Tap the Rockies

The weekend passed far too quickly, and soon I found myself back in the familiar daze of airports, hotels, and strange meeting rooms. Since no one really cares about a 1 hour IAH-DFW, let’s pick up at when I deplaned at DFW. Fortunately, my flight from Houston arrived very near the C23 Admirals Club and my flight to Denver was departing out of the C Terminal as well. I had sprained my knee trying to catch a pop fly in a pickup game of softball the day before, so I wasn’t too keen walking long distances. Getting injured doing what used to be routine seems to be more and more common since I turned 25 a few short years ago, further reinforcing my theory of it’s all down after the big two five.

There was a bit of a wait as the lounge dragon was denying access to a couple who had thought their DFW-LGA First Class ticket was good enough for lounge access. Soon enough I was relaxing in the pleasant and spacious club. Since I had overslept, my girlfriend hastily dropped me off at the airport just 45 minutes before departure thus I had missed out on breakfast. So I grabbed some yogurt covered pretzels and a latte from the Nescafe machine. That would tide me over until lunch on board.







I left the club a few minutes earlier than usual, to allow my gimpy ol self some extra time to make it to the gate, C4. The gate area was abuzz with activity when I got there, with gate lice starting to amass in the boarding lanes and the gate agents calling processing standbys and last minute upgrades. Luckily for me, my upgrade cleared at the EXP window so no gate angst for me today. Down on the tarmac, the rampers and caterers were busy readying the Mad Dog that would be taking us 641 miles northwest to Denver.



While most passengers dislike the aging MD-80 series, it’s one of my favorite narrow bodies in American’s fleet. Seats on the MD-80s are generally better padded than those on the 737s, and the 2-3 configuration in coach makes spending time behind the curtain much more pleasant. No IFE? No problem for me at least. I’m generally catching up on work or reading on most flights anyways. I’ll admit after my first flight on a MD-80, I absolutely hated it because I was seated right in front of the noisy engines. After I figured how to consistently sit in front of the wing, I realized it’s a fairly quiet and pleasant ride.

American Airlines 379
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) – Denver (DEN)
Depart: 11:40 AM
Arrive: 12:40 PM
Aircraft: McDonnell Douglas DC-9-83
Seat: 5F (First Class)

The flight was absolutely packed to gills in both cabins. I was actually the first one to board as one of the friendly gate agents noticed my knee brace and brought me in front of the line. As I settled into my seat, the gentleman seated in 5B came in and was having a heated conversation via his cell phone. Apparently the person he was talking to “spit in his face” and that person is going to “pay for it one way or another.” I’m glad I’m not the person on the other end of that call. Fortunately, things quieted down after he hung up.

In sharp contrast to the FA on my JFK-IAH flight the previous week, this FA was absolutely fantastic. Open bar PDB service was offered despite boarding late, and the FA repeatedly swam against the flood of boarding passengers to make and serve drinks. As we pushed back, she greeted everyone by name and either took meal orders or confirmed pre-orders, only sitting down just before we taxied into position on the runway. Our departure runway that day was Runway 31. Since 2009, I’ve averaged about 60 flights in and out of DFW each year. As far as I can remember, each of those flights departed or landed on either the 17/35 or 18/36 runways. Therefore, this is likely the first time I’ve ever been on this particular runway.

After a brief hold, the brakes were released and we were airborne after a length take off roll. It was a beautiful, clear, and sunny day which meant nice views of the suburbs of Colleyville and Trophy Club as well as Grapevine Lake for those looking out of the window.



The smell of nuts being warm wafted through the cabin signaling the commencement of inflight service. Soon enough, the FA began distributing ramekins of warm nuts along with each passenger’s beverage of choice. Instead of my usual G&T, I had ordered a Bloody Mary to enjoy with my warm nuts. Refills were offered just T. Boone Pickens’ wind farms and the red dirt of Oklahoma came into view.



Entrees were delivered soon after. Since this flight was a snack flight, a choice of two cold options was offered. Today’s options were curry chicken wrap or the salmon salad, the same as my ORD-DCA flight a few weeks ago. Since I had the chicken curry wrap last time, I preordered the salmon salad. It was a rather a good sized portion of salmon on a bed of greens with diced mangos, which went well with the slightly sweet Asian Sesame dressing. Despite the somewhat strange color of the salmon, it was pretty tasty.



