Denver Travel Adventures

Just got back from a bounce trip to Denver for work--flew out on Sunday night, and flew back on Wednesday. The trip went well, but I'm still residually tired. And sadly, I did not get to schedule time to see my favorite Denverites (Dr. Tectonic, or Julee). Alas.

My Sunday flight out was a connection flight, BOS-ORD-DEN, meeting my coworker in Chicago. However, seriously sucky weather on the way in to ORD--we got pushed out of the pattern, had to loop up almost to Milwaukee, and have another run at it. Serious turbulence on the way in--the last plane ride where I was that close to hurling was probably in the back of a P-3 Orion.


Of course, this go-around was a delay... I was trying to figure out all the ramifications of missing my connection... cancel the hotel room tonight, get a hotel near ORD (or crash with Tappan?), rebooking for tomorrow morning, figure out a way to get out to the jobsite... all unpleasant. As soon as we touched down, I started texting my coworker, to find out the situation. He wrote back:

No worries on missing your flight. Plane to Denver is the one that you are currently on. You don't even need to deplane.

Awesome. Although it was still an unpleasant travel day--getting to the hotel at 2:30 AM (4:30 AM EDT). Ugh.

The work itself was two days of setting up an insulation reference sample at a manufacturer's testing lab. Not really worth going into much detail about it. Suffice it to say, though, it was a few days of getting my hands dirty and building stuff, which is always good. Work actually wrapped up on time.


Also, the test lab is on the edge of town--you can see the foothills right out of the front window. Nice.


I also took my small bit of amusement at the coffee carafe labels at the Hampton Inn:


Yep... the decaf was labelled "UNLEADED." Heh.

Travel out was... actually eventful, this time. My coworker was doing more work in Denver, so he dropped me off at a skyRide shuttle bus stop. As we were approaching DIA, I was looking out the window, when somebody pointed out, "Hey, there's smoke coming out of the floor!" Yikes! We pulled over at the side of the road, and opened up the hatches to ventilate out. Swell. At least the bus did not actively catch fire while we were on it.


Fortunately, a few cabs pulled up to bring us the last mile or so to the airport... made it to the gate with a few minutes to spare.

The next bit of travel is going to be at the end of October... I feel like I could use a breather from this for a while.