Denver
I was in Denver the first half of this week on business. I’ve been to Denver before but only to get in a rental car and drive somewhere else. This was the first time I spent time in Denver. Couple of thoughts.
- Denver and the surrounding area is much flatter than I thought it would be.
- The flight out there was long. I left Sunday night because of Monday morning commitments and didn’t realize how long it would take. And I know Jet Blue is fun and the CEO has A.D.D and all of that, but other than the TVs on each flight, I didn’t think it was anything special. The fair was cheap but it was an airline that safely got me from point A to point B. Big deal. You hear so much about what a great airline it is. The flight attendants were nice enough but the seats were seats and the soda was soda. Maybe I am missing something here.
- The weather in Denver was unbelievable. While it was around 30 in the morning, it was 70 during the day and even mid 60s at 8 at night. The sky was cloudless and it was dry. It was perfect weather. I thought Denver was cold and snowed all the time but I have since learned that it is mostly shorts and T-shirt weather.
- The downtown area was nice but there seemed to be a lot of homeless people. Not sure if it was just in the areas I was in but there were a lot of shady looking folks around. And they mixed with the regular crowd like in a popular lunch eating area. It was strange.
- Ever since reading Fast Food Nation I think of Denver and the surrounding area as being full of Mexican meat processing employees.
- The people were nice but I find nice people everywhere. They did seem to be fit though.
- I would consider living out there. I assume the cost of living is less than the Northeast and I could get used to the weather. Being around the mountains would be great and of course we would be closer to Minnesota. But I would miss the oceans and the pace of the Northeast.
- Leaving Sunday night was awful. It’s just a terrible way to end the weekend.
- Delta doesn’t easily fly there so I had to take two airlines (one in each direction) that I have no status with. Kind of stinks to be stuck on a plane with zero chance of getting into first class.
One thing did happen that was pretty interesting. Nothing to do with Denver, just unethical taxi drivers. There is a flat rate from the airport to downtown Denver. It was clearly stated when we took a cab from the airport to Denver. But when we got into the taxi in downtown to head to the airport the driver put the meter on. After a while I asked him if there was a flat rat. He kind of got flustered and said yes, there is a flat rate, and he said he put it on because sometimes people get nervous when he does not. The meter rate turned out to be about 5 dollars more than the flat rate and I wonder if he would have charged us the meter rate if I didn’t say anything. Just curious.
At any rate, Denver was nice and I have a feeling I’ll be out there again soon. I liked the weather, downtown was nice enough and I just have to find out how I can get out there on Delta.