Following on from my drive through Arizona and delicious food (shoutout Eddie McStiff’s), I had a delightful night sleeping in the “Casa del Nitro” (what I’ve decided I’ll now refer to my car as), waking up early to tackle one of the hikes of Moab within Arches National Park.
Much like the previous day, the scenery was unreal and being surrounded by all of the nature allowed me to further reflect on the journey so far and what was upcoming.
The hike itself wasn’t difficult – despite plenty of people literally looking like they had enough gear to scale Everest – however there were a few cool rocks that you could climb up to check out different views of the vast surrounds (again, I’m no good at describing this stuff so I’ll let the pictures do the talking).
Once this was conquered and feeling like the great explorers of a bygone era, I saddled up once again to begin my drive to Denver – with a bonus pit stop at Wendy’s Burgers (4.2/10 – never again).
Being fortunate enough to have done this drive East along the I-70 a few years ago with my mate Dave (shoutout David Cohen), I knew I was in for a treat and once again the scenery did not disappoint (only the traffic which caused me to be delayed about 2 hours).
I did get to fuel up at what is probably the best named city in the country though 🙂
Feeling good after that fuel stop, I powered through and arrived in beautiful Denver Colorado where I was to stay with my mate from Santa Monica Rugby and recent Denver transplant Saeed (yes – shoutout Saeed).
After being reacquainted and catching up on the last few years over some BBQ (I think I gave it an 8.9/10), we hit the hay ready for the grand tour of Denver (aka – checking out Mile High Stadium, the “Pepsi Center” – home of the Nuggets / Avalanche, and a little bit of downtown).
Arriving early to “Mile High Stadium”, which is the home of the NFL’s Denver Broncos, I was instantly filled with resentment towards the team and specifically the plaques rubbing their recent success of the Patriots in AFC Championship games.
This resentment was quickly offset however, as there was a fun run for heart disease awareness and we found ourselves fortunate enough to be able to join in the fun and even go inside and check it out from field level – something I haven’t done since I went to those two Superbowls (hehe humblebrag).
Following the stadium, we checked the Pepsi Center (no fun run here) and a bit of downtown where there was some chalk festival going on with artists applying their trade to the pavements of the city – not really up my ally, though it was interesting to see how passionate some people are about chalk……..
We then retreated home to chillout (read: sink a couple), before meeting up with our other mate David Jollie (who we’ll just call Jollie from here on) and head downtown to the game (via Jollie’s house as he forgot his wallet – geez that’s not relatable at all).
Coor’s Field is located pretty much smack bang in downtown Denver, and given this was a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the fans were pumped to see their boys go up against National League West rivals the LA Dodgers (yay!).
It took a while to get in, but once we found our seats (after meeting up with another friend of a friend – shouout Marianne [sorry I forgot your boyfriend’s name, nice guy though]), we were truly able to take in what was not only an incredible view of the mountains that seemed to frame the entire city, but also some high quality baseball surrounded by typically rowdy Dodger fans (God bless ‘em).
The game itself was a beauty, with both teams scoring runs in the second inning including a Grand Slam Home Run to the Rockies (remember – a home run with the bases loaded). With the Rockies holding onto a 4-2 lead heading into the fourth, the Dodgers would hit a solo home run (Joc Pederson was on fire) to shave the deficiet to 4-3 and then would tie it up in the sixth to make it 4-4.
It was the seventh though that the Dodgers would EXPLODE, silencing the sold out stadium (well only the Rockies fans, the travelling Dodger fans were LOSING it), by piling on 8 runs, to rush out to a 12-4 lead which they would ultimately hold on to for the rest of the game in a CRUSHING victory for the boys in blue.
The action on the field wasn’t the only thing that was getting my engine going. As the time ticked over, Coors Field really began to turn it on with a spectacular sunset that served as a fitting backdrop to what was an awesome day in Denver.
Having a flight to Houston early the next morning, we all agreed to head home and relax so I’d be fresh and ready to go. Smart thinking all round, except I am NOT smart and actually an idiot, so kicked on with the boys and some their mates (shoutout all of you, cannot remember a single name) and eventually ended up asleep on the floor at about 1:00am.
(I don’t actually have any pictures of the night, so here’s a reminder of the best photo ever taken of me)
I’m now sitting within Denver international airport awaiting my flight down South to Houston Texas. I’ll be spending one night there staying in an Air Bnb downtown and taking in what should be an awesome game with the World Series Champion Houston Astros welcoming the always consistent and big drawing Boston Red Sox.
Plenty of content coming, so make sure to keep that dial on GDThirtybefore30 (all channels please).
Have a good one!
Thirty before 30 