We’re just leaving Omaha now, something like four or five hours behind schedule. The cool thing is that I don’t really care. No one is waiting for me in Chicago, and I’ve got plenty of things to do, not the least of which is watch the scenery go by...even if it is the flat land of Iowa.
Last night in Denver, I had a slight schedule change for the better! I knew there would be about an hour and a half layover in Denver, so I asked the station attendant in Grand Junction if she knew if the train station in Denver was near anything worth seeing, or at least a cafe to check e-mail, upload blog postings, etc. Her first reply was that Coors Field, where the baseball Rockies play, was only two blocks from the station; I didn’t hear another word she said. I had heard good things about Coors and with all of the other stadiums I was visiting on this trip, a quick peek at the outside of the field would fit right in.
When we were pulling into Denver, I could see flocks of people walking with baseball mitts and decked out in Rockies gear, a sure sign that there was a game that night. Even better--I’d be around the stadium in a real baseball atmosphere. The climax was when I went up to the station attendant in Denver and he answered my three questions: when would my train be departing (about two and a half hours late), what time did the Rockies game start (7 p.m., which also happened to be the current time), and could I still get cheap tickets (they had an abundance of $4 tickets released just before game time). Perfect. Now I just needed to figure out what to do with my bags. Thankfully, I had already befriended a mother-daughter pair that were traveling to Iowa and they had brought up the idea of one of us staying with all of our stuff while the other two went out to find dinner. I asked if they would be willing to stay with my stuff (at least one of them couldn’t go anywhere anyway) while I went to the game. They agreed, and I was off to Coors.
I got there just in time to see the sun set over the Rockies--from inside the stadium! It’s a beautiful park, with views of the mountains and downtown. After walking around for a half-hour taking pictures and getting dinner, I finally made it to my seat to watch the game. Four home runs, just in my five innings there--typical at Coors Field, where the outgoing winds and high elevation (my seats were almost exactly one mile above sea level) make it the most hitter-friendly park in the majors.
After the fifth inning, I ran back to the train station, only to find out that our train was delayed for another hour. But, the Iowa couple and I continued to chat and then wound up on the train next to each other. That’s one of the great things about train travel--meeting new people and carrying on conversations, something that just doesn’t happen on planes.
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