The Unplanned, Planned Trip!!!

So.... we had planned this trip that we had wanted to do for along time. Take the California Zypher Train from Salt Lake City to Denver and go through this beautiful canyon that a person can only get through on a train or the river. It is supposed to be the most beautiful part of the train ride. But, as our vacation plans sometimes go, I was notified the day we were to leave that there had been a freight train accident west of Denver and the Zypher was being re-routed through WYOMING! Ohhh big wow, I have been there before and I don't know why because there is nothing there. We already had a hotel and airfare home from Denver so we went anyway. It was the first time on a train for us and we didn't know what to expect. The train was a little dirty and worn but we had a great time. We slept for the first few hours since we left at 4:00am and then we ate and played cards and other games in the lounge car for the whole trip. We met several nice people and the train was not crowded because so many people had to get off to be re-routed by bus to get to their destinations.

We pulled into Denver around 5:00pm. We headed for our hotel on 16th street in the middle of the Mall. It was a beautiful evening and we walked up and down the mall. We looked around the historic Brown Hotel. Such grandeur. We walked to a church and then headed for something to eat. We were really tired from getting up so early and not having much sleep so we headed back to our hotel and bed. When we awoke the next morning it was snowing and 18 degrees. Who knows what the wind chill was. BRRRRR!

We ate some breakfast and headed to Walgreens to buy a sweatshirt because all we had were light-jackets. The weather forcast stated that it would be around 60 degrees. Whatever. We walked around Denver and it being Saturday nothing of note was open so we viewed the U.S. Mint from the outside. We viewed all the State and Federal building from the outside. We did however catch a Columbus Day Parade, twice. It was only 10 cars long and was mostly advertising for the Italian population. We were only 4 of about 10 people that even saw the parade. It was pretty funny.

We grabbed a cab and headed to the airport for our flight. Played some cards while we waited and ended up in the last row of seats across from some really drunk guy. The flight attended spilled hot chocolate in my lap which was dry by the time we landed and I had jeans on so no big deal. Dallas left his phone on the plane and had to get a special pass to get down the concourse to retrieve it. We then headed to the car and home. What a fun unplanned trip.