Tap the Rockies!

I never drink Coors Light, but I might have to grab one while I am here, just so I can say I did.

The road to Denver from Omaha was rough. I drove through a severe thunderstorm, a windstorm (about 40 miles per hour), and a hail storm. During the windstorm, tumble weeds assaulted my vehicle. Not cool at all. I made it through all of these challenges fairly unscathed. The wind hurt my gas mileage and instead of 28 miles per gallon, I was getting about 25.

At times during this difficult leg of my trip, I thought about whether or not it would have been better to fly. But when I saw the Rocky Mountains begin to appear on the horizon, all those thoughts disappeared. It was so beautiful and awe inspiring for me. The mountains became more and more clear as I approached Denver. After a day traveling through plains, grasslands, and farmlands, it was truly remarkable to have this change of scenery.

I met my Couch Surfing host around 5:30pm. He's a really awesome guy named Sean Ryan, a kindred spirit. He has been a Spanish major for two years and is going to take some time off to go travel around Latin America for a while. He had an extra bike and took me on a bike tour of Denver. I absolutely love this city. It's really clean and there are great alternatives to driving a car. They have a good bus and rail system, and biking around was no problem at all (I know it's a bit tougher in the winter). Sean and I ate at a Japanese restaurant (Taki's) for dinner. The guy knew Sean and gave us free drinks and coupons for free meals on our next visit.

Sean and I stayed up late talking. I'm really glad we got to hang out. We'll be keeping in touch, and hopefully he and I will meet up in Latin America when I am in the Peace Corps.