Denver Sunday Morning

Posted Sun May 2, 2010 in Travel

I’m sitting in the La Quinta on Colorado Avenue in Denver, Colorado. (Heh… I just switched out for the Bluetooth keyboard — much better…) We made it in late last night (too late for this old man), but the trip wasn’t too hard. We paused a couple of times along the way for a bio-break. One of those stops was in Boise City, Oklahoma (deep in the Oklahoma panhandle). It was a Texas rest stop (DQ) and I had a few minutes to wander the parking lot. I made an image of the edge of town. I think it reflects this portion of the country — heavily agriculture.

We hit road construction west from Wild Horse. They had a segment of Highway 287 shut down. A pilot car led us along the southbound shoulder. I’m not certain how long the highway segment was, but it was at least a couple of miles long. Given the long line of traffic, we elected to pause at the next rest stop (a few miles down the road), let the traffic string out, and take a break. OK, I needed to pee. So there…

The little Bimmer did well on fuel. Pushing the speed limit, it still made 27mpg (3.7g/100 miles), so I had plenty of fuel to make it to Denver. Interstate 70 was basically clear, with only a couple of false alerts (probably local enforcement off-highway) and so we made good time.

The new SueSue (TomTom 730) has a new feature in the software — it provides a visual indication of which lane to be in when in urban areas. I appreciate this feature because it can be difficult to make that determination when in traffic and unfamiliar territory. She (SueSue) did good.

While working south on I-225, a fire truck coded on one of the exit ramps. The pickup truck in front of him didn’t know what to do, so the driver hit the air horns and he moved over (finally). The ID-10-Ts on the interstate then braked (stupid, stupid, stupid) and the second vehicle in front of me braked IN THE LEFT LANE to stop, forcing an emergency stop in the following vehicle and one for me. I braked hard (but didn’t actuate the anti-locks) and moved a little to the right to provide room to stop adjacent to the slowing vehicles. The second ID-10-T in the right lane also decided to stop (Argh!), throwing the entire traffic flow into chaos for an emergency vehicle ON THE EXIT FROM THE FREAKIN’ HIGHWAY.

I had room, the vehicle to my right jammed too far right, but the following vehicle missed him (and also leaned on the horn and there was a shimmer of ionized air around the vehicle), and all ended well, if spooky. There was plenty of room if folks had driven wisely. Unfortunately, they didn’t but it ended well anyway.

Although suffering from the adrenalin boost, the remainder of the trip was uneventful. We were about five miles out from the hotel when the incident occurred. We had an easy late supper with the kids, then headed to the hotel where they played a bit and I tried to settle down.

Young Son decided to go with Older Son and DiL to their place to play games. I think it’s good for him.

Now Wife is in the shower and I need to get there next. We’ll gather up the crew and get some food. I need to think a bit about what I want to do today. That partly depends on others, but if there is anything I want to do here, I need to make it known.

Good morning!