Our First Trip to Colorado: Day 1

Saturday 8/3/13

After a morning of running around, we started the trip with a 2pm EST flight from Manchester to Denver. When we got on the plane in Manchester they informed us that the flight normally takes about 4 hours, but it would take 4 1/2 that day because of a 150 knot headwind. They were wrong. We ended up circling Denver for over an hour because of severe thunderstorms in every quadrant of the city resulting in a hold on all flights. By the time we got on the ground, we'd been in the air for over 5 1/2 hours and we were DONE. Too bad we still had to drive to CO Springs.

We got our luggage (quite the cluster, since when the hold was lifted they started dropping planes out of the sky left and right), ate, and hopped on a bus for Dollar. During the bus ride (ALL rental car companies at DEN are a shuttle ride away from the airport), we quickly realized that the break in the storm was going to be short lived, and all we could do was hope we didn’t see any weather too wild.

I had been hesitant to rent from Dollar, because they get absolutely SLAMMED for their DEN branch on TripAdvisor, but I’d gotten a FANTASTIC deal, so we rolled with it. Despite the complaints I'd read on TA, we had a very positive, low pressure experience. But I think the guy was more concerned with the possibility of a tornado than with trying to upsell us. He wanted to get out of work early. I was concerned about the possibility of a tornado too. That's one CO thing this East Coaster didn't care to see, especially since the well marked tornado “shelters” were back in the airport.

We had a choice between a Jeep or a Chevy Captiva. We threw the bags in the back of the Chevy and jumped in the car. The drive to CO Springs was harrowing, as the torrential rains started literally the second we made it into the rental car. I thought about staying put, but with water rising around us, and a clear lighter sky to the south, my instinct was to get to higher ground. Thankfully, the rain settled down a bit by Aurora, but the storm chased us to CO Springs. The drive ended up taking almost 2 1/2 hours between weather and accident related traffic, which seemed like an eternity, being that we were on East Coast time, and had already spent so long traveling.

Since we knew what the storm held, and we knew it was right on our heels, we decided to park the car before checking into the Wyndham Grand Mining Exchange, in Colorado Springs. We had decided before the trip not to pay for valet ($18/day), and had mapped out where to park the car. We found a spot in the Kiowa Street Parking Garage, and hauled our luggage the block to the hotel. We were greeted by friendly doormen, and a smiling girl at the front desk. She was quick to inform us that we had received a complimentary upgrade to a junior suite. We were excited, as we had a 30% discount on a regular room to begin with, so we couldn't believe the deal we were getting, but we had trouble showing it. We really were exhausted. It was closing in on midnight to our bodies. Thankfully, we were the only ones checking in, and the process was very quick. It was raining before we left the front desk. Pretty soon we were in our room, 322. At that point, we woke up a bit. We just couldn't get over how beautiful the room was, or how little we were paying for it. 

Eventually, after a lot of picture taking, we settled down to rest up for a busy day of sight-seeing.

Our First Trip to Colorado: Pretrip

Our first trip to Colorado: Pretrip

Decided to move a trip report that I wrote on Trip Advisor to here. In moving it over, I’ve added pictures and more details.

Cast of Characters:

Me: 26 at the time of the trip. My goal is to go to all 50 states before I turn 50. This trip allowed for crossing a new-to-me state off the list.

Nick: Also 26 at the time of the trip. He also had never been to Colorado. It was because of him that this trip happened.

This trip really began in April 2013. Nick and I took our first trip to Disney World together over April vacation. At the end of that trip, Nick was able to take a bump on the way home, resulting in a substantial amount of Southwest credit. With that credit, it became possible for a flying vacation for summer vacation. After a week or so of considering our options, we decided to cross Colorado off my never been there list. We booked nonstops between Manchester and Denver, marveling at how much cheaper the nonstops were than those with connections (there was a reason, as we would find out), and then booked 4 nights in Colorado Springs, followed by 2 nights in Estes Park, gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. I had roughly 3 months to completely plan a trip that I knew basically nothing about, to places I’d only ever seen pictures of. Good thing I didn’t need to make advance dining reservations and fastpasses like a Disney trip!

Summer was filled with vacation planning, and before I knew it, August 3rd was here. We weren’t leaving Manchester until mid afternoon, so I had plenty of time to pack and do some errands, before I picked Nick up, so that mom could take us to the airport.