Monday, October 30, 2006
The day was Thursday Oct. 26th and I had a scheduled flight heading towards Colorado Springs at 6:36am with a lay over in Phoenix. I had to get up at 4:00am to catch a cab at 4:45am. I had been watching the weather reports all week long and on Monday it was scheduled to be beautiful all weekend, better than Boston. Tuesday, still beautiful with a chance of light snow on Thursday, maybe rain. Wednesday, there was a blizzard warning going from that night till Thursday afternoon. Great. There was beautiful weather everywhere else in the country, crystal clear skies, big puffy clouds, warm winds, etc., except for the one town I was supposed to go to.
I get to Phoenix without a hitch, slept on the plane almost the entire way there except for the hour leading up to landing where I watched the red rocks and canyons pass underneath us. It's such a beautiful state that I have never been to. Outside the windows of the airport are scattered red rock formations, and hills to look and marvel at. It was 80 degrees. I was watching the weather channel at my gate with a pit in my stomach, Colorado Springs was getting pummelled by snow and winds. My friend that I was going to be seeing there let me know that the conditions were getting worse, and it was pretty bad outside. I waited, my flight said it was going to take off. It kept saying that. And stayed strong until 2 minutes before boarding was supposed to start and the flight got cancelled. An announcement---all flights to Colorado Springs were cancelled or booked until Saturday, you can go to Denver today, or try again tomorrow.
I was temporarily distraught. I got up at fucking 4am to catch this flight, had been so looking forward to the visit, and now I might just have to turn around and go back to fucking Boston. I called my friend, told my story, I decided I was going to try and get trapped in Denver instead of trapped in Phoenix. Amazingly, there is a flight that is going to Denver an hour after my cancelled flight, I book myself on it and try to calmly believe that my luck will turn, the snow will stop, and I will be in Colorado Springs by morning. Typically Denver and C.S. are only an hour and a half apart from each other, but apparently, as of that time, the roads were totally closed. Fuck Yeah! My flight is delayed by half an hour, but it is still scheduled to go. I am bizarrely optimistic while reading the Gnarls Barkley article in SPIN. There is an announcement over the loud speaker that if I'm interested in getting a shuttle from Denver to CS that day I should talk to this guy, so I do. He tells me there is a man willing to drive people, it won't be that expensive, so I say I'm interested.
I get on the flight, I couldn't believe it was happening. I am in Denver an hour and a half later. The guy putting the shuttle together is still there, he is not an apparition. He says our driver is waiting outside for us. I am in a daze of disbelief and amazement. At that point I had been traveling for 16 hours, and I had never felt more awake.
Our shuttle bus was a big suburban and inside were #1 a military guy who had just gotten out of bootcamp and the next day was his first day. He was from California. He had never seen snow. #2 a musician who also owned a few businesses and was recording in C.S. #3+4 a power couple, man and wife, who were in business together and had two children. #5 a woman that was being financially taken care of by her boyfriend and who happened to live in the exact same town that I used to live in California. A friend of hers lived on my old street. #6 Our amazing driver, Mo, who has Afghani and had been living in the states for over 30 years, and had been an American citizen for 27 years. He was a cowboy.
The next three hours were spent on 1-25 trying to maneuver our way through clear roads, black ice, unplowed stretches, and numerous accidents. We told stories about our lives, we listened to Mo tell his stories about how the world had changed so much from when he first arrived till now. People that he had been buying coffee from for 15 years now thought that he was Al Qaeda, but he still had such an amazing sense of humor. He was a fantastic driver. He made us laugh so much. During the drive, I remember thinking 'wow, this is a journey. I will never forget this.' We arrive at the C.S. airport where the woman from my town in CA has her boyfriend pick us up and they both take me to the hotel I'm supposed to meet my friend at. Jennifer (the woman), and her boyfriend (John) were adorable, lovely, and funny. I hope I get to go back one day and check out their house. I arrived at the hotel just after 9pm...over 20 hours after I got up that morning.
I should have felt like shit, I should have been exhausted; but the trip, despite it's length, was awesome and unforgettable.
Things I learned on my trip:
People in Colorado are incredibly friendly. In two restaurants I ate in, upon asking how our server was doing, we got the response 'I'm doing fantastic, thanks'. Wow. Fantastic.
Colorado is beautiful, which I had already known, but it was more beautiful than I remembered.
Sunrises are better than Sunsets. Also something I already knew, but I so infrequently see sunrises, and I saw two.
Denver is an adorable city, with great architecture, and an absolutely awesome newly renovated art museum. It's acronym.....DAM. Which makes it 25% better.
Tracy Bonham has an amazing voice and I love her songs.
