Rocky Mtn High: Home Sweet Home

I want to get to Denver pretty early since it is a Saturday, and there haven’t been many weekend nights I’ve been able to hang out. I have a place picked out for dinner already. So we are ready to go we just need to pull into town get dressed and head out. The drive is long but goes by pretty quick. Which is shocking since, we had to drive through the desolate land that is Kansas and the eastern part of CO. There is less than nothing here. It’s not as bad as New Mexico, but it’s bad. Grass fields all around. We drive right though, grabbing some convenient store food. We arrive in Denver around 6. Perfect time to get dressed and get dinner. I ask the consider about a place to eat that has some exotic meat, maybe not exotic but more like buffalo, or more gamier meats. He gives us one that is called the Buckhorn, which is one of the oldest places in Denver. It has the 1st liquor license in Denver. But they are so he makes us a reservation for tomorrow. I tell him what I have planned and he tells me different places to go, which is a bad idea. I’ve been going on my own this whole time, I go where I’m kinda pushed to (karma, God whatever). But it works when I choose stuff for myself. This guy tells us that the Capitol Grille is a chain kinda like Morton’s and if you want to go to a place that’s more family owned go to Prime. What he doesn’t tell us is that there are 2 Prime restaurants within a lock and a half of each other. And of course we go into the wrong one. Not really a shit hole but nothing greatly average. And who is behind the bar?? You guessed it. I don’t know what to do with myself here. It really sucks to feel like this. And to see this happen time after time. The fact that I’m not deterred from going in to a place that has to say something, I keep trying and hoping for the best. It’s not much different in the city either. Anyway the food turns out better than I thought just looking at the place. We eat and pops and I part ways. I want to check out downtown and walk around to a bunch of bars and the district we are in is that kind of place. It’s got a piano bar, clubs and Irish pubs. Walking around I find that this isn’t my scene. Not by myself at least. It’s another one of those Jager types of towns. College town type with jager and cover charges. And I don’t go to places with cover charges. There are way too many places to go, that are just as good if not better than the places you spent money to go to. I go into bar after bar, looking for a cool place. There are a lot of places but on a Saturday night everyone is either on a date or out with a bunch of friends. So to strike up convo with people is a little harder. I took in the city and went to the hotel for some much needed sleep. Waking up early and driving long distances can really take it out of you.
Now the only thing I care to do in Denver is see the game and go to the brewery that has mad either beer I’ve been drinking for over a decade now. Jesus!!! A decade?? I wish I could say I’m getting old but I still feel like I’m 18. And once I get back to work and my brain starts to work again, I’ll feel even better. Not many people hope to get back to work. But when you serve booze, food, get to talk to a bunch of people, and get tipped to do it, there’s no better job in the world. Especially when I get to go back to 1300 and make up my own drinks, or maybe steal a couple from this trip and put it on my drink list. We drive to Golden where the brewery is and its majestic LOL. The tour quite boring and uninformative but they give you a sippey cup of Coors leaded or Coors Light half way through your tour. And at the end they give you up to 3 10 oz beers, that’s if you want to stand in the 10 – 15 min line to get a free Coors Light, instead of go to downtown Golden and get one for $1.75. I’ll spend the money. Even though I did stand in line twice. I had to try the Blue Moon, which I didn’t know Coors made and I’ve loved it for a long time. And I needed to try a Coors Light straight from the source. It taste’s the same. I don’t know what I was expecting. We go into Golden for lunch and the trend of niceness, and good food for close to nothing continues. Little bite hear and take the rest to the room cause we are having at least buffalo tonight if not something a little more “exotic”. We head over to it after more relaxing at the pool which is up on the 6 floor and outside. Little windy up there but the 95 degree sun makes that point almost moot. This place is tucked away in a long forgotten part of town. It looked like the only business within at least a 10 block radius. This place is covered in heads body’s of animals. There is even a stuffed seal!! I wasn’t expecting that one at all. They have a special that is elk and buffalo. Awesome 2 things I wanted in one. The elk is really good, but gamey. As it’s supposed to be. A little tough but still delicious. It’s got a peppercorn crust on it that is delightful. The buffalo was so tender and what was on it escapes me but was one of the best pieces of meat I’ve ever eaten. You almost only need a spoon to cut it. I drank a drink that was called the Buffalo Bill. They have been drinking it there for over 100 years. Fucking lairs. It was bourbon and apple juice. Once they finally brought it out he tell me that it used to be apple cider and bourbon not apple juice which makes sense but don’t put on your menu this is what has been drank here for over a 100 years when it has not. The place was a good tourist thing to see, so at least grab a drink in history. We head out to a couple different places. This city isn’t a great cocktail city. We stop at an Irish bar called the Pourhouse. Great name BTW. Meet a couple people. Who tell me a couple different places to go, but most of them are just local places to hang out and have a beer. They are coming to SF next week and since ill be working on June 14th I think I was able to pull a bachelorette party for my one say working. It’ll be an interesting night if they actually show up. We also go to a place called Lola’s that has some decent drinks and a whole bunch on tequila. That’s a nice change up. Everything during the week here shuts down at 10 -11 so not much time after a dinner to get around town. We head back to the hotel bar and relax there for a couple. Tomorrow is the game and I’m stoked for the last game on the road trip.
