My Adventures Living Daily Life & Traveling the World

When I was first told that Denver’s airport was the largest in the U.S., I didn’t believe it. I didn’t truly grasp how big it was until today. The airport had two wings, East and West. Both wings each had 3 terminals. I don’t know how many gates each terminal had, but in terminal B, where my flight was to depart from, there were 95 gates. That’s about twice as many as Houston’s terminal B, and Bush International is a huge enough airport. Also, to go from one terminal to the next, you have to take a shuttle. It reminded me of Atlanta.

We got to the airport just after 3 P.M. but our flight isn’t departing until 8:10 that night. I just love spending 5 hours in the airport! Not to mention that the weather was not on our side today. There was a hurricane in Houston and thunderstorms in Denver, so the first few flights from Denver to Houston today have been cancelled. There is an earlier flight available at 5:20, but with 30 people already on the standby list, like we had a chance!

Well, turned out that it didn’t matter anyway because the 5:20 flight was delayed until 8:10, same time as ours. What we feared the most were further delays or a cancellation. But luckily, while our flight was delayed several times, I am writing on the plane right now, so that at least means we’ve left. J We should be landing around 12:11 A.M. central time.

Colorado Scenery

After Glenwood, we headed to the airport on a scenic route through Colorado, driving right next to the famous Colorado River the entire way. It lived up to the hype. Jagged mountains, green fields, picturesque rivers, it was all here. The scenery on the way looked like it was taken straight from a fantasy film or a very well written novel. About midway through, we had an unscheduled stop atop the Rocky Mountains, with an altitude of 10,000 feet. If I felt shitty at 6,000 feet, I couldn’t imagine how I would handle this. But it actually wasn’t too bad. For some reason, my head felt heavy and my feet felt light. I thought I was floating when I walked. I did get a headache and sore throat from it, but it was worth every bit.

Then, it was time to drop everyone off. We said our goodbyes and I left my contact information with the two Canadian women. They were really the only people I cared to talk to on this trip. I had a great idea for a short story from everything they’ve told me, too.

Well because I couldn’t go swimming, I just sat in the lobby chatting with these two Chinese women from Vancouver, Canada instead. I’ve talked briefly with them throughout the trip, and they were very interesting people. They used to be on the professional volleyball team in China, and they are so tall. Both of them are over 40 but they acted like 20 year olds. We got along well even though their kids are almost as old as I am. I learned about the economic situation in Canada, how they want their kids to go to college in the U.S. because schools here are considered more prestigious. I told them the best advice I could about college and that is for their kids to pick a major they’d actually enjoy, not one for career purposes. No employers give a damn what your undergraduate major is. I, for one, wish I had not taken business. I love business, of course, but I already knew from the start that a major in business would teach me stuff I already knew, and are generally outdated at this point in time. I wish I had done linguistics or English, or even computer science instead. But four years ago, like my business partner, I felt like I “had” to take it for what I wanted to become.

This morning I woke up to my mom’s yelling and screaming. She was mad at me because I forgot the stuff we bought in Bingham Canyon on the bus. And of course it was 100% my fault even though she forgot to check as well. Whatever, I’ve learned to block her out a long time ago. Our stuff was still there when we checked, so no big deal. What really annoyed me today was the next part.

I hate it when people change plans involving me without informing me. I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE it. The only stop scheduled for the day was Glenwood Hot Springs. Nobody told us that we’d be swimming (apparently it wasn’t planned) so I didn’t bring a swimsuit. I’d have to pay at least $75 to get one there because it’s a tourist area. I would have loved to go in the hot springs, so it absolutely pisses me off that nobody tells me this ahead of time. No tip today for the damn tour guide!

So we were supposed to leave at 7:30 P.M., but this time it was the bus that did not show up on time. While waiting, I spent time looking around at all the different states the cars came from. I am really easily amused. I saw cars from Washington, Nevada, California, even Texas, Florida and Quebec. How many days of driving is that? I shudder to think. Around 8 George found the bus – it was parked in the next rest spot over because ours was full. There was apparently some miscommunication between the driver and George.

With so many delays throughout the day, we didn’t get to the hotel until almost 11 P.M. There was a Denny’s right next to the hotel, which was good. But of course nearly all 50 people rushed in there and it took over an hour to eat. At least I grabbed some leftovers for breakfast in the morning!

Arches

I looked around some more but refused to buy anything else. I would have probably found something else I wanted if I kept on looking. All the products in there were just so unique and fascinating. It turned out that I wasn’t the only one who thought this way, because as George predicted, we were delayed 15 minutes because so many people were still shopping when it came time to leave.

The scheduled lunch was Chinese buffet again!! I just can’t believe this. I mean, I guess it’s hard to feed 50 people any other way, but two days in a row is just sick. We tried our darned hardest to find something else nearby, but there was nothing. At least this one is better than the one last night.

The whole afternoon was spent driving towards Arch National Park, the last destination for the day. I slept just about the whole way, drifting in and out because the bus bounced up and down on the crappy roads like some old amusement park kids ride. By the time we got there, the sun was already setting. We had to hurry because it would be impossible to take pictures in the dark. The Arch National Park had over 2,000 different natural stone formations, the shapes of which can be very… interesting. There are ones that looked like penguins, people, lions, windows, and even body parts! I don’t feel the need to explain further. Anyway, the most famous of all the arches are probably the two windows, which we spent a lot of time at. Too much, I should say. They are just holes in the rock. I personally thought the body part look-alikes are more interesting.