Parker, Colorado

Sushi in Parker.

In the afternoon I left Colorado Springs, heading up a main highway to a small town outside Denver called Parker. A guy named Jake who I met in Boise owned a house there, and offered me a place to stay on my way through. I'm too cheap to refuse, plus staying with a local would be a welcome change from all the hotels.

Jake had a really nice house, it was kind of the classic American home in classic American suburbia. I'm not sure what made it so American; Maybe the architecture? Or the street layouts with actual green grass everywhere? Or the American flags flying out the front? Anyway, I was staying in Jake's basement, but it was a really sweet setup, Jake had converted it into a "man cave" of sorts, with a flatscreen TV, carpet and couches. Plus I had my own bathroom! The setup was better than some of the hotels I'd stayed at.

Jake took me to an awesome sushi place that night, which was some of the best sushi I've had. Mind you, unless you want to spend a whole shitload of money, good sushi is hard to find back home. Anyway after we had a few Sakes we headed to a local bar, got drunk on cheap beer and cinnamon whiskey (not my thing, a bit like mouthwash) and headed home.

Beer sampler I had at the Microbrewery in Parker.

The next few days were pretty chill at Jake's. I needed some time to do some washing and organize my couch surfing profile. I decided to give couch surfing a go so I could meet more locals on my trip without the need to get fucked up with them at the local bars. Also it would be a pretty good way to save money, which I'm all for.
Jake was kind enough to cook me dinner for 2 nights, ribs one night and sloppy joes the next - two American staple foods! Both were pretty awesome, the ribs were fantastic. They take hours to prepare though, in a croc pot for 4 hours then into a smoker for an hour or so more. Really fucking tasty though, served with potato salad and watermelon (yeah not just a dessert food). Jake just happened to be an ex-chef, which was pretty awesome from my point of view.

Me trying to look like a hardass with my
pansy-ass PBR.

Jake, Jake's roommate Levi, one of Jake's friends and I all headed out one other to a local brewery who did some pretty awesome beers. Microbreweries are really popular in Colorado, not quite as much as in Oregon, but they are starting to spring up everywhere. Even Jake (who had to remove some beer making equipment from his shower before I moved in) was thinking about starting a microbrewery at some stage. By the way, a great American pastime along with shooting animals and paper images of Zombie Bin Laden is to brew your own beer. But not how us Australians do it - they tend to make it from the raw ingredients like barley and hops. Pretty hardcore stuff.

After the microbrewery, we all headed to a dive bar that I had to see as part of my American experience, according to Jake. It was actually not a bad bar, I've been to far worse in Australia (South Pacific Rugby Club, Shooters) all of which would feel way more unsafe than any place I've been in America so far. The awesome thing about this bar is that you were allowed to smoke and could actually buy decent cigars from a little wooden cupboard in the back. Apparently there are quite a few "Cigar Bars" in Denver, some of which are pretty classy. I wish we had that back home, as much as I don't miss smelling like cigarette smoke when I got back from the bar, it'd be pretty awesome to sit down with a few friends to drink whiskey and smoke cigars. It'd also make an awesome start to a bucks night I'd think.

Jake and Jake's friend. Fuck I suck at names.

One day whilst staying with Jake I did head up into Denver. On the way there I wasn't wearing a motorcycle jacket. However an unanticipated side effect of this (apart from injury - please spare me the lectures) was that at about 65 miles an hour my t-shirt kept creeping up showing from the wind, showing my pasty white skin to all the other drivers! 

So having had enough of trying to keep my shirt down, I decided to pull over and stick my motorcycle jacket on. When I re-entered the highway, I got pulled over by a cop. Following Josh's advice on cops, I took my helmet off and sat on the bike waiting for the cop to approach. I just apologized to him, telling the officer that I wasn't exactly sure what I did wrong (which was the truth by the way). Turns out I used the wrong entry lane to the highway, not like it was going the wrong direction but from where I was entering it was incorrect. Luckily the cop was a nice guy and let me off seeing that I didn't do it on purpose and I was just an ignorant Australian.
Here I was expecting the cop would push me to the ground and taze me, then throw me in jail for weeks without charge. Why would reddit lie to me like that? Turns out that cops are pretty cool here (at least in Denver).

My favorite piece in the
Denver Art Museum.

After getting back on the highway, I headed to the Denver Art Museum. They had some pretty sweet art there, and even though I'm not a big art fan, I had a good time. If nothing else it's so relaxing to walk around quiet air conditioned galleries while it's 37 degrees outside. I thought the best floor was the one dedicated to western art as it was something I'd never seen before. Apparently a lot of the old west movies are based on the ideas presented in old western art. The West was never really like that (gun fights at noon etc.), but the painters had to pimp up their artwork so it would sell to people who were fascinated by the idea of the West.

Mary Kay - my first couch host who was taking me in the next day - had invited me out to Washington Park to go see her team play volleyball. So after I saw the Art museum and got dinner, I rode down to the park. There were lots of volleyball games going on, the field was full of about 50 courts. And although I thought I located Mary Kay from her descriptions, it felt pretty creepy to just sit there watching strangers play, so I wandered around the park to try and get some good photos. Later on it got a bit dark and Mary Kay was still playing, so I had to apologize to her via text and leave - I did not want to ride in the dark and cold back to Parker. Especially given my fuck up earlier that day!

The next day I organised some stuff and basically chilled watching Mythbusters back at Jake's place. I also went out and bought him some more cereal, I felt guilty that I ate all of his! I just took a chill day because I knew that I was not really going to be able to relax in such a nice place for the next few weeks.

Sunset at Washington Park, Denver.