Colorado, The Long Way Round
Since I've worked at New Story, I've only had a month of summer before I had to return for a three-week summer school program. This year, however, my family went on a vacation to Colorado in the middle of that program. I've been to Colorado multiple times, but there are a few differences this time. 1. Every other trip has been for me to visit my "sister" Arden and (once she moved there) my other "sister" August. It's never been a Ulibarri family trip. 2. Before Arden moved to Cincinnati, she always lived within an hour of Denver. August currently lives in Arvada, about 20 minutes outside of Denver. My family was going to Breckenridge. 3. I've always flown into Denver, but it's cheaper for a family of six to make the drive instead of buying that many plane tickets.
My parents' college best friends, Ron and Anita Wallace, their son Tanner and his wife Alex, were meeting us in Breckenridge. Cousin Simple had a show on Friday, July 14th, but we were initially going to leave on the 13th. The plan was Mom, Dad, Josh, and I would leave Columbus right after I got off work, get as far as we could that night, and get to Breckenridge on the night of the 14th. The following day Ron and Anita would join my family in going to Denver to pick up Ryan and Luke, and I would spend some time with August. However, that was slightly unrealistic, so my family and I didn't leave until Friday morning.
At 7:28 a.m., my parents, Josh, and I piled into Dad's big white work van and headed west after quickly stopping at his studio. My favorite part about flying to Colorado is the time change. Colorado is two hours behind Ohio, and it's a three-hour flight. What this means is I can get three hours of writing done in about an hour. The problem with making that drive is that you have to go through two time zones, which is very discombobulating, and Kansas is very boring to drive through. So for most of the journey, the first day Josh and I either slept in our seats or in a cot that we had set up In the back of the van.
Ron and Anita got to Breckenridge on the night of the 14th, but it took them a while to get through Denver because Taylor Swift's "Eras tour" had made it there. In fact, Alex was going to the show. Knowing how crazy Cincinnati got when I went to see her, we wanted to stay out of downtown to avoid any complications. But I still wanted to see August, so when we were at dinner in Kansas, I called her, and we found a location to meet up at that was close to the airport and would avoid most of the Swifties.
We got up the next morning and drove the final four hours to a relatively small suburb of Denver called Aurora.. August and I met at a place called Stanley Market at 11:20 a.m. Now as you might remember, August is pregnant. The last time I saw her, even though she was pregnant then, she was at the end of her first trimester… now she's practically in the third. While I've known since April, seeing August with a baby bump was surreal! In the time before Ryan and Luke landed, August and I got lunch, coffee, and ice cream!
While we couldn't do much on the way to Colorado, I still enjoyed the journey! Yeah, fine, I was asleep for most of it, but when I wasn't, I was having fun! Sometimes in life, you have to just enjoy the journey. Even if it could be more interesting overall, where you are going is worth it!
To Be Continued…
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