Les Trotteurs: USA On The Road: DAYS 7-8: Denver, The mile high City

11 / 12.05.2015

DAY 7:
Leaving the windy state of Kansas to enter the Colorado where we turned the clock backward.
We are on the road to Denver! A 6 hours drive from the rest area where we spent the night.
It's not this far considering that we had to stop at two gaz stations to get some petrol and some propane and then stop by the Colorado Welcome Center to get some informations of where to park for free to spend the night around Denver and still be able to go downtown (we've learned from our last disappointment that we have to plan ahead when driving a RV).

We reached the city in the afternoon while it was still sunny, we got out at the station near the civic center to visit the huge public library. We take the time to walk through a charming neighborhood toward one of many park where people were enjoying the weather.
We ended our first tour of Denver in a Vegan Restaurant serving comfort food and all day breakfast, who said we can't have pancakes and scrambled tofu for diner?? ^^

After a bit of reflexion, here was the solution to our parking problem:
1-Park the car for the afternoon near a RTD Station (In our case it's Walmart car park, Englewood (with no overnight parking allowed on this site)
2-Take the light train to Denver, and back to Englewood ($4,50 return pp)
3-Drive to the nearest 24h Walmart (where allowed to park overnight) +/- 15min away

It's probably not the simplest one but it worked out pretty well.. And it was not as stressfull as driving a RV inside a big city.

See You tomorrow Denver!

TOTAL= 295 miles

MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE (-8h London)

(Goodland, Kansas)

JOUR 7: Quitter le vent du Kansas pour rejoindre le Colorado et reculer l'horloge d'une heure.

Nous sommes sur la route de Denver! Un trajet de 6h en partant de l'aire de repos sur laquelle nous avons passes la nuit.

A vrai dire ce n'est pas si loin si l'on prend en compte nos nombreux arrets pour faire le plein d'essence et de propane suivit d'un petit detour par le centre d'informations du Colorado afin d'organiser notre sejour a Denver et surtout trouver une solution pour se garer (puisque comme on a pu l'apprendre de notre erreur, il faut toujours planifier lorsque l'on se deplace en RV).

Arrivee au centre ville dans l'apres-midi sous le soleil, direction l'immense bibliotheque publique en passant par le "civic center". C'est le temps parfait pour flaner dans un parc et decouvrir les zones pavillonnaires qui l'entoure. Premiere visite de Denver qui s'acheve dans un restaurant Vegan autour d'un breakfast: il n'est jamais trop tard pour des pancakes et du tofu brouille :D.

Apres mure reflexion, voice la solution a notre probleme de parking:

1- Garer le RV pret d'une station RTD (dans notre cas, ce sera le parking du Walmart d'Englewood, qui malheureusement n'autorise pas le stationnement de nuit)

2-Prendre le "light train" aller-retour vers Denver (£4,50 pp)

3-Rouler jusqu'au Walmart 24h le plus proche (environ 15min)

Ce n'est certes pas la solution la plus simple mais ca a plutot bien fonctionne pour nous. Sans compter que c'etait toujours moins stressant que de conduire et garer le RV en ville.

A Demain Denver!

TOTAL= 472km

MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE (-7h Paris)

(Welcome to Colorado)

(Diner, On the Road)

(Kiowa on the road)

(On the road to Denver)

(Denver, Colorado)

(State Capitol, Denver)

(Civic center, Denver)

(Downtown Denver)

(City o' City, Denver)

(Street in Denver)

(neighbourhood, Denver)

(WaterCourse Foods, Denver)

_____________________________________________________________________________

DAY 8:

Woke up from the Walmart car park in Littleton, drove back to Englewood to catch a train to Denver for a full day downtown. We still have to visit LoDo (Lower Downtown) which is the main district with the mile-long 16th Street Mall crossing.

We started our day getting off the train at the wrong station. It wasn't a mistake after all as we had to pass through Auraria Campus to reach the River path and get to Union Station, where we were meant to get off. After being blown away by the inside of the station, we're headed to Coors field where we can get a nice view of the city.

We then spent a lot of energy and time looking for a dispensary in an unfinished area just because the city duplicated this street name so we were in the wrong "Fox Street"..

As a consolation prize we got a few beers from the fabulous Falling Rock Tap House, which hold

a selection of 75 beers on tap and more than 100 different bottled beers.. let's call it Paradise!

A long walk toward the station before leaving the city and going back on the road to set up camp a few miles North, at the Colorado Welcome center.

Nice time spent in Denver pretending that we were townsfolk again :D.

But the wilderness and the mountains are calling. Get ready, because we are coming!!

TOTAL= 75 miles

MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE (-8h London)

(Walmart, Littleton)

JOUR 8:
Reveil sur le parking du Walmart a Littleton, direction la station d'Englewood pour prendre le train de Denver afin de passer la journee au centre ville. Il nous reste toujours a explorer le quartier principal (LoDo: Lower Downtown) ou traverse la plus grande rue commercante de la ville (16th Street Mall).
Pour bien commencer, nous descendons a la station Colfax se situant bien au Sud alors que nous etions sence descendre a Union Street.
Qu'a cela me tienne, cette erreur nous permettra de traverser le campus et d'emprunter le chemin de la riviere afin de rejoindre Union Station.
Apres s'etre emerveiller devant le décor interieur de la station, nous prenons la direction de Coors Field, qui nous offre une vue de la ville.
A la recherche d'un dispensaire nous nous retrouvons perdu dans un quartier inacheve et decidons de faire appel a Google Map qui nous apprend que nous sommes dans la mauvaise "Fox Street"; nom de rue ayant ete dupliquer.. Merci pour cette perte de temps et d'energie :p.
Afin de se reconforter nous bifurquons vers Blake Street dans l'espoir de trouver le bar aux 75 pressions et centaines de bieres bouteilles; Falling Rock Tap House.
Mission accomplie, apres une degustation de bieres locales, nous pouvons reprendre notre chemin avec le sourir aux levres..
Derniere exploration de la rue 16th et de ses divers commerces avant d'entamer une longue marche vers la station.
Nous voila de retour sur la route vers notre prochain campement qui se trouve sur la route 25, plus au Nord.

Un bon moment passe a Denver pretendant etre citadins comme avant ;D.
Mais maintenant la nature et les montagnes nous apellent. Prenez garde, nous voila!

TOTAL= 120km

MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE (-7h Paris)