She’ll Be Coming Down The Mountain
The fact that we had completely packed up the night before and had only to roll out of bed on cue when the alarm sounded and pull ourselves into our ready-laid clothes, made getting up at 4:30am no easier. To say we were knackered is an understatement! We lugged our bags down the stairs on tiptoe and bid a silent farewell to our favourite little hotel in Aspen, hitting the road once more.
We had a 3 and a half hour journey back to Denver airport ahead of us and were told by numerous people that we needed to do ourselves a favour and drive through Independence Pass. Tom, at our hotel, said it was one of the top 10 drives in North America and we’d be crazy not to do it. It would also cut an hour off our trip to Denver so that was as good an incentive as any. For the last time, we loaded up Carl the Carolla, still in our pre-dawn stupor, and made our way to Independence Pass, which, unfortunately at the start, was very dark! We could sense the view and the cliffs on either side of us (with no guard rails whatsoever!), and the road signs warning of the twists and turns awaiting us looked like spaghetti!
As the pink glow of the sun began to show above the mountains, the sheer beauty of where we were driving became apparent! What an amazing piece of road! With mountains and rivers on either side of us, huge drops below and virtually no other cars on the road, we lapped up the scenery! Sam reached for his camera and began shooting away. I’d wished I’d been a passenger and not a (paranoid, worried I’m either going to drift too far to the left or drive over the edge of the cliff) driver, so I could’ve pondered the surrounds a little more! As the sun rose higher in the sky, it shone on different faces of the mountains, leaving some in the dark and making the colour dynamics so pretty. The whole sky was swirling with pinks and purples. We were so glad we’d taken the advice and done the drive. It was awesome!
Rather than trying to squeeze everything into our two monstrous bags we decided to pack an extra bag we’d brought along (thanks Keryn!) and had found out it would only be an extra $30 for the extra bag. That sure relieved a lot of stress but did mean we had an extra bag to juggle – and when I say juggle, I mean juggle! Sam had 2 backpacks (one on the front and one on the back) that carried the equivalent weight of enough bricks to make yourself a nice little retaining wall. He also had his BIG bag to wheel around and his tripod case. I was wielding my ridiculously big wheelie bag, the new bag on the block, my heavy handbag and my backpack that was full of Sam’s books and folders for College and was heavier than me! We also had our plane pillows (can’t forget them) and I had my novel that for some reason I couldn’t squeeze into any one of the other bags. We looked quite a sight stumbling along with all our gear!
Once checked in and feeling elated to have had our burdens temporarily lifted, we started our first meal in a day that was not going to be the pinnacle of nutritionally sound eating for this trip. After wolfing down our McMuffins we boarded our Air Canada jet, buckled up and both nodded off, only to wake briefly to indulge in some Cokes, plastic, tasteless cheese and crackers (lunch!). There was a baby girls sitting directly behind us that was less than happy to be on that plane and made it known in no uncertain terms! She was SO loud and kept kicking our seats (Sam even had his hair pulled) but we were just so tired, we even managed to endure that and get some sleep. We actually lost 2 whole, precious hours on this trip (probably made up for by our waking at such an ungodly hour) but psychologically we were even tireder, knowing that our Colorado body clocks said it should be 2pm but in Canada it was already 4. Where did that day go!?
Next we had the joy of customs queues, which were agonisingly long, followed by trying to figure out how on earth we get to our hotel. The airport seemed to be a l-o-n-g way away from the downtown area of Toronto but we somehow managed, through our best juggling act, to get ourselves and our luggage on a bus and then a train bound for Dundas Square, where we were staying. This was mostly thanks to a champion of a guy we met at the train station who immediately grabbed us maps and showed us the route to take. He was going above and beyond and was SO helpful! He told us to just wait there while he went and got his keys and then helped us aboard “his” train. HE was the driver!!!
The whole way there, we rode in the driver’s carriage with him and he kept his door wide open so he could chat to us for the entire journey. He was very impressed by Sam’s impending College soccer scholarship and told us all about his beloved Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.
We had pre-purchased some tickets for tonight’s soccer match between the Tottenham Hot Spurs and Toronto FC and asked the friendly train driver if he might know how to get to the game. Well, he didn’t know but he phoned his buddy and fellow train driver who also loved soccer to get the run down. He opened the conversation with “I have a young Australian fellow here who has won himself a SOCCER SCHOLARSHIP!!” He then passed the phone to Sam, while he was driving the train, and after heartily congratulating Sam on his scholarship, the other friendly train driver gave Sam all he needed to know to get to the game! They were such legends! Our driver even came out of his driver’s box to help us off the train with our luggage, shaking our hands and wishing us luck!
We got to our hotel with only half an hour to spare before kick off. Yikes! We barely had time to pull our jerseys on before we had to head back out the door. We decided a taxi was the only transport that was going to get us there on time and hailed a cab that battled its way through the renowned Toronto “rush hour” for us. We reached the stadium, with Canadian flags flying high, just in the nick of time to enjoy the exciting game, which ended in a 3-2 victory for Tottenham. We finished the night with some hot dogs and burgers and a couple of Buds! We’ll sleep well tonight!