Another day of relaxation ahead. All we need to do is be at the game by 6:40. So a little lunch and go get the tickets. If you are interested though I did find out that there is a micro-brewery tour. Apparently there is a ton of breweries in this town. We went to one of them. Some decent beer. Had a honey agave one, and a pilsner. Pops had a porter which is way too dark for me. Good food to. It was like a Mexican food and American food restaurant. Nice little change. I didn’t have Mexican when I was in SD, and finally had a burrito. It was about as big as my leg. We grabbed our tickets and went right back to the hotel and the pool. After more relaxation we drove over to the game. The stadium is almost downtown. We run in there and are sitting right behind the plate, upstairs. But not even 1 foul ball even close. The stadium is quite large. It has a nice forest in center field. And the only place I know that has stands in centerfield and they are up there. The top of them is almost a mile high. Also cool, the mile high line seats are purple. It’s a very cool looking stadium. There isn’t much to it. It was one of the first new stadiums built in this new era of stadiums. I think this one came after the Baltimore one. We sat down and Pedro Feliz came up to bat and I always boo him but I think a Rockies fan thought I was booing the Rockies, so I got my first ever thing thrown at me. It was just a half a peanut but still, I wasn’t expecting that in Denver. The game is what I expected though. They were playing the Astros so knew who was winning this one. I was hoping for 3 home losses in 3 games but that didn’t come close to happening. The Astros got like 5 hits and the Rockies came out swinging. There were a good amount of fans at this stadium. For a Monday night game against the Astros I was surprised at that many people. They win making the road trip come to a close with a 22 – 6 for home teams. That’s ridiculous. That’s 79% winning percentage and I still have 3 games left. I end up trying to find a cocktail bar after the game but in this town not gonna happen. I do the hotel bar again and need the bed cause it’s a 17 hour drive to SF!!!
We wake up, and get out of town at 9:30; the drive through CO is beautiful. I just kept taking pictures throughout until it got dark. The salt flats, the mountains, and the snow just gorgeous, we end up stopping in Salt Lake City for dinner. This city is weird. I was expecting a very clean cut, city but it was like Reno, Sacramento put together. And then you have yourself Salt Lake City. That’s not a good combo at all. We grabbed a quick one and got the fuck out. We drove fast as we could trying to get as far as we could. We ended up in Winnemucca, NV which is a shit hole. It’s like my toilet and Chernobyl mutants put together. Again not good. We asked for a room at Economy hotel and dude freaks out and starts swearing at my dad tell him to get out of here we don’t have and ADA room. It was weird as fuck. So we took his advice and I drove to right outside of Reno, which means only a 3 hour drive home tomorrow which is today as I write this part. I am crossing the Bay Bridge as I type and can’t wait to be in my city finally. I miss my city!!! No fog this is awesome. I’ve never come back from a vacation and there wasn’t fog waiting for me. It’s 64 and great. On our way to the Double Play on 16th. I’ll be in Seattle in 2 weeks and an A’s game within this time and the Giants vs. Red Sox at AT&T on the 27th. Can’t wait to watch my team win at home. I’ll keep you updated with those games and stadiums as well. So just cause I’m home doesn’t mean this blog is over.