I actually slept in quite a bit considering how early I’ve been up the past few days! That tracks though, as a day at faire in the heat and sun is more exhausting than some of the other things I’ve done in Colorado. Jess messaged me around 8:40am Colorado time to say Frank had gone for a run then we were going to sort breakfast. I got that message around 9:30am when I woke up officially and checked my phone. I decided I didn’t really want breakfast as I had plenty of leftover Olive Garden, so I told Jess as much when she came to my room to use the makeup bag which was in my luggage. I microwaved my leftovers, made a cup of coffee in the Keurig and added some of the Hazelnut creamer I had absconded with from the lobby when we first arrived, and sat at the desk to do some writing and eating which we awaited Frank’s return. He also decided he wasn’t interested in breakfast and we got packed up to head out. Jess microwaved her to-go fettuccini alfredo to eat on the car ride and we checked out at the front. Our hands were somewhat full as we headed out as we didn’t take the time to repack our suitcases to fit our new purchases so we had to hold them seperate and we also had coffee and food to hold but we were determined to not make two trips so we made it work!
In the car Frank began the process of forming some kind of plan for the day. He knew for certain we were heading to the Garden of the Gods for a walk around but after that he wasn’t sure. He had a presentation he had to give that he’d been finishing up the night before for his Masters program so he had to be back to his place to give that, but he didn’t have anything official in between those. Jess and I had no preference and also didn’t have any ideas, as we told him all of the planning was in his hands this time, so we let him sift those thoughts out himself as he drove. We found an awesome parking spot at the Garden of the Gods, which is a large public walking, hiking, and climbing park populated by enormous sandstone rock formations. We stopped in the bathroom, filled our water bottles, and followed Frank's lead on the walkways and paths. It was hot out, but not too hot by Jess and my standards. A nice walking heat as far as we were concerned. Frank disagreed, as he loathes the heat, and basked in every shadow and any shade as we walked. We mostly stayed on the path, discussing whether Jess and my usual tolerance for the sun in Florida would be the same or different here in Colorado. Florida is closer to the equator, but Colorado has a higher altitude. We didn’t look up the answer, as there must be one somewhere, just had a little walking saloon as we discussed what we thought and why we believed that. It’s nice to give your mind a little intellectual stretch, even when the answer could easily been Googled.
We walked for about an hour, possibly more but no one was keeping track. We found a little off trail spot where you could do a little casual climbing and Jess and I had a good time trying to find and reach the highest point in the area. Jess made it highest first and felt rather proud of herself. Additionally, Frank showed us some places he was planning on climbing eventually once he accomplished a little more in his bouldering training and eventually we ended up back where we started at the Kissing Camels rock formation. The rocks do, indeed, look like kissing camels! We refilled the water bottles again and loaded up into the car for the almost two hour drive to Boulder where Frank lives. We stopped about halfway through to get gas and Frank wanted a Starbucks and who am I to say no to coffee so we pulled into the King Super’s that had a Starbucks inside and had a look. We found a couple energy drinks we wanted as well, having finished the ones bought prior, so it was a multifunctional stop. Jess and I ordered the Caramel Crunch Frappuccino, the other new drink Starbucks is offering, as we already ordered the Java Chocolate Mint Frappuccino the last time we went, and Frank tried to ask about a sugar free Mocha Latte but the woman at the desk I don’t think heard him correctly and gavesort of a roundabout answer as to whether the chocolate syrup used in the mocha was sugar free so Frank just ordered a regular coffee.
With that we were off again towards Boulder though we made one additional stop at a Mexican food market to pick up some ingredients for lunch, as Frank wanted to make some tacos. I stayed in the car while Frank and Jess went in as I am terrible about getting in and out of Frank’s Jeep and it didn’t seem worth the attempt for a quick shopping trip. We got to Frank’s place around 2pm and I returned a call to my Aunt Eileen as Frank and Jess worked on lunch. I ended up not being hungry at that particular moment and forwent any tacos in favour of just munching on the grapes Frank had offered. We all sat and ate then Jess got changed and she and Frank went for a walk while I remained at his place to do some writing and just generally whatever I wanted.
