Seattle to Denver

We slept well and were up before 6:00 and at breakfast soon after. That had us out and on the road ahead of our targeted 7:00. Traffic on the I-5 on a Saturday morning was light and we made good time south to Seattle.

There were exit signs directing us to the rental car facility but we needed to refuel so drove past a little way to the first service station. Pay at the pump required a zip code that would match my credit card but prior experience suggested the 5 digits it would insist on would not match the postcode associated with my card. I went inside, left my card, filled up, and went back to complete the transaction.

Car return was simple and we were quickly on a shuttle to the airport. We were very early and though we checked in and dropped our bags we did not have seat allocations on our boarding passes. This time we both came up with TSA preapproval so security was easy.

We waited at the gate until the agents arrived and we were able to get seat allocations confirmed. TripIt had sent me a message about a 20 minute flight delay while we were driving down so we had even more time to deal with email and the like than expected.

There were no further delays and we had a smooth flight to  Denver. When I activated my phone after landing I had a message from Peg about how to meet once we had our luggage. A couple more messages ensured the rendezvous after a train ride from our gate to baggage reclaim and a short walk to the pick up area. Peg and Dave soon arrived from the cell lot where they had been waiting in the car.

After warm greetings all round we were on our way with much conversation to fill the 45 minute ride to Littleton. We stopped along the way for 4:30 vigil mass at the parish where Peg and Dave attend. The church is undergoing major renovations so the nearby school gym is being used for Mass. The priest was surprisingly young, compared to most we see, and claimed to be a millennial. The congregation is also expanding. Something else quite different from home. 

Once home Peg and Dave showed us around their spacious townhouse. They have done substantial renovations to rearrange space to suit their needs. 

It is warm enough here (still 24°C at 9:30 pm) that we ate our tacos and salad with beers outside on the rear deck though after dark we came inside for dessert of strawberries and mango.

We tried a couple of times to call Simone and Harry for their birthdays, but with no luck. We did get to talk to Nick who was on his way home from the 10 km Sydney bridge run that he and Sophie had completed in the city.

The evening has been spent catching up with stories of family and travels. Peg and Dave are still adjusting after returning last week from a cruise in Europe so we will have a couple of days to acclimatise here at an altitude of about 5000 feet (1600 m) before they take us exploring further afield.