Greetings one and all from Beautiful downtown Denver..home of the Big Blue Bear.
Yes, that really is a statue of a 40 foot tall blue bear peaking through the events center windows. It's the creation of a local artist who wanted to get people's attention. It certainly does! He got the idea by seeing people always looking through the window trying to see what's going on inside. Hey, bears can be curious too.
To be honest, I’m not finding Denver to be all that beautiful. Oh, the mountains in the distance are nice..but on the way here from the airport (which is so far away they should book separate flights) we drove past a few public areas that had more shopping carts than HyVee. They are the personal vehicles of hundreds and hundreds of homeless folks; carts they’ve confiscated to carry all their worldly possessions. I know it’s common in most every big city to have a lot of people who make their home on the streets, but I somehow pictured Denver, with its Rocky Mountain high reputation, lovely vistas and many cultural and sports attractions, to be different. Anyway, I’m not bad mouthing homeless people (but for the grace of God go a lot of us)..but I was surprised at the numbers. I’m told the city has a ten year plan in place to end homelessness in Denver. They’ve clearly got a ways to go to reach that goal.
- The view from our downtown Denver hotel’s 12th floor window. Looking forward to lots of sunny days ahead.
Yes..Linda and I are traveling again: hosting the Keloland/Holiday Vacations Great California Train Adventure. It’s all aboard Saturday morning as we head into the Rockies on the California Zephyr. We’ll be on the train for two days and one night..arriving in Reno Sunday. I’m a little worried about squeezing my ample body into one of those berths, but Linda has promised that she’ll take the top bunk. At least we have a rest room in our compartment so when nature calls five times during the night I won’t have to bump into others trying to make my way to the community toilet down the hall.
We have 30 folks on this tour and everyone is excited about the days ahead traveling in the mountains of Colorado and Nevada by rail..then aboard a luxury motor coach down to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Yes, we know how lucky we are to go on these trips. It would be fun to have you join us on the next one.
