"Denver"... Jan 20

Our stop in Denver ended up being fantastic. Reds, our host, is such a sweet one.

On Saturday, I went to my doctor appointment, and I got the medications I need to kill this cough. The doctor was a little strange. He farted in the middle of my appointment.  One of those silent-but-deadly ones and wow. If you have never been in a tiny doctors office filled with fart smell, I strongly encourage you to bolt out of the office as soon as it happens to you.  I did not, trying to be polite, trying not to start coughing again, and in a bit of shock that he wasn't saying anything about it or opening the door and I totally regret that decision. The second half of my appointment was brutal.  The office was not a wholistic medical practice and aromatherapy was not on my list of to-do's for the day. I left as soon as I could, filled my perscriptions, and moved on with my life.

Squirrel, Reds and I decided to take a "natural walk" next instead of a hike because of the altitude and my cough.  We walked around Lookout Mountain for a couple hours, hoping to see the big horn rams that supposedly frequent that area.  We didn't see much wildlife, but did walk past a couple of old car crashes, which was morbidly fascinating. A road wrapped the mountain about 300-400 feet above us and only in the past couple decades did a guardrail get put it, so there are these old car wrecks from the 60's through the 80's of cars that had flown off that road and tumbled down the mountainside, and then left there.  "Look out Mountain" suddenly had a different ring to it.  The wrecks were amazing to look at, but I couldn't take pictures- it felt disrespectful for some reason.

After the "walk", we ended up driving around Boulder and landed at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse. It is a place I have frequented with my Gram because of her involvement with the Sister City Program. Boulder's "sister city" is Dushanbe, Tajikistan.  The two cities decided to gift one another with buildings that are common in their own city (or something like that). Boulder gave Dushanbe an Internet Cafe/Library and Dushanbe gave Boulder this amazing teahouse. My Gram has been very involved with the building-trade in the past and I hear updates about it every time I visit her. Every inch of it is covered in handcrafted detailing, painting, and sculpture.  The tea menu is pages long, and the food is so good. We sat at the bar and had a little tea party, tea cookies included.

I did not take this picture. But this is the tea house.

After we sipped tea and talked to each other in really bad British accents (because British people drink tea... in Tajikistan... right?), we hopped in the car and cranked the country music because we were headed next to the Rodeo!  Except that we got to the fair where the rodeo was and the people ahead of us in line bought the last tickets. Those jerks!  So we walked around the cattle show, petting zoo, and watched some of the jumping show before allergies kicked in for Reds and we had to leave. 

This is the set-up for the jumping show.

A full, fun day, we went home and crashed. Today I dropped Squirrel off at the airport and headed into Boulder. I have some time to kill, so I thought I'd write a bit.

Walking around the cattle show, we saw a lot of sheep, which reminded me that when I stay at the Black Mesa, the main thing that they need help with is shepherding their sheep and goats, so that's what I'll be doing for the most part of my 10-day stay.  I've never shepherded before, never really been around sheep too much (although I know I'm not allergic.. whew!), never stayed 8+ hours outside in 7,000 foot elevation... yeah this will be little new for me.