Today started and ended 100% country. First up we headed into Buffalo Bill Cody's homestead and ranch for a tour, seeing where this famous american cattleman, showman and hero lived with his family and drew his inspiration. We had a tour of the home (love the wallpaper on the ceilings idea... thinking of stealing it) and barn, watched a 20 minute documentary ont he man ((which froze in the 19th minute) and then saw some live buffalo in a caged off section. Definately worth the stop if you're ever round these parts.
All of North America is starting to seem around the corner from everything else to me now though. I can't see anything odd about this trip anymore and wonder why in earth anyone would do it any other way. Why are the roads so clear?
We didn't stop after North Platte again until th Colorado visitor's centre just across the state line. There we had some free coffee and advice from locals on what to see. Alot of the advice was for tomorrow though as we decided to spend most of today just getting to know Denver. We stopped in Brush at a diner and I had a BLT before we could start seeing the rockies in the distance. The weather started to get angry, but we entertained ourselves listening to Dr. Lauras Schlessinger on the raido giving rude, but sensible advice to folk with issues.
The hotel is great. Our suite is much more like an actual apartment than a suite, and we have views of the city and the rockies. Couldn't ask for more.
We head off on foot towards downtown and the minute it starts raining we manage to break the umbrella. We see the capital building and the gift shop of the art museum and get to 16th street where all the shops and pedestrian areas are. We realise shops might be closing down at 5 so we hop the free tram all the way to the top of the street to the Tattered Cover Bookstore which was recommended in the guidebook. Ok it IS the best shop in Denver, and also the best place I've been for a while. I loved it. All liberty style furniture and shelves for the books, lots of armchairs and nooks and crannies and overall heaping with character. I bought 2 novels, another Obama paper doll (ok... there's definately a theme nhere now), a audio book, and a book for Fabri. He also got a photo book and the Time special edition on Michael J.
Hopping back on the free bus we get to the Crown hotel and decide to have a drink. They've got 5 stories of balconies onto the atrium and a huge stained glass roof. It was really really nice, had a pinot noir.
We walk back to our own hotel and change to go to Grizzly Rose, a honky tonk bar just off the highway. We have our apprehentions but get ready and go anyhow. On the way there I'm thinking it can be 1 of 2 things: The equivalent of Walkabout on the embankment in London or the bar from Tarantino's From Dusk till Dawn. I feel I've had enough vampires for the summer (and one of the books I bought today is on that same theme) so I'm hoping it's not a crazy vampire bar. But then, the walkabout alternative isn't any better. We get in and the place is awsome!! It's wonderful and country and full of cowboys and people smiling and just so much fun! There's line dancing and couples swinging and a live band and it's ladies night so my drinks are free and there are chicken wings and the wings are good and it's so uncool it's cool!! I love Grizzly Rose! It was also great to have a glimpse at an alternate reality. If I had been born in Denver, I'd know all the steps to those dances and they'd be just as natural to me as anything I do in my life. Painting or whatever... These people are detached from me in so many ways and the realities are different in so many ways, but there's some security in that. In knowing there's other stuff out there that you can't even IMAGINE. Grizzly Rose bar was one of them... it had to bee seen to be believed (I do understand that there are already many things that also fall into this category that I've witnessed and perhaps others haven't ... the fat kid getting his leg cut off comes to mind... or that new years at the Moroccan party but this was different and alternate reality enducing in a positive way. I saw that people can be at the Grizzly Rose and happy and I can go for a night and be happy and there's no threat to my actual existence.... I might be rambling). Anyways... a country-western kind of a day.
The Burnsley All Suite Hotel 
1000 Grant Street, CO 80203 Denver
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