cards or cash. I kinda felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, when she's sitting in the hotel manager's office, crying and pushing him all that cash into his hands. There was enough money for a car, just not on the frickin' creditcard!!!
I had already booked a non-refundable hotel in Colorado Springs, so it really sucked. I went back to the airport, hoping that there at least was a shuttle bus to CS, but that one had just departed at 8PM, and it was 8.20 when I arrived.
I called the hostel where I was staying the night after anyway, and booked a bed, there. Made me kind of cranky to flush that 20 dollars hostel money plus the 35 dollar Colorado Springs hotel through the toilet, because really, I have to be really careful with money. The trip's been way more expensive because I had to travel alone.
I shared the hostel room with a German girl and when we just went to bed, a Canadian girl showed up, too. In the morning, I was browsing the Denver area, because if I was stuck here, I'd better do something. Meera, the Canadian girl, had the same idea, so we rented a car together and drove up to Golden, which is a cute little Western town, to visit the Buffalo Bill museum and his and his wife's grave. So much fun doing stuff together! We even got to dress up as cowgirls ;)
Afterwards, we drove for an hour through the Rockies, ending up in a town called Nederland -- which is the correct Dutch translation for the Netherlands! So neat! It appears that that town is the hub for the area -- it has a few big stores for the little villages in the area and the ranchers up the mountain.
We decided to drive up to Rocky Mountains National Park, but when we finally arrived there, it was already 4PM and we'd have to pay 20 dollars to get inside. It would've been pretty, but 20 dollars for like, two hours tops, is a little too much. After all, the mountains are very pretty but we didn't want to drive back in the complete dark ;)
So, we returned to Denver, where I picked up my Greyhound ticket and we drove through downtown -- Meera even took a wrong turn because we were so amazed by the beautifully lit up state building; fortunately it wasn't that busy on that street ;)
She drove to the airport, because she had an early flight, and I drove the car back to the drop-off point before heading back to the hostel.
All in all, it was a great day, even though the road signs to Colorado Springs still made me cringe. I wanted to go there so badly! Their Garden of the Gods are so pretty! But, Colorado is such a pretty state, I'm sure I want to come back there someday :)
~*~
The alarm went off at 5AM this morning. I quickly got dressed, trying not to make too much noise for my roomies, and dragged the suitcases down two stairs (it's so much easier if somebody does that for you!). Originally, I had planned to walk a block, take a bus, get off the bus, and walk another three blocks, but it was still dark and quiet outside and honestly, I didn't want to drag those suitcases around while I was still so sleepy. For 5 dollars I got a cab to the Greyhound Station.
The doors were still closed, and I was so happy I didn't have to wait there all by myself. In the twenty minutes we had to wait, a dozen people came along and asked for money, cigarettes, and one even tried to sell us some morphine O_o Wow. I met some really nice guys to hang out with in the station, so time went pretty fast.
The bus was supposed to leave at 6.40 but... no. We waited and waited, but nothing came, until 8.30AM. That'd mean I would have a 2 hour delay and I would only have a layover of about 1 hour and 10 minutes at Grand Junction! But we had a few stops on the way so I hoped they could catch up some time.
I fell asleep, and woke up at Glenwood Springs, which is one stop away from Grand Junction. The guy getting on there said the bus was two hours late... so that'd totally mean that I would miss the connection to Utah! I asked Jamye to call the GJ station for me, to see what the options were, but the bus wasn't going to wait and there was only one each day to Provo...
The good news was that they would pay for my hotel, so that's good. I arrived, and indeed, they remembered the call. "Your mother called for you, eh?"
OMG, Jamye is not my mother! I don't look THAT young, and Jamye doesn't sound THAT old! XD Poor Jamye, I'm so sorry!
Still, the Greyhound is more comfy so far. It wasn't too busy, and at least the AC was turned off, so it was a nice temperature in that bus.
There were three of us who missed the bus to Provo/Salt Lake City, and we're all staying in the Country Inn of Grand Junction. Unfortunately, it rains and we're far away from downtown, so there's not much to do around here. I used the time lazing around, edit pictures, and work on both Dutch and English blog. I'll probably go to bed early -- it's supposed to be better weather tomorrow, so maybe I can see some of the area before the shuttle to the Greyhound Station leaves, which'll be around noon. I'm happy I don't have to switch more buses, though! Tomorrow I'll be in Provo, for sure! :)
The last couple of days have been so weird. I arrived at Denver in the evening and went to the rental car company -- only to find out that the bank people were REALLY slow this time because the transferred money was not on the creditcard yet. ARGH! Fun thing is - as soon as you transfer money from your debit to credit account, you see the money poof from your debit account and then, you'll have to wait for two days in order for it to show up on the creditcard. I think the weekend ruined the transfer, and of course, none of the rental agencies want to accept foreign debit cards or cash. I kinda felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, when she's sitting in the hotel manager's office, crying and pushing him all that cash into his hands. There was enough money for a car, just not on the frickin' creditcard!!!
