Colorado Trip - Part One - Thursday

In my U2 post, I mentioned the Colorado trip that Ashley and I took. It was designed, primarily, around the TCU/Air Force game on October 10. TCU is playing four big road games this season (Virginia, Clemson, Air Force, and BYU), and we decided on Air Force. I don't remember our exact reasoning, but I'm sure it revolved around the fact that Air Force is a military school (cool in itself) and in conference. Any of those games would've been cool, and we probably should've picked a non conference game (just because we go to Colorado every two years...we may never go to Virginia again) - but that's what we went with.

One thing about Ashley and me...we're both pretty lazy. We had the trip planned for months but didn't buy tickets until about a month before. In fact, Ashley wasn't even sure when the trip was until the week before (he took off days a week later). So me being the force behind the trip, I made arrangements online, and we were ready to go.

I took off eleven days in a row, with the trip being the centerpiece of my SEC-mandated week-long vacation. So when Thursday came around, I'd already had a few days to get ready, pack, and rest up for the trip. I knew it was going to be cold so I packed a few sweatshirts and a couple of fleeces. My unpreparedness is going to play a big part in my game-day blog (part three) so we'll deal with that then.

I did, however, forget to bring my fan. My closest friends will realize how big a deal this is because I always bring my fan when I'm sleeping outside my apartment. I absolutely have to sleep with my fan on, but on this trip, I left it at home. Which meant that the fan in the AC/Heater had to do for the entire trip. It sucked, but I made it through.

Since we were leaving on a Thursday, there wasn't a whole lot of people available to take us to the airport. Since that was the case, we decided to take public transportation (instead of paying for long-term parking). So look at this fantastic voyage to Colorado Springs.

1. Walk from our apartment to the Forest DART station. It's only about a mile walk, but it was hot and muggy and early.
2. DART Train from Forest Station to Union Station. It was rush hour at this point so we stood most of the time. By the time we got to downtown, the train was pretty empty.
3. TRE Train from Union Station to Centreport.
4. Two shuttle buses to the airport. There's some kind of depot in between, and you have to switch buses there to get to your terminal.
5. Airport. A nice respite.
6. Plane flight to Denver.
7. In the Denver airport, there's a little subway to get to the baggage claim area. Ashley loved it because of this little guitar that plays every time the train makes a stop.
8. Shuttle bus from the airport to the rental car place
9. Rental car from Denver to Colorado Springs

We rented a little Toyota Camry, and it was a miracle vehicle. It got us everywhere we needed to go, on a single tank of gas, and it was amazing. We did activate two warning lights during the trip, including check engine, but she was a pretty great little car.

Anyway, by the time we arrived in Colorado Springs, I was pretty tired. I hadn't felt very good the day before, and I had to take a little nap. By the time I woke up, it was dark and snowing, and we weren't really sure what to do. So we drove around town for a little bit, and we ended up stopping at a movie theater.

We saw Zombieland, and I'm hesitant to talk about that movie until I get the chance to see it again. Short story - I loved it. Long story will probably come when Tucker watches it with us - it will be our third time to see it.

The funny thing about that was the theater itself. It was off the highway, but there was almost no way to get to it. We circled around the damn thing several times before finally finding this tiny little street that eventually led to the theater.

We got home after the movie, watched a bit of TV, and then went to bed. We were planning on waking up very early for our big Friday, and so we made sure to get plenty of sleep.

Next on Colorado Trip - Part Two - Our Day in the Mountains.