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What was I thinking on that long forgotten day? Thinking back I recall remembering the previous nights karaoke
but I would suggest that in this pic I`m thinking "For the love of all that is holy can the time pass any faster?"
Before there could be America there had to be Narita! There had to be the odyssey of Narita!
And what was Craig thinking? Probably something along the lines of "I will kill him! I will kill him!"
He would try in America but fortunately for us all his attempts would fall short of bodily harm.
Sunday 25th July 2004
After almost a week of all kinds of appointments and tribulations the car becomes available! We decide to go for
a little drive. Oooh I think, the open road, the wind in my hair. Mount Evans!
Where was I? Ahh the open road with the wind in my hair and here we are. The Open road. Incidentally,
this trip led me to believe that in America it is a necessity to have a car. Well, certainly in Colorado, even in the
city of Denver one needs to drive around. I`ll come back to the bigness of America later.
Yes, the open road! And as Craig pointed out once if not a thousand times, that mountain was not Mount Evans!
And no we weren`t there yet either! From Denver we headed past Red Rocks (more of that later) and kept driving - about
a 90 minute drive I think. Passing through tranquil watering holes along the way like the one below.
That long winding road included some outstanding sights of nature at her most beautiful, captivating and chilly.
Finally the road stopped winding, as so kindly pointed out at http://www.mountevans.com/Mount-Evans-About.HTML
"All 14 miles of the road from the entrance station to the Mount Evans summit parking area (14,130) are paved. From there,
you can hike the last 130 feet (about 1/4 mile walk) to the top at 14,264 feet. After you have made this climb, you can tell
all your friends: "I climbed a 14,000 foot mountain in Colorado on my vacation!" "
So I did actually climb a 14,000 foot mountain in Colorado in my Summer Vacation!
I sincerely hope faithful browser that when your mouse passes over my piccies you can see the names I gave them.
The one above is entitled Irony.
The one below quite clearly states what it is, a picture of the world`s highest working observatory and it was taken
during the 1/4 mile walk to the very tip of Mt Evans. And being that far above sea level is a tad daunting, well, unless
you don`t breathe or something.
Denver is a mile above sea level! Mt Evans is about three miles or more above sea level. Fukuoka is at sea
level. Burnley is moreorless at sea level. Strangely when we walked that 1/4 mile path to the very top of the
mountain - 130 feet vertically - it required a lot of effort. Quite a taxing walk. Then you look at my compatriot
and isn`t he chipper! Grrrr!
Monday 2nd August
Obviously after Saturday night, Sunday was a `right off` which is to say that nothing was happening on Sunday save Craig`s
worried and concerned mother enquiring as to whether or not he had a fractured skull. Craig`s rebuttals of the claim
primarily with the power of sleep. Sunday the eye looked bad! However it was a very lively day. Not!
But plenty of movies were watched.
Monday! The Barenaked Ladies in concert! In Red Rocks! I don`t know who of you are and aren`t
familiar with Red Rocks, I know I wasn`t before I went there, so knock yourself out and have a peak at the Red Rocks website
which is to be found at http://www.redrocksonline.com/index.tml there is even a handy link to the "visiting denver website". Go on it is pretty and informative. A handy
description provided by our friends at the aforementioned website follows;
"Nestled in the Rocky Mountain Foothills fifteen miles west of Denver,
there stands a symbol of nature's unparalleled majesty. Red Rocks is a geologically formed, open-air Amphitheatre that is
not duplicated anywhere in the world. With Mother Nature as the architect, the design of the Amphitheatre consists of two,
three hundred-foot monoliths (Ship Rock and Creation Rock) that provide acoustic perfection for any performance."
Just to wet your appetite. Red Rocks from the outside. And yes they are rocks and even more peculiarly they
are Red!
So, Monday! Red Rocks! The Barenaked Ladies supported by Alani Morisette! Picture perfect venue, like
nothing you have ever experienced before. Killer stairs what with being more than a mile above sea level!
Here is an attempted panorama in the daylight, which means it is 3 pics I later joined together, I`ll show it here as
the smaller version. And if there are any of these pics that you`d like to see in a bigger format please feel free to
e-mail me and request them!
So, the concert, well, I was too far away to take pics of the stage once night fell and Alanis got off the stage.
What can I say? The Barenaked`s were as good as I imagined they would be and they were nowhere near as funny as I thought
they`d be they were much much funnier! Alanis (who now she has stopped looking like Dave Grohl) was a great entree but
as entree should she only caused more appreciation and anticipation of the main course! Of course the Fat Tire
didn`t help with the loving of the Barenaked`s, they were actually a bit of a hamper as I had to nip off to the lav once or
twice and pissing in public isn`t really done in America!
So, the concert, well, as we sat a good few hunderd yards from the stage and I don`t have a night vision equipped cam
I did the best I could but they are blurred to buggery, as my night shot of the above panorama will testify. Below and
for your delectation faithful browser are; 1 Ship Rock 2 Creation Rock 3 the blurred to buggery night panorama.
