Day 8: Snow, Seafood, and Sneaker Anxiety

I left the Kansas area and the weather was actually not too bad. I did not see any flooding when I woke up this morning, and thankfully there were no piles of softball sized hail lying around anywhere. 😎 There was a little light rain for about the first half hour of the trip, then it stayed cloudy for a while, and eventually the sun started shining about an hour into the drive. Apparently Mother Nature finally took a lunch break.

Kansas is really boring. The only things you see are plains, windmills, farms, and oil pumps. After about three hours, I started counting the colors of different cows just for entertainment. One great thing about driving through Kansas, though, is the 75 mph speed limit. Cruising along at 83 mph definitely made the drive feel shorter. At that speed, Kansas almost felt like a normal sized state.

One positive thing today, I only saw four dead deer along the highway. 😢 Honestly, at this point that somehow felt like progress.

I gained an hour yesterday going into Kansas, and I gained another hour heading into Denver. One great thing about a trip like this is that on the way back there is basically no jet lag, because I only change one hour at a time.

There was snow mixed with rain in Denver this morning. Yes, snow, in May. When I got here it was in the 40s and rainy, and I got plenty of funny looks walking around in shorts. Meanwhile, I was looking at everyone else wondering why they were dressed like they were climbing Mount Everest. Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore.

When I arrived, I found a seafood restaurant that had a seafood boil with lobster, crab legs, and shrimp. It also came with potatoes and corn, but I didn’t mess with that. The seafood was really good, although not quite as good as what I had in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, or Massachusetts. 

I’ll tell you a funny story. The restaurant did not seem like it was in the greatest neighborhood. When I parked the car and started walking, this younger girl walked next to me and then behind me. She said, “I love your sneakers.” I told her thank you and said, I get a lot of compliments on them. Then she said, “They’re really beautiful.”

At that point I started wondering if she genuinely liked my sneakers or if I was about to wake up shoeless in a Denver alley. 😂 A little later, while I was sitting in the restaurant, there were four skater kids nearby, and one of the kids kept staring at my sneakers. He had Jordans on, so when they got up to leave, I looked at him and said, “Nice sneakers,” in an aggressive New York voice. I wanted him to know I respected the shoe game, but I was also prepared to defend mine if necessary. Thankfully, nobody robbed me, and I made it back to the hotel with both sneakers, my dignity, and a slight smell of garlic butter from the seafood boil.

Anyway, here I am in rainy Denver, and unfortunately tomorrow looks like more of the same. At this point I’m starting to think the sun stayed behind in Florida and refused to come with me.