Day 9 The Mile High City

Day 9 North Platte, NE to Denver, CO

Mile High Stadium...Home of the Denver Broncos

Tae’s become quite the camper…he sets up and tears down shop in no time at all, like he’s been doing this RV thing all his life.  Not bad for a kid from the Bronx;) The next morning we were off to Denver to visit the US Mint.  The Rockies were a majestic sight to behold.  The air felt cleaner and crisp, like a fresh, new fall day.  It was my first time in the city other than flying through.  The city had a hippie/grunge vibe to it, like Seattle, minus the Starbucks on every city block.

Parking Betsy on City Streets

Parking RV Betsy in downtown Denver required ingenuity.  Driving around in circles until we found two consecutive open parking spaces made me glad we had plenty of time to spare before our tour.  The tour had specific instructions (along with lots of restrictions) to arrive 30 minutes prior to our tour.  Or you won’t get in!

The US Mint is a fascinating place.  The 30-minute tour (sorry, no camera’s allowed) showcased the history of the Mint and its process for making US coins.  With six facilities in the US, it includes Philadelphia and Denver (the coin makers), San Francisco (coin maker, no visitors), West Point, NY (uncirculated coins, no visitors), Fort Knox, KY (gold storage) and the headquarters in Washington, DC.   It’s in operation 4 days a week making coins, which begged the question asked by Tae, why does the US Government produce so many coins?  The simple answer: Americans are hoarders.  You don’t have to watch an episode of the A&E show ‘Hoarders’ to see one, as we all do it at a tune of 1.4 million dollars in coins a day!

A few interesting facts we learned:

-       The US Mint use to produce coins for foreign countries (including Liberia, Haiti, Venezuela, Panama along with a plethora of other countries) until 1984

-       Remember the State Quarter Program where they printed 5 state coins each year until they had all 50 states (from 1999-2008)?  We have a new program commemorating the state parks for all 50 states called America the Beautiful.  It began in 2010 and will continue thru 2019…so get to collecting!

-       The US Mint currently has a program through May 2013 to find an artist (anyone 14 and older can participate) to come up with the design for the MLB commemorative coin marking the 75-year anniversary of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  The winner collects $5000 and will have their initials included as part of the minted design…but you only have thru 11 May!  Here’s more info…http://baseballhall.org/coin-design

-       Although never robbed at gunpoint, there was one employee of the Mint in Denver who stole what would be worth millions of dollars of gold from the facility.  Orville Harrington had a wooden leg, which was rumored to be hollowed out, but that’s not how he stole the envelope sized gold bars.  In actuality, he stowed them one by one in the inside pocket of his suit jacket and buried them in his back yard.  They sent him up the river for that one, but he received time off for good behavior (only serving three years) and came back to work for the Denver city government in the transportation department.  So much for background checks!

mmmmmh!

A short stint down the road found us parked in two spots on another city road to visit out next Triple DDD stop at Steubens.  Dad has recoined (I couldn’t resist!) them 3D restaurants:0)  Steuben’s is an upgraded 50’s mod style restaurant with lots of options for dinner.  Tae stuck to the bar menu which included deviled eggs and sliders, while Dad had meatloaf and I enjoyed their famous fried chicken.  We sat outside on the patio with heat lamps although it wasn’t too chilly.  A decent stop until I realized they had fried corn on the cob…we added it to the order making it an awesome DDD stop!  In the back of our minds, we still have ToP on our minds.

Hunkering down just outside of Denver for the evening, we had our very own mountain at the campsite.  One that included rattlers. Yeah!  Dad found this to be the best RV site we’ve stayed at thus far, complimenting the wide clean showers and overall beauty of the park.

Bailey's Perspective

I woke up this morning with a knee ache.  I don’t know if everyone knows the story of my knee, so I will share it very quickly.  About 56 dog years ago, I tore my knee ligament in my right hind leg.  I wish I could say it was a sports injury but it was likely related to my weight or overweight.  I was carrying an extra 5 lbs or so….OK, it was more like 9 lbs.  I was running around, playing like I always do but this time I felt a real sharp pain in my knee.  After surgery, extensive rehab and a healthier diet, I was able to avoid another surgery and luckily, my left knee held up…..knock on wood.  And now, traveling in the RV doesn’t provide enough room for me to walk around and stretch my legs.  Being in the RV the entire day is simply torture.  So, with a bum knee and possibly motion sickness…..we travel on.  Seriously, this is a cruel introduction to camping by mommy and daddy.  California is cool and all, but couldn’t they have found an easier way to get there? Hello, a quick plane ride would have been nice.

We made 2 stops but I stayed in the RV.  I frankly did not want to go outside for long or walk around much.  Short breaks are good and I much prefer to sleep than do any tourist activities.  Believe me, I know about tourist activities.  Our family used to go see the Cherry Blossoms in DC every year. Why you ask? I have no idea.  I am not a tourist and we take a trip to see the same trees, the same flowers every year.  And the streets are filled with tourists and I don’t even get enough privacy to take care of business.  Needless to say, I am glad that we didn’t go this year and don’t have to go again in the future.  But I digress……  Back to the trip. One good aspect of waiting in the car is that they ALWAYS bring back treats for me, especially if its meal time and its game on.  At one of the stops, they brought back beef sliders, fried chicken and meatloaf with bacon.  Ruff said…..

As the sun was almost setting, we pulled into another RV park for the evening.  This is simply crazy….mommy and daddy were  taking this RV camping stuff way too seriously.  Oh well, at least dinner was good…. Nite nite.