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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

First Trip to Denver

January 8th, 2009

This weekend I got to fly out to Denver to visit Scottie! Those of you who don’t know, Scottie has been gone since January 2nd doing an internship with RSM Mcladrey in Denver, Colorado. Being now (at the time) January 22 you can only imagine how EXCITED I was to see him! Since Scott and his friend Mike are both doing this internship, Mike’s wife Kelly and I flew out to Denver together. All was going well, I had left school early to get home and grab my stuff, pick up Kelly and to get to the airport on time for our flight. My mom drove us to the airport but as soon as we got closer....the fog set in. We checked our bags and anxiously awaited for our plane to board. Kelly was in the process of telling me about her bad luck with traveling when the airport worker came over the intercom to announce that NO flights were going to be taking off or landing due to the fog. Our flight that was coming in from Denver to pick us up, was hovering waiting for the fog to clear out. After a while our flight was diverted back to Denver and we would no longer be leaving at 6:00 but now 9:30! I jokingly turned to Kelly and told her I was never traveling with her again due to her bad luck! Haha. When our flight finally took off we arrived in Denver at 11:30. We were beat so we went straight to bed. The next morning Scottie took me around and showed me his office. It was so nice! Way to go Scottie! After that he took me and showed me the first place he lived when they first arrived in Denver. Before Scottie left for Denver, he was trying to find a place to stay for a decent price. He had arranged to live in this house he had heard about from a bishop in town that gave him the information. He had told me about this place over the phone but I was in for a real treat!! He had told me about the size and smell of the place but I just about died when I got the personal tour! It was an old house off Coalfax Avenue where all the rooms were converted into mini apartments. Therefore each apartment, including the bathroom and kitchen was no bigger than 150 square feet (and that’s being generous). Not to mention the rat problems and the stairs to the outside that looked like someone was murdered and drug down. Allow me to give you you're own personal tour....

First the parking spot...How inviting?

Next up, the famous stairs...(the picture just doesn't do justice?)

Welcome to room four...It has state of the art security...


When you walk in there is a great, spacious room that will fit the largest family....


In the kitchen, lets just say it was big enough for only one person alone.
The stove in the kitchen is so old that I’m sure you can fit any size casserole dish in it! The knobs on the stove are missing so in order to cook you will need a pair of pliers to turn the gas on. Scottie even went to Home Depot to get knobs for it but you can’t find them anywhere because it’s that outdated! State of the art I tell ya. It doesn't get any more vintage than this folks...


In the bathroom there is a nice big window in the bathtub just about the perfect height to show off your ‘assets”.



This quaint apartment even has a laundry room! Just be sure to bring your own weapon of defense. Some say this is the place where "Silence of the Lamb's" was filmed!



I hope you've enjoyed our tour. Please travel with us again soon!!

While we were there, I got to meet the three other couples (who had kids) that lived in the other apartments that were the same size. They were so nice and all from BYU or BYU Idaho coming to Denver to do an internship as well! Fortunately enough, a friend that was working with Scottie had moved in with her boyfriend and had an empty apartment just sitting. Since it was cheaper for her to just wait out her lease than to get out of it, she just left it. So she let Scott and Mike live in it. How convenient!! From what I’ve heard one of the couples water still doesn’t work at their old place so they are using Scottie and Mike’s old apartment for water. Good thing it’s now available.
That night we went to dinner with Ryan and Amberlyn. Ryan is brothers with our friend Jared Mair who is also from Utah. They have lived in Denver for a few years and offered to show us around. They invited us to dinner at Maggianos and took us to see the Temple in Littleton and then gave us a tour of their house (since it was getting late). They were so fun and great to be around.Scottie and Me
Mike & Kelly (Scottie's roommate)
Ryan & Amberlyn

The next day was Sunday. We went to church at a ward in downtown Denver. It was SO small! We got to sit in on the first discussion with the missionaries and an investigator. Her name was Char and she was so funny and so interested in the church. Most of her family was dead and she had heard about the church and how family oriented we are so she became really interested on her own. She had the funniest questions! She thought that in Utah everyone’s address was related to where they were from the Salt Lake Temple. She asked us if we lived on North Temple or South Temple. I hope that she’ll be baptized one day.
Later on we had to hurry and get home to pack our bags and get to the airport. It was so fun and so short! I was anxious to get home but didn't want to leave.

But little did I know our travel nightmares had just begun!!! When we got on our flight we were waiting to take off. It took 45 minutes to de-ice the runway so our flight was late....once again. When we arrived in Utah it was snowing like crazy! I was so excited since Denver doesn’t get that much snow and if they do, it doesn’t stick long. (crazy I know?) My dad picked us up and drove us home. When we got to my house, Kelly turned to me and said “Where’s my car?” Since I didn’t know what she drove and where she parked I had no clue! We went inside and called the police department to see if it had been towed. They had no record of it and then called us back about fifteen minutes later to tell us that they had found her car but it was recorded wrong so they couldn’t find it. By this time it was 10:30 and we were both so tired and ready for bed. We called the towing company to see if we could pick it up. Since it was snowing there were lots of accidents and we would have to wait an hour and a half to come get it! Since Kelly lives in Provo I offered to take her home but then she wouldn’t have a way to get to school in the morning. (she teaches fourth grade). So we waited an hour and a half and drove down to the towing company. While we were waiting the towing company called us and told us it would be another 20 minutes! We were so frustrated and ready to be done traveling. Finally the tow truck pulled up to the random field. Kelly gave him her credit card (which took another 10 minutes to run?) in the meantime the snow was building up more and more. The man got out of his truck opened the gate and Kelly went back to get her car. It had only been towed last night, but thanks to the wonderful snow, her car was totally stuck!! Chelcie and I ran back while the guy watched us in his tow truck, push her out. We finally got it out and then it got stuck again!! That’s when the tow truck man thought it would be smart to see if we needed help. Instead of helping us push (which would have been easier with a man’s help) he decided that he’d rather tow us out instead (which took another 15 min).



Finally at about 1:00 we got home and went to bed and I was beginning to think that I would never travel with Kelly again (haha just kidding Kelly). Overall I was glad to be home but lonely once again. I enjoyed Denver only for the mere fact that my Scottie was there but I missed the Utah mountains and my sense of direction. Hopefully our next trip on January 22 will be a bit more successful.

2 comments:

Tiercy said...

wow, remind me to never travel with you. JK. I have my own horror stories. But what a fun adventure you'll have to tell your children one day.

Andrea said...

At least you can laugh about it now, right? As a side note, that apartment reminds me of a couple of our first apartments. We once lived in an old meat locker (in our poor college days before kids thank goodness) turned into apartment. It didn't have a single window in the place. It wasn't the worst place we've lived though. It is funny to laugh about it now. I guess the most important thing is you were with your sweetie. Sorry for the novel.