A choice of chocolate chip or cranberry oatmeal cookies were offered for dessert, which I declined. Service didn’t stop after the cookie plates were collected, as our FA kept topping off drinks well into our decent. I made sure to give her an AAplause certificate on the way out. We pulled into the gate just a few minutes later than scheduled. It was a bit of a hike to baggage claim, but it gave me a chance to admire the attractive main terminal of Denver International Airport.



Bags hit the belt just as I got to baggage claimed. Priority tags worked as my bag was the first to hit the belt. Woot! Am I living a semi charmed life or what?

My string of good timing continued as my coworker, whom I’m good friends with, called me to let me know he had arrived. Since he is an avid biker, he elected to drive up from Dallas so he could take his bike along without much extra expense. Instead of getting another rental car, I opted to be a good corporate steward and ride with him. We spent the 70 miles between DIA and Fort Collins catching up as we hadn’t crossed paths in quite a while. We headed straight to our hotel, the Marriott Fort Collins.



Since most of our work travel takes us to small towns, we were quite pleased to have a full service hotel so we could take full advantage of our respective Gold and Platinum statuses. Interestingly, my coworker who is Gold got an upgrade to a suite, while I, as a Platinum, got assigned a standard room on the club floor. However I had a nice view of the mountains view, so I’d say I came out ahead. The Marriott Fort Collins is an older property, but has been recently renovated and the rooms were updated to standard comfortable Marriott fare.







The hotel had a small but very pleasant club lounge. The offerings were very good for a North American property. Breakfast included scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, oatmeal, as well as an assortment of pastries, toast, and fruit. The evening spread included one hot dish, which included pasta, roast pork, and jambalaya during my stay, in addition to soup, cold cuts, cheese, vegetables, and dessert. It was all quite tasty. I had an opportunity to chat with the head chef of the hotel one evening. In his words, the club lounge offerings before he came were pure crap and he was absolutely appalled by it. He takes pride in everything he does, and revamped the offerings to what they are now. And it certainly showed. I also ate at the hotel restaurant a couple of times over the course of my stay. While pricey, the food was quite good especially for hotel food. If there’s one thing anyone must try on the menu, it’s the green chili pork gravy. The slow heat of chili and flavorful chunks of pork went very well with a buttermilk biscuit.

Overall, it was a very nice two week stay. While the facilities were quite nice for the most part, what set the hotel was their great staff. They were all very friendly, attentive, and genuinely caring. I would definitely not hesitate to return to the hotel the next time I’m in Fort Collins.

I had originally planned to rent a car and make the 6 hour drive to Mount Rushmore over the weekend. Then came the government shutdown, which closed down all national parks. But that was a moot point, as the first large snow storm of the season was forecasted to dump up to three feet of snow in the Black Hills. That forecast would have made even the most experienced winter weather driver pause, let alone this lifelong southern boy. Fortunately, I was in Fort Collins. I’m sure I could find plenty to do with the nearby university, mountains, and the breweries. Oh yeah! The breweries.

Due to the multitude of breweries in located in the area, many people refer to this area of Colorado as the Napa Valley of beer. Eager to find out first hand if the area lives it up to it’s reputation, my friend and I rounded up a couple more of our coworkers and headed out immediately after work on Friday to the Left Hand Brewing Company brewery, located less than an hour away in Longmont.







The bar area was moderately busy when we got there. However, we made good use of our time at Left Hand, having several delicious flights of beer apiece. Every beer we tried was very good, but the one beer we all agreed was the best was the Milk Stout. It was deliciously smooth and just slightly sweet. My friend and I both picked up a 6 pack a piece before leaving. Fortunately, Left Hand began distributing in Texas earlier in 2013, and I located a bar that sells it in Dallas. Now I can get my fix any time I want.

Time flies with good beer and good people, and before we knew it last call came. We headed back to the hotel, where we headed to the bar in the lobby. It was teeming with activity as the hotel was hosting a magic convention that weekend. Needless to say there were a bunch interesting characters, with whom we had rather interesting conversations on the mechanics of tricks illusions over multiple schooners of 90 Schilling. We finally retired for the night after closing down the bar a little after midnight.