We arrived at Denver airport in our chauffeur driven limousine – at least that’s what the driver of the Alamo shuttle bus told us 🙂  We were the only passengers on the bus, so perhaps he was right.

Once arrived our first order of business was to find a luggage trolley.  There were luggage trolleys, but you had to rent them and it didn’t appear to be like the supermarkets where you put the pound’s deposit in to free your trolley and then get it back at the end.  It looked like you had to put notes into the machine  and then at the end, if you returned your trolley it gave you a quarter (25 cents) back. Big Deal. I’m from Yorkshire. I refuse to pay dollars to rent a trolley, so we wheeled our luggage.

Our second order of business was to decide what to do about the extra large cardboard box containing my new boots. We had discovered in the shop that they had such incredibly slippery leather soles. I could do quite a passable impersonation of Jayne Torvill skating round the carpet much to the amusement of our sales assistant. So wearing them didn’t look like the most sensible option if we wanted avoid a second trip to ER and to catch our flight instead.

We found a bench and proceeded to repack. Fortunately my carry on bag was just large enough to accommodate the boots providing I stuffed them with all the clothes I already had in the bag. And then the collapsed box, fitted in Stephanie’s suitcase with barely a millimetre to spare.  Excellent.

Until we got to the bag drop.  Then to our surprise and slight dismay we discovered that Stephanie’s suitcase was 27.4 Kg and mine was 22.7.  The weight allowance per bag is usually 23 Kg and if you’re over that, they get the big fines out.

However, the lady on the BA baggage desk said that they give you an extra 2 kilos allowance for the return journey. So all we had to do was to repack (again) and even out the weight between our 2 cases and we would be fine.

So having repacked for the second time, we sneaked in at about half a pound under the limit for each bag (although when we collected the bags at Heathrow they were both marked up with heavy bag/extra charge stickers, but we escaped without incident). And then it was onwards to security.

We stared down in horror from the balcony at the huge queue for security. The sea of football shirts told us that it was extra long because of the Denver Bronco’s game which had recently finished. But joining the queue we were very pleasantly surprised that we kept moving the whole time. The well oiled machine which was their security operation seemed to work like clockwork. Apart from my trousers failing the scanner and having to be investigated by the officer on the desk we were through (I was quite relieved it wasn’t a more intensive search as the marigold gloves I’d bought to do the washing up in our suite were safely in my suitcase).

There was a huge queue at all the food outlets, and we decided that a sandwich would probably tide us over until dinner on the plane.  So I went off in search of the only cold food outlet in the place right at the far end of the building.  It turned out to be a kiosk, with sub rolls with only 2 types of  filling, Italian or turkey and Swiss cheese. As one lady was complaining that there were no prices on anything, I did think that probably meant that they were expensive. $7.60 for what turned out the be half a sub roll, cut in 2 and squished together tightly with cling film. It wasn’t even very nice. It was definitely an occasion to take your own sandwiches. But then I’d lost my appetite as we arrived at the airport, so really it was only for Stephanie.

While Stephanie wolfed down the roll (it had been a long time since breakfast) and I nibbled halfheartedly on a corner we watched the maintenance man open the cockpit windows and clean them with a squeegee.  I had no idea that the cockpit windows even opened!

A while later, as they announced the boarding order,  it was time for my second Valium and then we were off…

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Yesterday (Wednesday) we decided to go for a drive up the mountains. My medicine was working and so I felt generally better although quite weak and headachy from lack of food (breakfast half a bagel for example). Walking up 1 flight of stairs made me all dizzy!

I spoke with Linda on the phone and arranged to meet at her apartment for coffee in the afternoon. I asked her advice about where best to head to see the aspens changing colour and she pointed us in the direction of Interstate 24.

Essentially, this took us due west of Colorado Springs in the first instance and then we started to climb. I took quite a few photos through the car window and although they are not David Bailey quality, they will at least remind us of our jaunt.

There were several signs warning of risk of flooding – which really seems weird when you are halfway up a mountain – but talking to Chris, Linda’s son later on, we found out that there had been horrendous floods and mudslides last year.

We travelled for quite a few miles up through the mountain pass until we reached a placed called “Divide” (elevation 9,165 ft above sea level) where we decided to turn back. On the way we passed several areas of habitation and saw our first “Guns ‘n Ammo” shop. If we get a chance later, I’d kind of like to have a look in the western outfitters there.

It looks to me like the trees have only just started turning and I bet they will be spectacular in a week or so. We’ve put some of the pictures in the slideshow above to give a flavour of the views.

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This afternoon we had a trip to the Garden of the Gods.  As we left the sun was just setting…

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For our family members who like to know these things, here are the travel details:

• fly from Heathrow, Wednesday 24th September on flight BA219 departing 15:35
• arrive Denver International Airport, Wednesday 24th September 18:25 local time
• stay Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites, Denver Airport
• drive down to Colorado Springs on Friday 26th September
• stay Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights at the Homewood Suites by Hilton, Colorado Springs North
• leave Denver Sunday 5th October on flight BA218 departing 20:45
• arrive Heathrow, Monday 6th October at 12:35

Tuesday to Saturday nights are not yet booked – we’re going to see what we want to do while we’re there.  We may head out away from Colorado Springs to see a bit more of the State but we’ll decide when we’re there.

We’ll certainly log into Facebook occasionally so can be contacted that way.  Otherwise best method is Susie’s phone or her email (Compuserve not Pentamid).

You may like to know that the time in Colorado is 7 hours behind UK time.

It’s been a little bit frantic getting everything organized.  Susie didn’t get back from her mum’s until late on Friday so we went to visit the travel agent on Saturday to go through the options and, hopefully, get our booking made.

In our minds, we were aiming to fly out on Friday (26th) but told Mr Travel Agent that we could go a couple of days earlier if this came in at the right package and price.  Well, guess what, it did!  So we’re off on Wednesday, a good two days earlier than planned.

Leaving on Wednesday means that we won’t be available for the Whitchurch ringing practice in the evening so we thought we’d better email everyone to let them know that there’d not be a practice due to short numbers.  We included some of our friends from Pangbourne too as we didn’t want them to make the effort to join us and find the bells silent and tower locked.

To our surprise, we received an email back saying that Len and Jill were also off to Colorado too this week. One phone call later, we find out much to everyone’s astonishment that not only are they travelling on the same day, but that we’re all on the same flight to Denver!  It never fails to amaze me the way life is full of these coincidences.

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