Day 40, June 27th 2008, beginning in Denver, Colorado

I woke up and popped about a hundred mini muffins, since that was all that supplied for the continental breakfast at the ever luxurious Knights Inn. I wasn't quite satisfied, but by the time Paul got up, there was nothing left for him. We would get some food on the way to Water World.

Halfway through our short trip to Water World there was a train obstructing the road. We waited along with a few cars for a few minutes before we decided to lift the bikes and walk around the train, an option the cars did not have.

We stopped at a Mexican bakery across the street from the park and got some delicious, inexpensive pastries. While we were enjoying our food, a received a phone call from an unknown number. Who else could it be but Lauren, the Denver couchsurfer. She was very apologetic, and sounded very sweet over the phone. She was running around crazy trying to prepare for a trip to Bolivia and had accidentally given me her old area code for her current cell phone number. Lauren also gave me her roommate Caroline's number who called us separately as well. After hearing how nice both sounded, and figuring that there was more we wanted to see from Denver, we decided that we would head back there way after the water park. But for now, it was time for some fun. Bellies full we entered the park.

As we went to purchase our tickets, someone was selling a ticket they couldn't use. The regular ticket price was $35 and I only had $22 in my wallet. The person gladly accepted and I had just gotten a nice discount. This was the first time I was happy to have less money rather than more in my wallet.

Upon entry we stopped in at guest services to see what we could do about our fully loaded bikes. They showed us where to lock up the bikes up front, and suggested the large lockers for our bags. When we tried to get big lockers, they had already run out. We then had to return to guest services, whose line developed nicely during this period, and plead that they help out some poor travelers. We were able to coax the employees into allowing us to stow our stuff in the back room, since we were pretty much out of options. Phew. We locked up everything except for a small waterproof bag with my wallet and some sunscreen in it.

Eventually, after what seemed like forever, we were ready to get wet on the beautiful 90+ degree day. For the couple hours before we ate, we hit pretty much every ride in the park. Turns out it was the largest water park in Denver. There were definitely a lot of cool ones, including a continuous wave creator that people would "surf" with buggy boards. It was a fun park, but not quite the fu experience we thought would be required, which worked out anyway since we would be heading back into Denver.

After we ate we hit a few more rides. As we were leaving I realized that I had carried the lotion/wallet bag around all day, but had never applied any. I was a bit burnt, but nothing to worry about.

We collected our bags and bikes and made our way back into downtown Denver. We made it in almost no time and met Caroline, Bryn, Sophie (Brynn's dog) and Seth at the house. Seth and Bryn were both friends of Lauren's and Caroline's.

After shooting it for a while, we decided to head out to get some food. They had suggested a Mexican place which sounded lovely. We met Lauren there after she had gotten off from work. We filled up with massive smothered burritos at the restaurant, and walked back to their house.

Bryn went back to her own house, and Caroline and Seth had gone to a coffee shop to hang out, so we hung out and had a few beers with Lauren before going out. She is a very interesting girl, who is well traveled, energetic, and genuinely fun to be around.

After a while, we headed to the local bar area that was walking distance from her house. We scooped up Caroline and Seth on the way, and went out for a few drinks. We talked about a some important stuff about what we were all trying to do with ourselves, and some not important stuff too. We had a great time, and before we knew it, we were closing down the bar.

We walked home, feeling that we made the right choice to turn around. The girls were very sweet, and easy to get along with. When we got back to the house, Paul and I, interested in the guitar, suggested maybe Lauren play some for us. Perhaps aided by the alcohol, she gladly picked it up and began strumming. Shortly after that, Caroline who had retired for the night, came down and joined in. They played for us for a while, singing too. We loved it. They are both musically talented and have great singing voices. Some of the songs were interrupted by their laughter as they insisted that the alcohol wasn't helping, but we agreed we could have listened to them all night.

After the playing had finally ceased, we were all quite tired as it was getting quite late, and we all went to bed. We had a short ride to Boulder the next day, which would allow us to do something in Denver before leaving. Paul and I were interested in the art museum as it was supposed to be quite good, which we expressed to the girls. Caroline, who is an art teacher and hadn't been to the museum in a while, was home to come along. With our plans set for the day and one more easy day of riding before the end of our long stretch since Oklahoma City, we rested easy.

Life was good.