ral-VER

Greetings and salutations race fans,

A good friend came to visit the G in his adopted town of Raleigh. One snap in this montage is of a Raleigh construction site. Wooo-whooo! I can sense your excitement. However, he is also of the architecture bent or ilk or illness, so... this is the kind of thing we did. "Hey Leap (no kidding... his real name), want to go check out some construction sites?" "Why yes, that sounds wonderful. I flew 1,500 miles to look at construction sites, which, let's be honest, is a nice break from watching how fast your four year old can disrobe after being dressed yet again. Where to?" So, we went to look at some of the cranes and construction elevators and construction in and around Raleigh. The day before we went to a couple of the famed North Carolina beaches where Leap, much to TSA's delight, snagged a crap load of dead crustaceans on the beach for his own little chitlens. (I hope I spelled that correctly... sometimes the old blogger spell check sucks. "Sucks," of course is a technical term. Of course, my own spelling prowess also "sucks!")

Anywho, Leap left soon thereafter for the lovely midwestern plains and subzero temps that all midwesterners know and love. Said something about neck strain from the fast Mustang we rented to see how quickly two middle aged children actually can get to a beach. Wow! What a fun car. But I digress, pony boy.

Soon after Leap flew the G coop and bid farewell to my unruly kids, I took the now familiar trip to the RDU Airport. Destination: The Big D. The Mile High Miracle of arts and life. Yes, race fans, I speak of course of that mythical land known as Duluth. Just kidding... though Duluth is equally as cool. (Take the drive from Duluth northwards along the lake. A good place to end is Swen and Ole's pizza joint. I will not tell you which city Swen and O's is in... make it a travel adventure and see if you can find it.) No, you silly snow goose, I went to Denver. Last time I was in the Mile High it was nice and temps were warm. This time, in the middle of February, the temps were warm and the atmosphere was nice. I stayed at ________ hotel and disco on Zuni. Nice hotel with probably the grossest hot tub I have ever been in sober. Just a caution note for those of you on line saying, "Well the _________ looks cool." (sorry. deleted on the advice of an _______ lawyer.) (Sorry. I had to delete the word "OVERPAID" from the last sentence.)

The next day I drove to Vail in the earth friendly Ford Expedition for a big meeting with a big group of big developers doing a big project for big bucks in a town known for big coin. I had a modest hotel room booked on one of the modest travel discount sites. However, alas, a night in Vail hob-knobbing with the rich and richer was not in the cards. Rumor had it that a big snow storm was coming in. Now I am a midwest boy. I love snow. And although I don't mind steering with my knees while driving over a mountain and snapping a picture of the Good Lord's creation, I do mind doing so when the mountain roads are loaded with ice and the chances of meeting the Good Lord face to face are, excuse the pun, elevated. So, after the meeting, I bailed. I crusied back to Denver and snagged a room at the Embassy Suites between Denver and the Airport. Speaking of the airport, if you want to know what it is like to be under the big white burkas, check out the crappy photo above. Thankfully, the hot tub in this Hilton Family Brand hotel looked and felt clean. Or was that the Koi pond? Darn high altitudes and thin air. It was a nice hotel -no kidding, and it was very reasonable in cost.

The day after that we had a nice little continuing ed thing with some architects in North Denver near, you guessed it, Zuni street and the petri dish hot tub. North Denver is really cool and coming around quickly. Think of the Pearl in Portland before it was the Pearl. Or, any quaint and cool neighborhood first populated by the locals, then the artistic types and then by the snobs. I personally am waiting to make the transition from the artistic class to the snob class. Hasn't happened yet.

Finally, it was back to the burkas and a quick flight on an oversold US Airways flight. Ah, fun!

Today, back in the South, I drove to Charleston, SC. Stay tuned.

-G

Disclaimer: Hot tubs sometimes only look dirty.