Help! Mother Nature won't let me leave Denver!
I’m on assignment out on the Front Range. If you’re wondering where and what the Front Range is, well, let’s just call it the heck-frozen-over place where Jody gets stuck in snowy conditions for hours and hours and hours upon end while trying to travel back to Utah from Wyoming and Colorado.
Last fall, I sat in a car with three D-News employees on blizzard-battered I-80 in Wyoming for six hours without budging an inch — the whole trip home took three times that long. It could’ve been worse. I could’ve had to stay another day in Laramie.
Today, I’m stuck in the Denver International Airport with co-worker Tim Buckley, now going on Hour No. 6, after my flight was canceled after this area got pummeled by 14 inches of snow. The next flight leaves (hopefully) in about four hours.
Guess it could be worse.
I could be forced to watch the Jazz play the fourth quarter of their season-opening loss over and over again.
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Spending a day in the airport isn’t the highlight of this season-opening trip, though.
After filing our stories Tuesday night, Tim and I went to a truck stop. P.S. It wasn’t for the public showers they kept talking about on the loud speaker. Rather, it was for the culinary experience known as Popeye’s Chicken.
It was my mouth’s maiden voyage in that fine fried-chicken fast-food dining establishment and to borrow Eric Maynor’s quote on playing against Deron Williams in practice every day: “WOW!”
One No. 2 meal later, consider me a big fan of their spicy chicken, cajun rice and buttery biscuits.
That has absolutely nothing to with the Jazz, of course. But I’m bored in this airport, and daydreaming of another similar palate-pleasing adventure just killed 10 minutes of the 3-plus hours that remain until my flight leaves (hopefully).
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Other random trip musings:
- Laughed while finding out that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will sing the national anthem at the Jazz game Friday after the Nuggets opened up with The Fray’s Isaac Slade for the Star-Spangled Banner and Naughty by Nature at halftime.
- Laughed even harder watching Nuggets fans show their support for Chris “Birdman” Andersen. Hundreds of people at the Pepsi Center flapping their arms to get on the scoreboard video screen falls somewhere between hilarious, wacky and cool. Not sure quite where, though. It did remind of the classic sports movie “Angels in the Outfield.” Maybe “Birds in the Box Seats” can be a sequel?
- Shook my head during the Jazz-Nuggets game between quarters. The video screen showed photoshopped clips of the infamous silver mylar balloon that took flight in these parts a couple of weeks ago. Only this time, the balloon was floating above Niagara Falls, the Statue of Liberty, the Grand Canyon and other various landmarks.
Then, a silver balloon started floating (thanks to some heavy wires) from the top of the Pepsi Center. The announcer kept proclaiming that a 6-year-old boy named Falcon (a.k.a. Balloon Boy) was aboard the balloon and a fake police officer frantically watched it descend.
The thanks-for-trying-but-FAIL routine ended with the Nuggets’ mascot, Rocky, who’s not a 6-year-old kid, bursting out of the balloon.
Rim shot please.
Not that I’m a skit director, but it could’ve been more fun had we all been instructed to flap our arms like a falcon or Birdman.
- The lovely view of Wal-Mart outside my hotel window was about all the scenery of Colorado that I got. (It made me laugh, too, because only the “Mart” part lit up at night – maybe they’re hurting for cash because too many kids have been stealing D-Will posters out of magazines like the Wal-Mart I visited in Riverton last week. Or something.)
- Requested a wake-up call at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday at the hotel so I could join the fun boys on “The John and Hans Show” on 1280AM that morning. Got a bonus wake-up call at exactly 4:53 a.m. from somebody in Utah who’s number is 801-388-(must resist putting final four digits, dangit!). Thanks for that!
- Watched a “Walker, Texas Ranger” re-run for a while without having a certain significant other request that I change the channel. Heaven!
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Well, back to counting snowplows on the runway.