Denver, CO

I like Denver. From what I've seen of it--and probably it isn't representative--it's a clean city. The people I've met are friendly, and the surrounding areas seem to fit together nicely. All in all, if I had to live some place other than where I currently live, this wouldn't be a bad choice.

Here's some interesting stuff about Denver, taken from a little pamphlet that came in my conference materials:

• Denver has 300 days of annual sunshine [not the best written blurb, but it's pleasant info]
• Denver is the second most educated city in the United States [anybody know what city's first?]
• There are 200 named peaks visible from Denver, including 32 that soar to 13,000 feet and above

Like Johnson City where I live, Denver isn't actually in the mountains with which it's so closely associated. It's up against them but not in them. It's actually on the high plains. In their movie, Dumb and Dumber could have easily said of Denver (what they said of Kansas, thinking it was Colorado), "Man, that John Denver is full of shit!" But unlike in Kansas, here you have only to look northwest and west to see that 140-mile-long panorama of mountains.

I like my hotel. It's a neat place called The Curtis. Check it out at http://www.thecurtis.com/. I'm on the 9th floor and from my window I can see the northern part of that mountain panorama.

Although not completely mended, I'm feeling much better. Hopefully my drive home this weekend will be much better than the drive here was.