I"m watching "Our Souls at Night" with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda and they go to the Brown Palace hotel in Denver once owned by the "Unsinkable Molly Brown" of Titanic Fame. (she survived the sinking of the Titanic unlike many others. It reminded me of my wife and her friend and I staying there in 2010.
My wife and I took the Zephyr Train from near Berkeley, California to Denver in 2010 and we rented two staterooms aboard the Zephyr with 2 beds in each room with our own sink and bathroom and shower with our own window to look out of the train. The only problem for me is I couldn't sleep with the click clack going on all night so I busied myself by turning my blue light on my GPS finder on Google Maps to find out exactly where I was when I could get a signal across Nevada. in the middle of the night there would be power stations in Nevada with literally no houses or towns for miles in any direction so you would realize that the military was underground there logically. And you weren't too far from Area 51 which at that time was still being used for testing secret equipment for the military as well. But, now it's been closed down and moved to two other locations in Colorado and Utah because too many people were dying from whatever they were doing in Area 51 then.
So, we got to the Denver Train station and took a cab to the Brown Derby and my son who was studying for a college test came by from Fort Collins nearby and we drove up to Fort Collins together to meet his friend and his wife while he was staying there taking a credential test. Later we drove back together to California and my wife and her friend flew back.
My son and I drove south to Taos and then to Santa Fe but for some reason we both had a headache when we stayed in Santa fe, Maybe from the altitude in Taos combined with the 7100 feet in Santa Fe. I used to like to stay at the La Fonda which was there in 1965 and 1966 when I went to a private school in Santa Fe from October 1965 to the end of May 1966 when I graduated high school there.
I lived in Glendale, California then and had gone through my junior year to Glendale High school so this was my first year ever of Private school. It was much easier than public school in that I was the biggest strongest and tallest person at my private school so I was sort of a leader there and protected people from harm so it was a pretty easy job for me because of my nature.
But, in public school there were always knives and clubs and weapons and car clubs and gangs to worry about but mostly gangs didn't use guns then because it was thought low class to kill people with guns then.
So, private school was a whole different thing where I didn't have to use my wits to stay alive all the time like I did in public school.
Now it's even worse because more children have been killed in shootings in schools now than all the men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan put together that were or are soldiers.
WE found (my son and I ) that we were happier at lower altitudes like Pueblo Colorado and Winslow Arizona than at such higher places as Denver and Colorado Springs and Flagstaff and Santa Fe.
Denver is only 5000 feet or so but Colorado Springs, Flagstaff and Santa Fe are all around 7100 feet I think so you really notice the altitude there at first when you go there and many people get a headache at first if they aren't used to being or sleeping at altitude. Sleeping at altitude can be a problem for me sometimes. I learned this climbing San Gorgonio mountain at 11,000 plus feet when I was 17 near San Bernadino and Palm Springs. I began to throw up at around 10,000 feet sleeping and kept throwing up until I ran down to 8000 feet or so. So, I have always tried to sleep below 8000 feet ever since then and do my climbs to 14,000 feet or more during the days and descents the same days too.
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