Jess regaled me with tales of their walk upon their return as Frank got ready for his Zoom presentation. According to her they got in the car to go to Pearl Street, a hopping street in Boulder. There were all these signs proclaiming ‘No Paws on the Cement’ so naturally they see people all carrying their dogs instead of obeying the obvious No Dogs rule. As they walked Frank had them stop into every shop that sold athletic wear to do some kind of cost comparison between items. He seemed to enjoy it and who’s Jess to stop someone’s fun! Somehow he knew every employee in every store. All of them. One guy just came up to Frank and said “We met before” and mentioned some race they both ran a couple weeks ago. As someone who’s naturally not social I can’t tell if these experiences are normal for extraverts or if this is a Frank Exclusive. Somewhere in those travels Frank checked his phone and saw they had an hour and half left before his presentation and they turned around to walk the other side of the street back. On this other side they poked into some bookstores and stopped in a metaphysical shop where some woman was receiving a tarot reading. Signs around the store asked for customers to be quiet as a reading was in process, which was great because Jess naturally eavesdropped and heard the tarot reader floundering as this woman talked on and on about some money she thinks she deserves to win in some court battle she’s in. No nice way to tell someone “Yeah, this isn’t a therapy session, I just read the cards.”
After that delightful little experience, they stopped in a bar that advertised a Dream Spritzer Barbie Cocktail and for some reason Frank ordered two even though they agreed originally they only wanted one. Jess thinks the bartender was just so enthusiastic about his job that Frank got swept up and just got two. The drink came and it was cute, pink with a strawberry, but tasted like BITTER. A nightmare to drink. Basically actively fighting you for drinking it. The most undrinkable drink Jess had ever experienced in her life. She finished it but only out of spite cause they spent money on it. As they choked it down the bartender happily brought water upon seeing they had ordered the Barbie drink as he seemed to know how terrible this drink was. Following that they wanted a mouth cleanse and headed on over to ‘Trident’, a local coffee shop that Frank loves and ordered mocha’s to bring back to the house with them. They arrived around 4:30pm and Jess decided to make more tacos for her and I as he presented and we sat around having a chit-chat.
Frank came in and out of the room as other classmates presented and had Jess try on some spare rock climbing shoes he had which were just a little loose on Jess but she said she has thick socks so it’ll be fine, to which Frank said “You wear socks with your rock climbing shoes?” like we’re the weirdos in that question. As Jess and I are loosey goosey getting ready Frank informs us that the friends of his we're meeting up with are already at the rock climbing gym. This was the first we heard of meeting up with anyone anywhere and apparently Frank had told them we were going to leave as soon as his presentation was done. In typical Frank fashion, this was not conveyed to us until that second. We finished getting ready quick as we could and headed out, taking my suitcase with us.
We took a 20ish minute drive to the rock climbing/bouldering gym Frank frequents and met up with three of his friends, Michael, Anne, and Eric. Jess got a harness from the front when we signed the waivers for climbing but I elected not to get one or shoes as I figured I would simply sit and watch everyone else climb. I'm not trained in belaying and I'm not a great climber so I figured I'd sit it out. That didn't end up happening. I was sitting on a bench by the cubbys and was planning on sitting there the whole time but I couldn't see the wall Jess, Frank, and his friends had chosen to climb. I saw lots of folks sitting on the bouncy floor the climbing walls were surrounded by so I figured it'd be fine to bring my stuff and set up on the floor where they were climbing. I did for a bit as I watched and photographed Jess's first climb of the evening with Frank bolaying her. She made it quite far for her first rock climb since we went to our local DynoClimb several months ago. After she climbed she asked me if I wanted to take her shoes and harness and give it a try. I figured I should, while I'm here, do at least one climb for the fun of it.
Frank offered to belay me and Jess tied the weird knot into the rope attached to my harness. I initially forgot to switch shoes and my foot promptly slipped off the first stone to remind me why they have special shoes for this in the first place! Having rectified the shoe situation I started to climb the same path Jess had to see how far I could get. Frank had me do a test drop early on so I would be mentally certain the equipment was secure and he knew what he was doing. There's a lot of trust in bolaying but Frank is actually super adept at this climbing thing so trusting him was pretty easy. It was nice to do a little test fall though to see how it worked. I got up about to where Jess had gotten when my neck felt a twinge and I had to stop for a bit and just hang there until it felt better. When it felt remotely normal I started up again. I got almost to the top when I had to call it and have Frank lower me down. I was suddenly aware how high I was and got nervous about going down. I didn't think I would fall, but I was afraid the higher I got the more likely I was to slam myself into the wall going down. No real logical reason for this, that's just what I thought. As I was slowly lowered down I saw that wasn't true but I couldn't know what I didn't know. My neck was still hurting somewhat too so going down felt like a good idea for that reason too.
