Thursday, Aug. 23
We got up early and drove into Denver to find someplace with Internet access. We found a little place called Metropolis Cafe that probably had some of the best coffee we’ve ever had. Neither of us are coffee-heads, or coffee-aholics, or whatever they call people who are addicted to coffee, but this was good stuff. When I was done working we headed into the city to check it out.
Denver Art Museum, the U.S. Mint and exactly one mile high
We didn’t actually go to the art museum, but outside there was this large sculpture of a broom sweeping crumpled paper into a dustpan, so I took a picture of Bea from afar to make it look like she’s cleaning.
We walked around that general downtown area, which includes the state capitol building, a large city and county building, and plenty of parkspace. Both of us left Denver thinking we could probably live there pretty easily. Nice people, great weather, lots of things to do outdoors, etc.
So we walked over to the U.S. Mint and got ourselves some tickets to tour the place. Only thing was we had to go back to the garage where our car was to drop off our camera and cell phones because you can’t bring them on the tour. Only thing you can bring is a wallet and that’s it. You can’t even bring in outside change into the mint.
That tour was awesome, though. They were making pennies when we went in there. The blanks, which the mint ships in from an outsourcer, are in these huge bins. Then the machines suck them up and stamp them on each side, and then they get poured into another bin. One thing I didn’t know before is that all the coins made in Denver get shipped west of the Mississippi; all the ones in Philadelphia east of the Mississippi. There are also two other mints I didn’t know about. The one in San Francisco does proof coins (which are stamped a handful of times to make the image stand out more) and the one in West Point does investor’s coins and the Presidential Medals of Honor.
Anyway, the Denver mint makes something like $2 million worth of coins every day. Nice. This was one of our favorite sites in Denver, and actually favorite sites overall. We both got blank pennies as a free souvenir.
After the U.S. Mint tour, we retrieved our phones and camera and walked around some more, this time venturing up the stairs of the state capitol building. On one of the steps, I think it’s the 18th, you are exactly 5,280 feet — one mile — high. So we took a picture because we’re tourists and that’s what tourists do, and it was cool nonetheless.
East into the long state of Kansas
It was getting late by this time and we still had a healthy trip ahead of us to get to Kansas City. So we left Denver and headed east into Kansas.
Once you get east of Denver, Colorado flattens out like a pancake. And it’s a ways before you get into Kansas. After a while we drove into Abilene, Kansas, where Dwight Eisenhower was born. It was getting dark fast, and the museum and library were closed, but we were able to take a picture of his house, which was nice.
Along the way in Kansas we had to pass on a bunch of cool-looking roadside attractions because it was getting late. A quick list: The Oz Museum, Greyhound Hall of Fame, little Sweden, and lots and lots of forts.
Then we continued on continuing on. We weren’t really sure where we were going to stay that night. There were a few state parks we could camp at, but they were 30, 45 minutes out of our way. Plus, we drove through a couple of thunderstorm warnings in central Kansas on our way to Kansas City (never hit any serious rain), and as it was nearing the end of our trip, we weren’t sure that we wanted to get soaked by the rain. Bea had heard from her mom that they had gotten just pelted up there.
So as you can probably guess by now, we decided to stay in a hotel. We got to Kansas City around 10 p.m., maybe, and then started stopping at places, calling places, trying to find wireless Internet so we could look up places. Finally we ended up driving back west out of Kansas City, Miss., south through Kansas City, Kan., and into a southwest suburb called Overland Park. By this time, it was well after midnight, so we checked into the Doubletree, got our free cookies, ate them, and went to our room to sleep.
