Confessions of a Hit and Run Tourist - Day Three

[Riverbrian]

I have recently completed a solo 18 day road trip covering 8 ballparks, 9 games, 14 states, national parks, normal tourist traps and not so normal stops. My fairly new 2022 Kia Seltos had 6,400 miles on it before the trip and the journey tacked on 8,522 additional miles. Some of you may find this interesting and some may say what's the big deal, it's a crazy man with a torture filled vacation plan. I was encouraged to tell the story here by individual day because it would be a very lengthy post if not broken down by day. Some days are not that interesting, some days were more interesting than others and some days need a new adjective, but each day was different and they were days that I couldn't experience in my living room. 

Feel free to comment, shake your head at my moments of stupidity or tell your own experiences of the places I experienced. This is hit and run tourism... I didn't have a lot of time to hit all the stops but I wanted to hit all the stops because who knows if I would ever be back in any of the areas travelled. I researched and scheduled the trip to the minute and followed the schedule to the letter. 

Day 3 - July 31 - Loveland CO to Oakley KS

It's Sunday Morning, On schedule as I depart the hotel around 8AM. It's a very simple plan today, I'm driving up into the Rockies, driving out of the Rockies and then I am going to the Rockies game. Estes Park is the destination just mere inches from Rocky Mountain National Park. In hindsight, I possibly made a mistake in my planning. While sitting in my living room making my plans, I talked myself out of entering the Rocky Mountain National Park. I figured just reaching Estes Park would be enough to give me a solid impression of this part of the Rocky Mountains. Maybe it did... maybe it didn't but I didn't allow myself the time to find out. The road to Estes Park really doesn't reveal much to a scenery gawker such as myself, the road (Colorado 34) follows a river that has carved out a tight canyon to drive through. It's beautiful but you spend your time surrounded by walls of rock on both sides which limits your view of what could be. Estes Park does sit in a valley high up in the front range, elevation 7,000 feet, so it does open up quite a bit at that point and it is without question a beautiful little tourist town as the Gateway to the national park but I felt underwhelmed when I should have been at least whelmed. In hindsight I should have taken off at 6AM and drove into the park to find what surely should have been more than what I observed. However, following the schedule and leaving at 8AM... I no longer had the time to do this and still make it back to Denver for the game. Right or wrong, I came away with the impression that the Rockies were best viewed from a distance instead of right in the middle of them. The Rockies baseball team also looks better from a distance compared to standing in the middle of them so it works. While driving that Canyon to and from, there were numerous "Watch for Falling Rock" signs. OK... but the rocks are straight above me, it's a good thing that I have a sunroof so I can watch for them before they crush me. 

Arrived on Blake street and started looking for a parking spot, there was a parking lot fairly close to the stadium that cost $40 bucks, I don't like looking for parking and normally would have just grabbed that lot but I didn't see it until I drove past so I kept going and I noticed that the price kept dropping as I drove away from the stadium, so I thought let's see how low it can get. I found a lot for 10 bucks somewhere around Colorado Springs and I took the long walk down Blake street, which was just fine with me as I soaked in the Sunday Morning Denver atmosphere. I got my Ryan McMahon bobblehead so I had to lug that around as I checked out the stadium for the first time. As far as the stadium goes... I'd rank it in the mid-pack, there is nothing outstanding about the facility and there is nothing lacking. I found it accessible, clean and it has interesting food choices. I selected the Denver Steak and Cheese Fries which was basically french fries covered in cheese and steak. It was very good, I would absolutely have it again but next time I'm going to remember to grab napkins. The lady sitting a couple of seats over was probably horrified watching me eat this dish without napkins but yeah it was finger, arm and shirt lickin good. I also had the Elvis shake, which was a banana and peanut butter shake topped with caramel corn and bacon... yeah I said Bacon. It was good, you take care of the shake and you have a piece of candied bacon left over to chase it down.  Disclaimer: My food choices are not always going to be pretty.

One thing no one can ever take away from me, is that I was there when Byron Buxton hit his first major league home run. I was attending a game in Detroit back in Spetember... 2015?  when Byron launched his first home run. Now I can also say that I was there when Josh Outman hit his first major league home run in Colorado. He did so in his very first MLB AB and he was a force throughout the game, the Dodgers appear to have another one waiting in the wings. 

After the Sunday afternoon game, I had travel time ahead of me to get to the next game Monday night in Arlington, Texas. The quickest way there was south and southeast through Colorado Springs and Amarillo, however I have been through Amarillo before and I have spent a couple days in Colorado Springs. Western Kansas on the other hand is a place that I have not had the pleasure, While sitting at home making my plans, I tried to come with a reasonable scenario that would bring me to Western Kansas in the future and I came up with nothing... maybe... maybe... if I were to take a new job with a traveling carnival, there was a chance I could spend some time running the tilt-o-whirl at the Finney county fair. If I was ever going to see western Kansas... this was it.  So yep, of course, east on I-70 on the Dwight D. Eisenhower Highway I went. I wish I could say it was an interesting drive. It's miles and miles of grassland that will soon become just plain land when all those cows get done eating all of the grass out of the grassland. It is clearly cow country and if the cows could vote they would be setting policy around these parts. I pulled into Oakley, Kansas as the sun was starting to set. I am scheduled to depart in the morning at 6:26AM.