Earlier this year I decided to go on a road trip with Sarah, my good friend from Ontario.
We had a blast in Moraine Lake last summer so we decided to continue our fun times for a bit.
This time we decided to explore the American Rockies instead of her Canadian Sister.
Since Sarah was living back east in Ontario and I was still working in Vancouver we decided to meet each other in the middle (more or less) in Denver.
We looked up flights that were both (fairly) cheap for us and with the approximate same arrival time so we could start our journey at the same time.
Well of course that didn’t worked out.
Instead of arriving around 11 PM with a 15 minute time difference I stranded in Denver at 3 AM while Sarah was having a couple drinks downtown Charlotte, NC.
How ?
Sudden weather changes.
It started off without any complications.
But soon enough that one flight from Seattle to Denver on the timetable started to get more and more delayed because of a snowstorm over Colorado. In the meantime Sarah was already on her way from Toronto to Charlotte, NC where she had her connection to Denver. But the plane in Toronto left with a delay because of another snowstorm in Ontario and she missed her connection and was scheduled for the next flight the next morning. But Sarah didn’t let it get to her heart and made friends right away and made the best of her night in Charlotte and went for a couple drinks.
Meanwhile my flight finally departed around midnight and I arrived in Denver in the middle of the night where I had to wait for Sarah for another six hours. I had some midnight food and found some sleep next to the bagage carrousel.
After spending more than 12 hours in airports before the trip even had to start Sarah and I were reunited.
We forgot about the bad start (that wasn’t that bad at all) and picked up the rental car. Because the weather forecast was not predicting this kind of weather we had booked a compact car for our trip but once we got outside the airport it was clear we would not get anywhere with this type of car in this kind of weather. We needed an upgrade but the only type available was an SUV. And that came at a high cost. It was all or nothing so we decided to get the upgrade after all.
Then we could finally start our journey and we set course to Boulder through the winter wonderland. Roads were still pretty slippery so we had to drive slower than we anticipated which resulted in a huge delay of our trip.
We arrived in Boulder by noon and had a great lunch at West Flanders Brewing Co. Boulder is a perfect place to stop for lunch or dinner and a small walk through Pearl Street on your way to the Rockies.
Our climb into the Rockies could finally start.
The World on a Wim 