Thursday and Friday
We made the trip out in two days ... first day to Lincoln NE and arrived in Denver around 3PM on Friday. I'd talked to Roy about picking him up from the airport; his flight was due in at 3 and through a stroke of part genius, part planning and mostly luck we arrived at 3:10. Met him at the arrival level and off we went to the Holiday Inn at Wheat Ridge.
After checking in, we headed to downtown Denver. Alec spotted an ESPN Zone restaurant and wanted to go in. While there, we saw that the Missouri Valley Conference tournament with Southern Illinois (Roy's alma mater) on one of the 20 different "feeds" in the main dining area. So, we quickly glommed onto a booth with our own private TV screen and cheered for the Salukis. We got to see the complete second half & they won. This technology is pretty neat.
Following dinner we strolled to The Tattered Cover bookstore and I think everyone bought at least one book. I found Strunk & White's Elements of Style with illustrations and in hardbound (a great resource for us would-be writers).
Later, we got in touch with Dave and Burke Horner. We decided to meet for some drinks and Burke asked me to pick the place. I quickly consulted the GPS to see what was close to us and selected (drum roll please) The Sports Page Saloon, figuring it would be some sort of sports bar. Well ... we'll let the pictures tell part of the story:
Now I'm not sure what the "Pauz Inn" sign is all about but there was no sign announcing the Sports News Saloon. At least Burke was able to locate it. Actually, it looks much better in the pictures than in person. In person, it was a smoky somewhat run-down bar with a decided country-western flavor, lots of second-hand smoke and about 10 very sad-looking customers who were even sadder-sounding when they sang karaoke.
But it wasn't the venue -- it was the company!!
David and I had last seen each other several years ago while we were starting out on vacation and he & family were completing their vacation. We met accidentally at a, um, rest stop. While we were, uh, standing next to each other. Now normally "guy etiquette isn't to look either right or left but just ahead. I did glance right and lo and behold there was David!
This meeting, however, was much more conventional.
Burke and I hadn't seen each other in about 28.5 years ... I remember that Drew was 6 months old and we were visiting Dad and Ardyce during the summer while Burke, Sue and their family (at least Lisa and maybe Devon) were also visiting.
We had a great time although Burke may have bought a round of drinks (or more) for the bar when the waitress held his credit card hostage.
Saturday
That morning we paid a short visit to Ardyce and talked to her about the party for the next day. She seemed a bit tired (she'd had a number of visits from Burke, David, etc) but very excited about the party the next day.
That afternoon we visited Boulder (a few miles north and west of where we were staying and where Jim and Pam had taken us when we visited last summer. Walked around and bought a book or two plus took a drive up the Front Range into Nederland. I was a bit bothered by the altitude so I stayed in the car while Roy, Barb & Alec walked to the waterfall.
Here's a photo of Nederland and of the waterfall (neither of which I took but grabbed via the 'net).
Saturday night, all six brothers and families got together at a restaurant entitled "Chicago" and featuring Italian beef sandwiches, Jays Potato Chips and Green Rivers. Some non-Chicagoan infidels had gyros, bbq sandwiches etc but it was pretty authentic Chicago grub. Kudos to Bob and Jim who had scouted it out. And if any of us die of cholesterol-laden arteries, sue Burke who paid for the meal. (Thanks Burke!)
After dinner, we went to Bob and Judy's new home and watched a video that Jim had made with Ardyce. Ardyce described some of her family's history, how they got to Hastings NE, growing up in Hastings and her meeting Bill Horner. It was very interesting and Jim believes he has several other tapes for us to hear as well.
Sunday
The big day. We started it early and had breakfast with Jim and Pam and then went to their church (Cherry Creek Presbyterian). That is one large church! Made our church feel puny in comparison and Roy said his church is even smaller than ours. It was a great time to share with Jim and Pam and we appreciated their including us.
After church, Jim and Pam headed over to set up the party and we did a bit of sight-seeing in the neighborhoods around Denver. Denver is clearly a western city but there's some striking similarities with Minneapolis and St Paul as some of the housing was built in the same period as ours.
I'll upload pictures and give a description of the party in a separate entry ... it precedes this so you may have already seen it.
After the party, Roy, Alec Barb and I unwound with a glass of wine and then went back to downtown Denver.
We had dinner at Marlow's (I think I've been there every time when in Denver -- great food and great Manhattans) and spun memories. It's always great to see Roy and re-establish our connections. Poor Alec and Barb probably got bored just as they did last summer and again at Thanksgiving. But Roy and I find ourselves just, well, fascinating!!
Monday
Roy left for his 6:30 AM flight around 5:00 on the shuttle. Fortunately he demurred when I offered to drive him ... come to think of it, I didn't make the offer more than once and not very strongly at that. (Kind of like "well, I guess you wouldn't want me to drive you if I had to get up that early, right? Huh, right?")
We took off for Omaha. As we were driving, Barb idly said "gee, we're not that far from Hastings (Ardyce's home town)" Then she said, "gee, it would be nice to take some pictures of her old home there." Then she said, "you know, I don't think it's that far off the Interstate after all." I got the hint.
So, we started off and located Ardyce's old home: 1819 W 3rd Street, Hastings NE.
The siding has been updated and there's probably a few other updates but as you look up and down the street, it's not too hard to envision how it looked in the 1920s and 30s when Ardyce's family lived there. It's about six blocks from the business district and a block from a major east-west street where we suspect the buses ran that took Ardyce back and forth to the college.
So, it was off to the college to take some additional photos:
We finally straggled into Omaha around 7:30 at night. I was bushed, Barb was tired and Alec was all set to go swimming. (his one and only swimming event of the entire trip ... much to his chagrin)
Tuesday
Because we had made such a long drive on Monday, Tuesday was pretty easy. We left at a leisurely 10 AM and made it home before 5PM. In all, over 2100 miles and a lot of great memories.
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