After waking up from an incredible night in Lawrence, Kansas, we said our goodbyes to our gracious hosts of Ample Branches and set off on our 9-hour trek to Denver.

Our directions were simple enough: take two turns, drive 500 miles, take another turn, and you’re in Denver.

Somehow I managed to take ZERO photos from the drive… but I think that was largely due to the fact that we were driving through the desolate expanse of Kansas and eastern Colorado.

It was dark and rainy by the time we arrived, but the city still looked glorious. Our first stop was a coffee shop to do some work and meet up with our beloved friend Nick, who recently moved to Denver from our Raleigh homeland. He was happy and looked great, other than the shoulder he managed to recently dislocate from his body which sort of leaves his right arm dangling. He enjoyed showing it to us repetitively as we drank our coffee.

We then headed to our temporary Colorado shelter, the home of the honorable Matt Slaby. Slaby is a Nordic viking who owns a beautiful house in the hills of Denver. He makes good photos and good wine. He has two cats, both affectionately named “Cat.” He currently has a fish bone stuck in his tonsil. He is also part-owner of Luceo Images, Tim’s photo collective.

We spent night one exploring Slaby’s basement, drinking Slaby’s homemade wine, playing Slaby’s guitars and piano, and harassing Slaby’s cats. A good night at Slaby’s indeed.



Day 2. Tim and Nick went to ride bikes around town, while I caught up on some work I needed to complete for grad school. I ate my first enjoyable salmon dinner of all time at a little Japanese dive, then headed to the venue in which we were supposed to meet up with Bowerbirds & Megafaun.

Well. Tonight’s show presented some complications.

1) Apparently this is some sort of music festival, which apparently justifies a $25.00 ticket price.
2) None of the bands were allowed a guest list.
3) Tim managed to sneak in while helping the Bowerbirds load, and found an extra arm band allowing him unlimited access. I did not.

So I decided that this show I would do without. $25.00 for a show that we have already seen in four states is a little out of my budget, as much as I would have loved to see then again. In addition, Tim was already in, so at least one of us could be collecting material for the blog.

So I went to drink apricot beer with Slaby on a patio elsewhere, where we discussed and exchanged our views on networking and marketing and overzealous wine descriptions.

I headed back to the venue once the show was over to hang out with the folks I had missed. We considered going out and finding some adventure with everyone, but we were a bit tired and wanted to save some money. So we all headed back to Slaby’s where we ended up drinking homemade strawberry wine and playing cards until 2 AM anyway.

Day 3. We woke up late, had one last epic battle with Slaby and his oversized weaponry, and headed on our way. Next stop: Utah.