It was a fantastic concert! If you don`t know BNL then find out about them. http://www.bnlmusic.com/ Buy the back catalogue! Hello City, King of Wishful Thinking, Shoe box. All great tunes and on the first
album! Have a look at the website, go on, you know you want to! From the website you can even buy bootlegs of
their concerts about 12 dollars to download them. I think I may well purchase the MP3 of the concert as it is only 12
dollars to download.
I have one last pic from my Red Rocks experience that I would share here. There are things that draw my attention
in life. Things that effectively capture my eye and don`t let go. Amongst these things are embers, fire, eyes,
water and red coloured moons.
I give you a red moon over Denver, as taken from Red Rocks!
Tuesday 3rd August
What could Craig and I possibly do to top the experience of the Barenaked Ladies the night before? Ahh how I wish
that sentence were written the same way but maybe with the addition of a space! :p
Well, the problem with America aside from the recent lousy taste in politicians is that there is so much to do!
And as I may have mentioned earlier, America is HUGE! Granted not as Huge as China, Russia, or Brazil but to a boy from
England who now lives in Japan it is Awesomely Vast! Now, the problem with things that are huge is that they are usually
more expensive and this is true in some ways for America - as the petrol/gasoline (excessively cheap nonetheless) expenditure
racks up.
So, Tuesday, well, we went to downtown Lodo which is the fashionable district of Denver therein we consumed a couple
of beers and then took in that most American of pastimes - Baseball!
Above we can see the front entrance of Coors Field, a very nice entrance, despite the name, although I don`t mind it
in America, perhaps if "Ewood Park" (for those uneducated people amongst you "Ewood Park" is the home stadium of Blackburn
Rovers) were named "Pilsner Park" I would be vexed, well there is no perhaps about it. Even if "Old Trafford" were renamed
"Old Tennants Field" I think I would have some issues but in America the name is routine as testified to by "Invesco@ Mile
High".
The bad thing about any baseball game is that it takes up a lot of time, (conversely for those of us who like to kill
time it is very effective) that said, in between the innings one can head down to the concessions stand and buy over-priced
beer or, as in my case, try and take some panorama pics of Coor's Field. One of which can be seen above. There
is just something about panorama shots that is fantastic. Of course what with movement and lining the ends up and the
general passage of time, some of the panorama's I've taken are perhaps not the perfect example of the artform, but I still
like them. Especially when one is dealing with a panorama like that of Coor's Field as my next picures will testify
- I hope.
I don't think it is that bad an attempt at a panorama, obviously the moving clouds and changing light didn't help, not
to mention the beer and my own lacking visual perception - but what you do get, dear browser, is a killer sunset, and an idea
of Denver and it's location in relation to the Mountains! As you can clearly tell the pic above was taken using three
pics which I then reasonably carefully patched together in my home. The picture below uses 4 pics and it is a view I
grew accustomed with that night. The view from the smoking area in the Baseball stadium.
So on one side of Denver is the majesty of the Rocky Mountains and on the other side you can see to and through
Kansas! This pic is a nice panorama attempt technically I feel (goodness when did I become so boring?)
Anyway, here we can see a road, and then a nice walkway - it reminded me of Wembley Way although it was smaller :)) -
then we have a large car park - must be somewhere for your nearest fans to park after their three hour drive to the stadium! A
couple of nice lamps! And another version of Craig's unique smile. Somewhere in amongst those buildings was a rather
nice bar - falling rock which stocked a shedload of micro brews and import beers.
Before leaving the Baseball to the recesses of memory I'd like to show you one last panorama pic - well for now - this
pic is called sunset on the rockies (I was always rather good when choosing a title) and just look at the majesty of that
sunset, the colours, the width, the big big sky, as beautiful a sight as can be achieved with a 3.2 megapixel digital camera
without a tripod in a place that one isn't really familiar with. The only problem is that I can't remember if the Rockies
won or lost the match, but it was Larry Walker's sunset as well.
Saturday 7th August
This site is dedicated to providing information on Rocky Mountain National Park
I on the other hand am just trying to recall my trip and retell my experiences with a little witticism now and again.
I hope you've had a chortle dear browser. If you have feel free to pass on any feedback, PLEASE! Was that too
needy?
Anyway, RMNP, well, I don't recall how long we were in the car but we stopped a couple of times, I even picked up some
real estate mags - I love to know the price of property around the world - we saw a wedding party but no wedding singer perhaps
I should've offered my services. Craig bought some souvenir goodies, I managed to keep my hands in my pockets.
The thing about mountains is that at some point they look like hillocks, then like dales, hills, fells, big hills, bigger
hills, small mountains -you probably get the picture. These mountains had been on my horizon for most of my time in
Colorado I think, although I may be mistaken, as we drove towards them I could only think "ooooooh big!" and they were.
But first we went to Estes Park.
Whilst I'm not the best photographer in the world, I think I have the ability to take a bloody good picture now and again.
