The Ottawa Rabbit Hole

So I'm in Denver, CO for a conference for work. Despite United Airlines best attempts, both me and my suitcase arrived on time last night. I foolishly had forgotten it's a pain to fly to the States, so I arrived at the airport just about 50 minutes before my flight (also thanks to Blueline Taxi who never sent the cab I called for). They said they closed the plane an hour before the flight, so I threw a bunch of stuff into my carry on and said to put the luggage on the next plane to Chicago (where I connected) as long as I get there. Their computers were also down, so they had to write out my boarding pass by hand and couldn't give me one for my connecting flight. I basically assumed I would never see my suitcase again. When I got to Chicago, thanks to an unrelated screw up there was a line about 30 people deep at my gate with a standy by list of 100+ for my flight. I finally got my boarding pass printed at the last minute but didn't even bother asking about my bag since they weren't exactly the friendliest of people. It was to my delight when I got to Denver and typed my luggage tag # into their computer it said that my bag was assigned to carousel 16...and sure enough a few minutes later it came. Kudos to you United for somehow getting my luggage there. Now fire that stupid lady in Ottawa and hire somebody who knows what's actually going on.

They next part of my adventure was a $60 cab ride from the airport which is about 27 miles out of downtown, and a successful check in into my hotel which I had booked under the false pretense that I was a US gov't employee. Thankfully my assumption that they would never verify that was correct...my print out just had some vague reference that said 'United States'..great system.

As for Denver, it is a very practical city. Nice grid layout downtown, big conference center and all major stadiums very close. There is a street that runs the length of downtown that's called the mall which is lined with stores and restaurants. Plus they have a free bus that runs constantly down the length of this street. You never have to wait more than about 30 seconds for the next one. Oh and despite what you may think, there aren't that many mountains around. False advertising.

Below is a map of downtown Denver. I do not plan to live this grid, other than going back to the airport. I've got a ticket to Wednesday's Rockies game, and other than that I'm not sure how I'll pass my time. I've already walked the length of the mall street. I'm glad my hotel has HBO.

Posted by WRMB :: 6:43 PM :: 15 comments