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Mile High Bison
This is my last chapter about travel before the Worldcon. I'm getting a little worried about the lack of feedback; should I have tried for more sensationalism?
I've already posted some about the bus and train and seeing bison in Denver (well, outside the main city) so go and look at those if you want to be reminded. Wearing oneself out for nearly a week is great preparation for sitting on a train looking at mountain scenery. The food on Amtrak is not thrilling but mostly okay and requires only the personal effort of walking one car along to reach the dining area. Fellow passengers were also not thrilling, especially if they were travelling coach. You could always tell; the glazed-looking people in dining were inevitably coach travellers. One unusual group was a bunch of what I took to be Amish; wearing the typical clothing, black bonnets for the women, black hats for the men and garments of maroon or blue cotton, who spoke with a heavy and undecipherable German accent. The men sported hairstyles which really did look as though someone had put a bowl on their heads and cut around it.
Newspaper note: Seen in "USA Today" an article featuring the Night Stalker Pet Emporium, which had taken in a young alligator mistakenly released by its owner in an area where it would not have survived the next winter.
In Denver, I spent the next five days in the home of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ankh_hpl and her husband Ben. The first day was mostly relaxing, drinking excellent tea and catching up. Denver was quite a bit warmer than San Francisco, which tends to drop my activity level. We talked writing and old fannish days and even older gaming stories. On the second day, we went out to the bison ranch, home of Tinkerbell and his herd. The third day, Sunday, we did some bookshop crawling, notably the very well-stocked secondhand store "Black and Read". Also caught up on watching some Firefly, still one of the best series I ever saw. On the fourth day, we went to Denver Zoo, which had expanded its exhibits since I last saw it but didn't manage to produce an elk :-) My search to see elk is becoming a bit of an ongoing comedy routine. In 2004 we went into the mountains to an area where they are supposed to congregate, only nobody had told the elk. This time the zoo had a sign reading "Elk" but no elk.
Note: Denver zoo likes to educate you. Constantly. On the loo. They had some sort of radio nature show being piped into the facility on the fascinating subject of termite flatulence.
Lunch at a very good Mexican restaurant and more bookshop crawling at the Tattered Cover and Borders followed. TC is not what it was, still a very good bookshop but since its move, it seems to have downscaled somewhat. Of course, most of the bookstores I saw could have knocked the Perth shops flat. Not Fantastic Planet, naturally. I would never say that :-) My hosts' also have a most enviable home library, including what has got to be one of the best Lovecraft collections around.
The last day was spent chatting, drinking tea and taking it easy. I knew it would be my last chance to do so before the con. I also want to thankankh_hpl for tramping around the suburb with me several times so I could build up my "steps", in the name of the Global Corporate Challenge, the walking "competition" designed to get sedentary office types off our butts and taking some exercise. Teams enter their steps on the GCC website, which moves you in a virtual "walk around the world." I don't think I'll ever achieve again what I managed in San Francisco, not even trying but I got some respectable scores in Denver.
I guess I have to face it; sensationalism and excitement isn't me :-) I did have a very good time these past few days, as I did when visiting K and C in Lancaster and really regret that my friends must live so far away.
To be continued in "At the Worldcon."
I've already posted some about the bus and train and seeing bison in Denver (well, outside the main city) so go and look at those if you want to be reminded. Wearing oneself out for nearly a week is great preparation for sitting on a train looking at mountain scenery. The food on Amtrak is not thrilling but mostly okay and requires only the personal effort of walking one car along to reach the dining area. Fellow passengers were also not thrilling, especially if they were travelling coach. You could always tell; the glazed-looking people in dining were inevitably coach travellers. One unusual group was a bunch of what I took to be Amish; wearing the typical clothing, black bonnets for the women, black hats for the men and garments of maroon or blue cotton, who spoke with a heavy and undecipherable German accent. The men sported hairstyles which really did look as though someone had put a bowl on their heads and cut around it.
Newspaper note: Seen in "USA Today" an article featuring the Night Stalker Pet Emporium, which had taken in a young alligator mistakenly released by its owner in an area where it would not have survived the next winter.
In Denver, I spent the next five days in the home of
ankh_hpl and her husband Ben. The first day was mostly relaxing, drinking excellent tea and catching up. Denver was quite a bit warmer than San Francisco, which tends to drop my activity level. We talked writing and old fannish days and even older gaming stories. On the second day, we went out to the bison ranch, home of Tinkerbell and his herd. The third day, Sunday, we did some bookshop crawling, notably the very well-stocked secondhand store "Black and Read". Also caught up on watching some Firefly, still one of the best series I ever saw. On the fourth day, we went to Denver Zoo, which had expanded its exhibits since I last saw it but didn't manage to produce an elk :-) My search to see elk is becoming a bit of an ongoing comedy routine. In 2004 we went into the mountains to an area where they are supposed to congregate, only nobody had told the elk. This time the zoo had a sign reading "Elk" but no elk.Note: Denver zoo likes to educate you. Constantly. On the loo. They had some sort of radio nature show being piped into the facility on the fascinating subject of termite flatulence.
Lunch at a very good Mexican restaurant and more bookshop crawling at the Tattered Cover and Borders followed. TC is not what it was, still a very good bookshop but since its move, it seems to have downscaled somewhat. Of course, most of the bookstores I saw could have knocked the Perth shops flat. Not Fantastic Planet, naturally. I would never say that :-) My hosts' also have a most enviable home library, including what has got to be one of the best Lovecraft collections around.
The last day was spent chatting, drinking tea and taking it easy. I knew it would be my last chance to do so before the con. I also want to thank
ankh_hpl for tramping around the suburb with me several times so I could build up my "steps", in the name of the Global Corporate Challenge, the walking "competition" designed to get sedentary office types off our butts and taking some exercise. Teams enter their steps on the GCC website, which moves you in a virtual "walk around the world." I don't think I'll ever achieve again what I managed in San Francisco, not even trying but I got some respectable scores in Denver.I guess I have to face it; sensationalism and excitement isn't me :-) I did have a very good time these past few days, as I did when visiting K and C in Lancaster and really regret that my friends must live so far away.
To be continued in "At the Worldcon."
Sensationalism? Excitement?
Re: Sensationalism? Excitement?
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I've definitely got at least one frog, btw; he has a regular spot that he calls from but I still haven't seen him.