Meeting Harriet in Denver

April 26-27, 2002

 

 

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On Friday morning we drove down to Denver, through pouring rain in the Roaring Fork Valley, hot sun in the Glenwood Canyon, and snow flurries on the Vail Pass. A Whitman Sampler of spring weather.

In Denver Katherine got fingerprinted by the INS for her FBI background check (she has promised Scott that there will be no surprises). Then we headed out to the airport to pick up Harriet who was arriving on the British Air non-stop from London!

After checking into a hotel in LoDo (Lower Downtown), we walked three blocks to Coors Field to watch the Denver Rockies play the Philadelphia Phillies. Katherine explained the obscure rules of baseball to Harriet, who kept dozing off. It must have been the jetlag.

The Rockies are in last place in the standings, and they fired their manager last night. But tonight they actually managed to pull out a narrow victory.

Then we head back to the hotel to rest up for Saturday's adventures.

  Back home at the Hotel Oxford, across from the Denver rail station.

Saturday morning we had breakfast near the hotel in LoDo (Harriet had a Happy Meal), we explored around Larimer Square, then drove up into the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, stopping to visit Buffalo Bill's grave site...

Buffalo Bill Cody is buried on the crest of Lookout Mountain, overlooking Denver and the plains. But the afterlife hasn't always been quiet for Buffalo Bill. In 1948, the Cody

American Legion Post, in Cody, Wyoming, offered a $10,000 cash reward for the return of Buffalo Bill's body from Colorado to Wyoming.  Denver residents learned of the threat and sprang into action. Within

an hour, the armory was thrown open and the quartermaster began passing out rifles, helmets, and other regalia for making war.

A squad car of Denver Legionnaires, with two war tanks following close behind, raced out of Denver toward Lookout Mountain. A half-hour later, rifles at the ready, armed men were patrolling the perimeter of the grave. As a precautionary measure, Denver city officials had Cody's coffin exhumed, blasted a hole twenty feet deep, and lined it with a three-inch thick metal casing around the coffin.   But his ghost emerged to give Katherine

 a squeeze.

Leaving summer behind, and avoiding the easy drive through the Tunnel, we drove the switchbacks up Loveland Pass. The snow got deeper, the temperatures colder, and baseball seemed a season away.

Up on the Continental Divide, hardy skiers and borders were hiking into the backcountry to ride the deep spring snow -- undaunted big red signs warning that avalanche-prevention missiles could be fired at them without warning.

At Arapahoe Basin ski area the parking lot was full and the slopes were busy.

We stopped in Breckenridge for lunch at the Forrest Gump-inspired "Bubba Gump Shrimp Factory" (we're always loyal to Paramount).

And then, having thoroughly exhausted our jet-lagged Harriet, we climbed back into the Jeep and drove on home to Aspen.

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