First of all, I forgot to mention something noteworthy about yesterday. Before we left Denver, we took Damascus to a dog park with the address 666 S. Jason. When we arrived, we realized this was truly the dog park from hell. There was little grass, and within the first 30 seconds, Damascus got a big thorn stuck in his paw. There were no other dogs there. It's no wonder why. Lesson learned: Don't take your dogs to Satan's dog park.
As for today, THERE WAS SNOW EVERYWHERE!!! There still is! It started snowing in the morning, and hasn't stopped yet. I think it tapers off sometime tomorrow morning. We have about 8 inches or so. It's a good thing Arlo is really good at driving in the snow. It's really interesting to see how the natives react to the weather. Snow is no big event here like it is in PA or NJ. Everyone just knows how to drive in the snow. And they really don't plow a lot. I think only the major highways and a few main roads were plowed during the day. All the parking lots and side streets were completely snow covered. No salt. And everyone was out and about seemingly doing their normal daily activities. We did see this one lady in a Subaru drift around a corner at a traffic light and end perpendicular to traffic, but that's about it. No accidents or people getting stuck in the shoulder. If we had this kind of snow in Jersey, everyone would be snowed in at home.
We enjoyed the hotel's continental breakfast, and booked it for another night. It's funny how we easily find two couchsurfing hosts in small towns in a row, and now, in a big town, we can't find anyone. It's ok, though. It has given us the chance to organize some stuff and sleep a lot more.
We took Damascus to a snowy dog park that had one dog in it, and that dog was not at all interested in playing with him. We decided to return to Chautauqua Park (where we hiked a bit the day before), and played in the snow there. We saw a little red fox! He was a cutie. We found out or snow scooter doesn't work very well because of a stupid metal fin that is in the back. Stupid thing. We'll have to see if we can break it off or something. The other sled works awesome. We just need to find some steeper hills. The roads were awesome to sled on! Very dangerous, I know, but very fast and satisfying!
We had lunch at the Original House of Pancakes. It was a bit more expensive that we thought it would be, but it was good. We decided it was time to start eating out less, and packing more meal-friendly foods in the car. We have a lot of sweets (chocolate, rice krispie treats, granola) and these things are good for snacking, but not for meals. We took a trip to the grocery store tonight to stock up on other foods (PB&J, summer sausage, bagels, cheese, crackers). If anyone has some ideas for food that doesn't need to be heated to eat, please share them with us!
After lunch, we went to the Celestial Seasonings factory for a free tour! It was great!! And everything smelled awesome. After the tour, we spent a good 30 minutes sampling tea. We also learned that any tea claiming to be caffeine free is actually not tea at all. It's a marketing trick. That means all the Zinger teas are not tea! I forget the term she used for them. Very interesting, no? My new favorite tea is Decaff Mandarin Orchard. I also like White Imperial Peach. Did you know you're not supposed to brew white tea for more than 30-45 seconds, or it will make the tea bitter? I didn't know that until today, and I realized it really does taste better if you follow the directions. Yummy!
We spent most of the rest of the day planning. Depending on where (and if) we can get a couchsurfing host, we might end up in Grand Junction, CO or Moab, UT. It seems we'll also be making our way to Reno, NV sometime after, and then Sacramento, CA. The only limit to how far we travel before settling down is money. We're still doing fairly well with the funds, but we're starting to become more frugal with it now that we have a better idea of how fast it can disappear. We want to make this last as long as possible, so we're now trying to eat out less and hopefully not have to stay in anymore hotels. The privacy is nice, but its a big zap to our pocket. The ability to travel trumps conveniences like hotels and eating out a lot. I wish we could do something about the price of gas, but that will never happen. At least we don't have to buy that damn corn gas anymore (gas with 10% ethanol). Iowa is weird.
Good Night!
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