I was a little bummed I hadn't made it to the top but it was my first attempt at belaying so I did fairly well. I gave Jess back her shoes and harness, figuring I was one-and-done with the whole thing and watched her try a different course. And she made it! All the way to the top she went, taking brief pauses and letting out random shouts because she claims "The shouting helps". She made it to the top so something worked! After that the crew moved to a different wall in the gym and Frank pointed out a wall he thought would be good for me to climb. Turns out it wasn't roped properly for me, who doesn't know what I'm doing, to use but I put the shoes and harness on anyway and found a path I thought looked good. This time I was determined, I was going to move quick and give myself no time to think about things. I know I don't have great arm strength but I have exceptional leg strength and great flexibility so I decided to just keep moving my legs higher and make my hands and arms secondary. And I did it! Made it to the top as fast as I could with Jess hollering at me an old call-and-repeat mantra of Dave's, "Easy day! Price of cake! I got this!" as well as "I wanna win more than I wanna quit!" Both of which are highly motivating and very empowering to shout while performing any kind of physical activity. It really is a mind game up there to just keep moving up.
Frank got hooked up by his friend Eric to climb one of the super hard courses while Anne and Michael asked us to join them doing bouldering over on the other side of the gym. We cheered Frank on until he reached the top but cracked open our energy drink and headed to the boulder wall when he decided to try a couple things on that wall again. At DynoClimb, Jess and I had done ok at bouldering. We really just putzed around for a few hours testing walls and routes and seeing what we could do. Here though, with a crowd of Frank's friends watching, we did much better! I say we because yes, Jess and I did swap the shoes back and forth a number of times as we found routes we wanted to try. Anne offered to get me her spare shoes so we could both go at the same time but I said it was no matter. Jess and I liked to stand and cheer each other on every time we climbed so having two shoes would've been pointless as we never would have climbed at the same time anyway. That was true for all of us really, we all just stood and watched each other climb to offer encouragement and guidance about foot and hand holds if necessary.
Frank and Eric joined us eventually, though Eric left not long after that. We all did a number of climbs and Jess and I made it to the top of nearly every one we attempted. I did slightly better but given I work out significantly more than Jess it would have been very embarrassing for me if I hadn't been. Anne and Michael left around 8pm but Jess, Frank, and I kept wandering around the bouldering area finding new routes to attempt. At 8:50pm I remembered our flight is at 8:20pm on Tuesday and I needed to check in. I ran over to the cubby we stashed our stuff in and pulled up my emails. We got B 40's as our numbers so not excellent but not bad either! Gives us a chance to see who's sitting around us and whether they're going to be "I don't use headphones" type of folks before commiting to a location. After that we only did a few more attempts before heading out. Jess and Frank debated where they were going to get dinner for their date night and said we should pick up some fast food for me in case I got hungry at the hotel. I decided some McDonald's sounded good and off we went!
At the McDonald's I got myself two double cheeseburgers and two small fries off the Buy On Get One For A Dollar menu and shared the second set of fries with Jess and Frank. The Hampton wasn't far and we were there in under ten minutes to check me in while Frank tried to find a nice restaurant that was still open. I got checked in and we all headed up to the hotel room so Jess could get changed into one of the dresses in my suitcase. We originally got sent to 317 but the door flashed red and green, which usually means the battery for the card reader is dead or dying, and wouldn't open so Jess went back down and got the room changed to 216. That door also flashed red and green but did open for us, so we decided not to worry about it. We got inside and I got myself situated while Jess got changed and Frank called a restaurant to ask how late they're kitchen was open. When Jess was dressed and primped and Frank got confirmation about a restaurant officially open until 11pm they bid me goodbye for the evening and headed off.
It was strange having a whole hotel room to myself without anyone else I knew in any other room. I took a nice long shower, got into my pajamas, and watched a 'Murder, She Wrote' marathon on the Hallmark Channel as I ate my burgers then got ready for bed. I could have stayed at Frank's place with Jess and Frank as he has a spare bedroom and did offer it to me, but his A/C doesn't work and he only has the one fan and if it's a choice between staying at my sister's boyfriend's place with no A/C on an inflatable mattress for free and a nice hotel room with my own bed, bathroom, air control, and free breakfast for $40, it's an easy choice. I just told them to swing by and pick me up in the morning whenever they were off to do something. What something? No idea. This whole trip Jess and I relinquished control of planning to both Dave and Frank and elected to just go with the flow so whatever they wanted to do was what we were doing. Dave seemed to have a more clear picture of what he wanted to do with us than Frank, but so far all the things we’ve done with Frank were fun! I’ll have to just wait and see what tomorrow brings!
No comments:
Post a Comment