North America,  Travel,  U.S.

Moving across the United States by car (3) – Denver, Colorado

February 21, 2023 /

Departed from Salt Lake City at 6 o'clock on Friday morning, and drove ten hours to Denver. My friend recommended me to drive a slightly longer road, but the scenery along the way will be much better.

On Friday, I went to housesit in the suburbs of Denver to show the house to the owner. This house is much bigger than the first one I saw before. The couple are going on a four-day ski vacation in the nearby mountains this long weekend and need a housekeeper for their two cats. The homeowner couple is very interesting. They moved here from the Bay Area of California two years ago and bought a big house. They are both avid ski enthusiasts. The male protagonist was born in Israel, grew up in the Bay Area, returned to Israel for high school and college, and now works at Google in Boulder. The hostess is an Israeli born in Ukraine. She returned to Israel when she was very young. After graduating from university, she went to Germany to study for a year, so she can speak English, Russian, Hebrew and German. She now does UX design and graphic design, and the two work from home most of the time. The two met when they were studying at university in Israel. After working for many years, they resigned and traveled together for a few months. They went to Southeast Asia, China, Japan, India and other countries. Their favorite cuisine is Asian cuisine, and many ingredients and sauces at home are bought in Asian supermarkets. At that time, they also used the sofa-surfing software to backpack and travel poorly. When they were in China, they went to Beijing, Chengdu and Xi'an. Later, in order to make more money, the two decided to return to the United States to work together. What most couch surfers have in common is that they are relatively minimalist. Their home has three floors and five rooms, but there are not many things. They are all basic household items, and there is no mess everywhere. In the spirit of the owner of the sofa who is willing to host and share, they said that if I want to stay here for a few more days, they can also stay for a few more days after they come back on Tuesday.

Their dos and don'ts document for house and cat care is two pages long and full of detail. So before they left, they showed me the whole process of feeding, cleaning the litter box, and playing. Demonstration is really necessary because it is more complicated. There is a litter box and a water basin on each of the three floors of his house. The litter box must be cleaned every morning and evening, because if the smell is not cleaned in time, their cats will be more sensitive and will not go in and defecate. Therefore, the process of cleaning the litter box is from the first floor to the third floor every morning, and from the third floor to the first floor at night. Feeding is even more troublesome, because an older cat needs to take bone calcium supplements, and a capsule needs to be unscrewed and the powder sprinkled on the canned food. Moreover, he has no self-control over food, and his digestive function is not good. He can only feed a quarter of canned food at a time, and feed him twice a day in the morning and evening. His dry food has to be divided into three small tubes that can be turned, and he needs to use his claws to turn the food out to eat. Another two-year-old kitten only eats dry food. Her feeder requires me to press a button to close the lid after giving the dry food, in order to prevent another cat from stealing it. There is a small chip on the kitten's neck. Only when she is next to the feeder, the lid will be opened by induction, and it will be closed as soon as she leaves after eating. This is too advanced. In addition to cleaning the cat litter and feeding them, they also have to play with the cat for ten minutes every day before feeding. The toys they like to play with are different, so they have to match what they like. It takes a total of thirty minutes to wait on them every day, haha.

I finally met my Denver brother who I met in Chiang Mai, Thailand when I started traveling solo more than four years ago in 2018. According to his routine, every time a group photo is taken, there must be one with a normal smile and one with a sullen face. We were roommates in the youth hostel in Chiang Mai (Picture 1), and we met again in Melbourne, Australia in March of the following year (Picture 2), and drove to the Great Ocean Road together in the car borrowed by my sofa owner (Picture 3) ). Now our hair is getting shorter and shorter (picture 4). I remember he always said that when I came to Denver, he would take me to the local draft beer bar, because Denver is famous for draft beer. But I don't drink much and go to the bar. He said that he basically quit drinking a year ago. But there is also a large bar in the center of a restaurant we went to that sells all kinds of alcohol. Unexpectedly, after he insisted on being a vegetarian for four or five years, one day in the first few months, he suddenly wanted to eat fried chicken, so he relapsed and started eating chicken and fish. We talked about many things during our travels in Southeast Asia and Australia that year. We still remember clearly what we ate at the street stalls in Chiang Mai and in Melbourne, but more than four years have passed in a blink of an eye.

