We arrived at Prospect RV Park in Denver. Naomi has left for the first day at the JSM conference at the convention center. In the mornings I usually stay behind at the RV doing dishes, catching up on email, reading, watching a movie, and working on reinforcement learning. In the afternoon I catch the 44 bus to downtown Denver.
The bus system is setup well. There is a stop not far from the RV park. You buy tickets with an app and just show the driver your phone. Our bus was frequently used by people in wheelchairs and people on bikes. Everyone is usually quiet and doing their own thing except one day a grandmother, the father, and two little daughters got on the back of the bus and started singing the wheels on the bus song for about half an hour. But nobody said anything which I was surprised about. When somebody gets off the bus, they always thank the bus driver, even when leaving by the back door. I’ve never seen this before, but admittedly I don’t ride buses often. Naomi was surprised too.
I love bookstores, so one day I changed buses in downtown and traveled near the zoo to Tattered Cover bookstore east of downtown. It’s an enormous space with a huge wooden bookshelf on 3 levels with an open pit for reading in the middle of the main level. It reminded me of what a library at Hogwarts would look like. They have two staircases to the lower level and on both sides of the stairs are pictures of all the famous writers that have stopped at the store to read and sign their books. It’s very impressive. They also have a cafe, bathrooms, and sitting areas. If there were beds I think I could live there.
Usually downtown I would would up and down the 16th street pedestrian mall doing people watching and window shopping. There are some interesting homeless people on the street. One person had a white rag with THAT printed on one side he would put out. When people walked by, he would say “Don’t step on that”, which got people’s attention. He also offered to do a headstand for 25 cents.
One day I got off the bus early, where a river runs through Denver just north of downtown. People were having a great time there kayaking, swimming, walking dogs, biking on trails, etc. It was a sight I usually see at a park outside town, not in the middle of a large city. I was impressed with how clean the water is and also how much the people enjoyed outside activities in the middle of a large city.
One evening we met our friend Maddy downtown for dinner at the Rio Grande restaurant. The margaritas were strong, conversation flowed, and we had a great time during dinner talking with her. It’s wonderful that she’s doing so well and I’m glad we had a chance to see her.