That many cities use the phrase 'if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes', though we were pretty sure Mark Twain said that about New England. But after looking it up on the internerd I have found it was said about at least 4 different states, 2 different countries, and two different writers. So who knows?
Lastly, all the snow melted the next day and it was 70 for the rest of the weekend. Wait five minutes indeed.
I get to Phoenix without a hitch, slept on the plane almost the entire way there except for the hour leading up to landing where I watched the red rocks and canyons pass underneath us. It's such a beautiful state that I have never been to. Outside the windows of the airport are scattered red rock formations, and hills to look and marvel at. It was 80 degrees. I was watching the weather channel at my gate with a pit in my stomach, Colorado Springs was getting pummelled by snow and winds. My friend that I was going to be seeing there let me know that the conditions were getting worse, and it was pretty bad outside. I waited, my flight said it was going to take off. It kept saying that. And stayed strong until 2 minutes before boarding was supposed to start and the flight got cancelled. An announcement---all flights to Colorado Springs were cancelled or booked until Saturday, you can go to Denver today, or try again tomorrow.
I was temporarily distraught. I got up at fucking 4am to catch this flight, had been so looking forward to the visit, and now I might just have to turn around and go back to fucking Boston. I called my friend, told my story, I decided I was going to try and get trapped in Denver instead of trapped in Phoenix. Amazingly, there is a flight that is going to Denver an hour after my cancelled flight, I book myself on it and try to calmly believe that my luck will turn, the snow will stop, and I will be in Colorado Springs by morning. Typically Denver and C.S. are only an hour and a half apart from each other, but apparently, as of that time, the roads were totally closed. Fuck Yeah! My flight is delayed by half an hour, but it is still scheduled to go. I am bizarrely optimistic while reading the Gnarls Barkley article in SPIN. There is an announcement over the loud speaker that if I'm interested in getting a shuttle from Denver to CS that day I should talk to this guy, so I do. He tells me there is a man willing to drive people, it won't be that expensive, so I say I'm interested.
I get on the flight, I couldn't believe it was happening. I am in Denver an hour and a half later. The guy putting the shuttle together is still there, he is not an apparition. He says our driver is waiting outside for us. I am in a daze of disbelief and amazement. At that point I had been traveling for 16 hours, and I had never felt more awake.
Our shuttle bus was a big suburban and inside were #1 a military guy who had just gotten out of bootcamp and the next day was his first day. He was from California. He had never seen snow. #2 a musician who also owned a few businesses and was recording in C.S. #3+4 a power couple, man and wife, who were in business together and had two children. #5 a woman that was being financially taken care of by her boyfriend and who happened to live in the exact same town that I used to live in California. A friend of hers lived on my old street. #6 Our amazing driver, Mo, who has Afghani and had been living in the states for over 30 years, and had been an American citizen for 27 years. He was a cowboy.
The next three hours were spent on 1-25 trying to maneuver our way through clear roads, black ice, unplowed stretches, and numerous accidents. We told stories about our lives, we listened to Mo tell his stories about how the world had changed so much from when he first arrived till now. People that he had been buying coffee from for 15 years now thought that he was Al Qaeda, but he still had such an amazing sense of humor. He was a fantastic driver. He made us laugh so much. During the drive, I remember thinking 'wow, this is a journey. I will never forget this.' We arrive at the C.S. airport where the woman from my town in CA has her boyfriend pick us up and they both take me to the hotel I'm supposed to meet my friend at. Jennifer (the woman), and her boyfriend (John) were adorable, lovely, and funny. I hope I get to go back one day and check out their house. I arrived at the hotel just after 9pm...over 20 hours after I got up that morning.
I should have felt like shit, I should have been exhausted; but the trip, despite it's length, was awesome and unforgettable.
Things I learned on my trip:
People in Colorado are incredibly friendly. In two restaurants I ate in, upon asking how our server was doing, we got the response 'I'm doing fantastic, thanks'. Wow. Fantastic.
Colorado is beautiful, which I had already known, but it was more beautiful than I remembered.
Sunrises are better than Sunsets. Also something I already knew, but I so infrequently see sunrises, and I saw two.
Denver is an adorable city, with great architecture, and an absolutely awesome newly renovated art museum. It's acronym.....DAM. Which makes it 25% better.
Tracy Bonham has an amazing voice and I love her songs.
That many cities use the phrase 'if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes', though we were pretty sure Mark Twain said that about New England. But after looking it up on the internerd I have found it was said about at least 4 different states, 2 different countries, and two different writers. So who knows?
Lastly, all the snow melted the next day and it was 70 for the rest of the weekend. Wait five minutes indeed.
posted by Sarah RabDAU at
11:32 AM
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