While eating, he answered a phone call, saying that he had to go home and use his computer to read a document. He was in the process of negotiating the price of buying a house, and it wouldn't be long. So I went back with him, and while he was on the phone to look at the documents, I chatted with his girlfriend. She is from Chile. She came to the United States at the same time as me to study for graduate school. She studied Latin American literature, and later she did her Ph. D. and has been teaching at the university in Boulder. In the past one or two years, I started to produce podcasts for the Denver History Museum, and said that if I want to visit, I can take me in for free. I asked them if they had any other recommendations for places to go, and they kept saying Denver wasn't much of fun, and they both racked their brains to come up with a few.

In the past two days, I found that the price of food in restaurants outside here is no different from that in the Bay Area. After he told me about the local rent, I was surprised that it was no different from the Bay Area. He said that since the beginning of the epidemic, many wealthy people from California, the East Coast and Texas have moved here, causing local prices to soar everywhere. Especially a lot of people who love the outdoors move to Denver. We also talked about how diverse it is here, there are white people everywhere, and there are few Asian, African, and Hispanic minorities in the city center, and the food is not very diverse, which can't be compared with the Bay Area. He's been thinking about moving to another more diverse city for a year or two, and he says he's bored here. He decided to buy a house now not because he wants to live here for a long time, but because the rent is too expensive and he doesn’t want to throw money to pay the rent. He bought the house as an investment, and even if he moves out later, he can rent it out or sell it.

The next morning, I went to a popular local donut shop recommended by him. It was a bit expensive, but it even sold donuts for dogs, which was an exaggeration. Then I drove to pick him up and went to Little Vietnam City. If you go outside the city, you will see more ethnic minorities from other countries and cultures. The two of us went to an Asian Vietnamese supermarket, saw a lot of food and fruits that we missed, and reminded us a lot of our travel experiences in Southeast Asia. He said that he especially misses Vietnam and Thailand, and at least once a day, he wants to go back for a long time. When the two of us were about to go to a Vietnamese restaurant to eat Vietnamese baguette sandwiches, he suddenly received a call from his real estate agent with good news: the seller accepted the price he offered and needed him to sign the document. You could tell he was excited and happy for him. He said he could take me into his house the next time I came to Denver.

I went to the Red Rock open-air concert venue recommended by my brother in Denver who racked his brains. Arrived at 9 o'clock in the morning, the big red rocks are everywhere, very spectacular. Concerts are often held here when it is not winter. There are a lot of people exercising on the big steps of the seats in the venue, and the outside temperature is only six to seven degrees. Most of them are wearing short-sleeved shorts, and I feel cold when I look at them. Then I went back to Washington Park in the city center, where there were also many men, women and children wearing shorts and short sleeves running, cycling and exercising around the lake. According to research data, Denver is the fourth healthiest city in the United States (after Seattle), where more than 80% people regularly exercise, and the obesity rate and heart attack rate of the entire city are much lower than most American cities. It's high altitude here, and I'm out of breath after running for 20 minutes. Local residents who have been exercising at high altitude for a long time must have a good system.

The RiNo (the nickname for the River North district) art district is full of murals, bars, galleries, coffee shops, innovative and trendy shops and restaurants.