Dear Browsers I give you a pic I would submit as "Apple Pie" you have it all. The flag, the mountains - the
continental divide no less is hidden in those mountains - at the edge of the pic you can see the Stanley Hotel - the hotel
where Stephen King got the inspiration for The Shining. In the right hand forefront of the pic you can see a mall if
I remember correctly. The entire pic is as American as apple pie. The pic, as so many have been, was taken from
inside the car on the way somewhere.
If you are a Stephen King fan, request room 217. It was in this room that King, inspired by the Stanley
Hotel, wrote half of "The Shining." The ABC miniseries was filmed at the Stanley Hotel as well.
The ghosts in the Stanley Hotel aren't evil as in the book. Room 418 seems to have the most ghostly
activity reported. In fact, the entire fourth floor of the Stanley Hotel (formerly the servants quarters) is quite active.
Often, the sound of children playing in the halls of the Stanley can be heard, even when no children are present.
Wow! Wish we had had the chance to stay there, but it was en-route to the Rocky Mountain National park. Yet
another bloody reason that I have to go back!
Leaving Estes Park we embarked on the Trail Ridge Drive stopping along the way. The route of the drive is shown
above from Estes Park to Granby and I borrowed the pic from an informative website concerning great vacation drives. http://www.onroute.com/drives/drives_trailridgedr.html And it says more about the things we drove past or actually stopped and took in the splendour of the Natural world.
In the following pics I try to give something of my experience there. I took a lot of pics in the RMNP, I guess I just
take a lot of pics but there was so much to see, so so so much to see.
The entire tour of Trail Ridge Road and return takes about 4-5 hours and it is worthwhile. This road opens
in late May and usually closes by late October. .. Trail Ridge Road runs above 12,000 feet for four miles and above 11,000
feet for eleven miles. It climbs 5,000 vertical feet from Estes park to its high point.
Thank god we were driving. Below we can see a signpost explaining about the rivers of ice that carved out the valleys,
never had glaciation been so vivid for me, and I'm not being sarcastic.
Above we have a ubiquitous "what you can see" sign, they are so useful fortunately this one wasn't hemmed in by mist
like the one at Mt Evans, but by the same token this one was nowhere near as high either. So we have a close up of the
sign and some info I could make out on the full size pics, don't forget dear browser these pics are about 410 across
whereas the originals are a whopping 2048 across. If any of you want a full size pic just ask.
Below, we have a panorama attempt of that same area seeing some of those mountains and catching a glimpse of Craig as
well, isn't it a great view - of the mountains not Craig.
Chipmunk! Lol, Chip 'n' Dale! The only times I've seen chipmunks before were as cartoons or as pets
in good old Japan! Actually this pic is a serious stab at photo journalism! We can see the chipmunk, nature's
cutest rodent trying to hide from my photographic gaze and wha't that a little higher in the pic? Ahhh yes a plastic
water bottle! Obviously this can lead us to only one conclusion! Bottled water is bad! What does Evian spell
backwards? What brand was that water oh yes it was "hctib gnitullop" some kind of slovak brand I guess.
Is Slovak an OK word? Or am I going to be spanked for political incorrectness?
Below I give to you one huge attempted panorama split in two, a pic taken in one of the tundra areas, where people are
begged by signs to stay off the tundra, what with it taking such a long time to grow - about a hundred years or so - and who
would be there but many many "hctib gnitullop" drinkers! I just wanted to shout at these people, but it would've been
unseemly and/or they could've been packing or even sued me for mental duress or some such! I do hope they
weren't Coloradons. This pic was not far from the Continental divide, in fact no sooner had we left this area then we
passed the alpine lodge gift area and had gone over the continental divide, sadly I didn't get a pic of either sign.
These be lava cliffs if I recall correctly, I must admit that I just had a liking for the "what you can see" from here
signs, they are so robust and informative, just beside this sign was another sign, a sign I wasn't going to include, but,
well, after the "hctib gnitullop" drinkers - why the hell not. The pic below is called areacloseddangeroussnowfields,
in plain English it is the advice on the sign! Area Closed! Dangerous Snowfields! And what can we see in
the snow? Well it would seem to be prospective Darwin Award winners! No doubt drunk on the water of "hctib gnitullop"!
I do so apologise for my outburst, but, well, as a small town boy who never had any desire to go to America and as someone
who was a tad Anti-American my vacation in Colorado was mind blowing. The scope, the views, the food and the people!
I don't recall meeting one dumb redneck, so it was with horror that I witnessed such acts of rank stupidity within one of
the America's premier National parks! Those people ruined a wonderful day, and left a bad taste in my mouth, fortunately
on the way back to Denver Craig and I would pass beside the couple below. The closest I got to a redneck I guess, and
yet isn't he cool!
A bit like America I guess, at first you can't quite believe what you are seeing, then you just label it as too bloody
strange and self obsessed but at the end of the day you do have a liking for it.
Craig and family, thank you for letting me into your family and homes for the duration of my vacation, it was an honour
and a privilege to meet you all. Neil and Jennifer - may your happiness continue upto and beyond my return visit to
Colorado (that is probably a long way off). Barbara and Bill, the food was great as was the accommodation thank you
for everything.
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