I had already booked a non-refundable hotel in Colorado Springs, so it really sucked. I went back to the airport, hoping that there at least was a shuttle bus to CS, but that one had just departed at 8PM, and it was 8.20 when I arrived.
I called the hostel where I was staying the night after anyway, and booked a bed, there. Made me kind of cranky to flush that 20 dollars hostel money plus the 35 dollar Colorado Springs hotel through the toilet, because really, I have to be really careful with money. The trip's been way more expensive because I had to travel alone.
I shared the hostel room with a German girl and when we just went to bed, a Canadian girl showed up, too. In the morning, I was browsing the Denver area, because if I was stuck here, I'd better do something. Meera, the Canadian girl, had the same idea, so we rented a car together and drove up to Golden, which is a cute little Western town, to visit the Buffalo Bill museum and his and his wife's grave. So much fun doing stuff together! We even got to dress up as cowgirls ;)
Afterwards, we drove for an hour through the Rockies, ending up in a town called Nederland -- which is the correct Dutch translation for the Netherlands! So neat! It appears that that town is the hub for the area -- it has a few big stores for the little villages in the area and the ranchers up the mountain.
We decided to drive up to Rocky Mountains National Park, but when we finally arrived there, it was already 4PM and we'd have to pay 20 dollars to get inside. It would've been pretty, but 20 dollars for like, two hours tops, is a little too much. After all, the mountains are very pretty but we didn't want to drive back in the complete dark ;)
So, we returned to Denver, where I picked up my Greyhound ticket and we drove through downtown -- Meera even took a wrong turn because we were so amazed by the beautifully lit up state building; fortunately it wasn't that busy on that street ;)
She drove to the airport, because she had an early flight, and I drove the car back to the drop-off point before heading back to the hostel.
All in all, it was a great day, even though the road signs to Colorado Springs still made me cringe. I wanted to go there so badly! Their Garden of the Gods are so pretty! But, Colorado is such a pretty state, I'm sure I want to come back there someday :)
~*~
The alarm went off at 5AM this morning. I quickly got dressed, trying not to make too much noise for my roomies, and dragged the suitcases down two stairs (it's so much easier if somebody does that for you!). Originally, I had planned to walk a block, take a bus, get off the bus, and walk another three blocks, but it was still dark and quiet outside and honestly, I didn't want to drag those suitcases around while I was still so sleepy. For 5 dollars I got a cab to the Greyhound Station.
The doors were still closed, and I was so happy I didn't have to wait there all by myself. In the twenty minutes we had to wait, a dozen people came along and asked for money, cigarettes, and one even tried to sell us some morphine O_o Wow. I met some really nice guys to hang out with in the station, so time went pretty fast.
The bus was supposed to leave at 6.40 but... no. We waited and waited, but nothing came, until 8.30AM. That'd mean I would have a 2 hour delay and I would only have a layover of about 1 hour and 10 minutes at Grand Junction! But we had a few stops on the way so I hoped they could catch up some time.
I fell asleep, and woke up at Glenwood Springs, which is one stop away from Grand Junction. The guy getting on there said the bus was two hours late... so that'd totally mean that I would miss the connection to Utah! I asked Jamye to call the GJ station for me, to see what the options were, but the bus wasn't going to wait and there was only one each day to Provo...
The good news was that they would pay for my hotel, so that's good. I arrived, and indeed, they remembered the call. "Your mother called for you, eh?"
OMG, Jamye is not my mother! I don't look THAT young, and Jamye doesn't sound THAT old! XD Poor Jamye, I'm so sorry!
Still, the Greyhound is more comfy so far. It wasn't too busy, and at least the AC was turned off, so it was a nice temperature in that bus.
There were three of us who missed the bus to Provo/Salt Lake City, and we're all staying in the Country Inn of Grand Junction. Unfortunately, it rains and we're far away from downtown, so there's not much to do around here. I used the time lazing around, edit pictures, and work on both Dutch and English blog. I'll probably go to bed early -- it's supposed to be better weather tomorrow, so maybe I can see some of the area before the shuttle to the Greyhound Station leaves, which'll be around noon. I'm happy I don't have to switch more buses, though! Tomorrow I'll be in Provo, for sure! :)