During the year of traveling alone, I met two Denver brothers, and they were very good at chatting, and they kept in touch after returning to the United States. Meet up with another Denver kid on Monday after four years. We met in New Zealand (Picture 1). Before going from Australia to the South Island of New Zealand, we didn’t know how to travel there alone. Renting a car alone was too boring, and the bus seemed inconvenient. I heard that in New Zealand Many backpackers hitchhike, which is very safe. I even hitchhiked with this idea at the time. But two or three days before flying from Melbourne to New Zealand, I saw this Denver guy post a post on the couch, saying that he rented a car, had a tent and all camping equipment, and the itinerary I planned was similar to my plan. I contacted him, and I remember he asked me several times on the phone: Are you sure you can camp for a week? The conditions are very basic! When I met him this time, I also talked to me that he was actually very surprised that a girl of mine would contact him to join him. He said, were you not worried about safety at the time? I remember that I read his personal information and other people's comments carefully at that time, and the first impression is that I can't be wrong. I usually follow the principle of believing that others are kind. I thought that even if we can't get together and can't continue to travel together, I'll hitch a ride by myself. When I arrived in New Zealand, I went to a nearby supermarket from the airport to buy a sleeping bag, and he picked me up there, and we were on our way.

This time in Denver, we went to a state park in Boulder to climb a mountain. When we got out of the car, the wind was so loud that it was so evil that we would be blown when we stood up. When we started to climb, because there were no trees around, we were basically unable to move forward due to the wind, and we couldn't hear our words. Moreover, the snow on the hiking trail has not yet melted, and some places are particularly slippery. The two of us gritted our teeth and insisted on continuing to climb, and finally reached a place with woods, so we didn't feel the strong wind. We chatted about recent developments along the way. He and his fiancée bought a big house in the suburbs of Denver the year before last. They got engaged last year and will hold a wedding in June this year. While climbing the mountain, we talked a lot about the dilemma of traveling alone, having a stable relationship, and settling down. We need to find the right choice for us at different stages of life, but we always feel like we are in a besieged city.

Later, when we had lunch, we dug out the photos we took in New Zealand four years ago, which brought back so many interesting memories. I have a better memory, he forgot a lot. After that, I took a stroll in the center of Boulder, which is one of the most expensive cities in the United States. Many wealthy people move here because it is very close to the Rocky Mountains, which is convenient for skiing and rock climbing. After returning to the United States in 2019, I finally decided to move to work at a university in a small town in Northern California. At that time, another work option was to move here. Now it looks like it's a good thing we didn't move here because it's too white. Although the people here are also very democratic, radical and enlightened, they are not very diverse. I will definitely feel bored after staying for a long time. No wonder the little brother from Denver who I met in Thailand also wanted to move out.

Went to the new 2021 Meow Wolf immersive experiential art exhibition in Denver. Meow Wolf also has different shows in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Las Vegas. The theme of this exhibition in Denver is called "Convergence Station", which is about quantum time travel and multiverse, and was designed and created by hundreds of Colorado artists. As soon as I entered the exhibition hall, I felt that time and space suddenly traveled to another fantasy alien planet. There are many weird and peculiar designs, different changing lights and background music. I guess the reaction after taking hallucinogenic drugs is like seeing these things. Feel the same. There are many hidden doors, exits, aisles, etc. in the entire art exhibition. There is no correct browsing route in it. You need to explore slowly and use your imagination. There were a lot of kids in the art show, and it was so much fun to see them having fun. I wandered inside for nearly two hours, because there were too many visual and sensory stimulations, and I felt a little dizzy when I came out.

I accidentally passed by a park by the river, and suddenly saw the murals under the bridge were very familiar. I was sure that I came here when I came to Denver for the first time in 2017. On the last day here, I met a Denver brother from Thailand and passed by a tavern frequented by locals that he was familiar with. He fulfilled his previous promise. He said that you can’t come to Denver without tasting Denver’s famous draft beer. , So I ordered a small cup. After looking at my driver's license, the bistro waiter pointed to a few tables of customers outside and said: Those tables are also from California. He himself moved from Southern California many years ago.

In the evening, I ordered a takeaway Detroit pizza to have dinner at the house of my brother in Denver whom I met in New Zealand. After seeing his fiancee, she left the house after a while. They bought a house the year before last, and it was a huge mansion. He showed me around, and a minimalist like me couldn't get used to it all of a sudden. He himself admitted that there was really no need to buy such a big house, but he bought it at that time because of the high cost performance. After buying a big house, you will unconsciously buy a lot of things and furniture to fill the house. American consumerism advocating ah!

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