On The Road Denver Edition: The 16th Street Mall Addendum

Dateline The Birthplace of Speed, Florida: September 4, 2011



On the last full day this olelongrooffan was in the Mile High City it occurred to me that I had picked up no Denver, Colorado souvenirs to return to the Sunshine State with me.  (Well other than the cool orange thing I got during this adventure.)



So I asked cribbs where I could find a cool ball cap or t shirt to snatch before this olelongrooffan vacated the Mile High City, possibly forever.

He suggested I take the nearby pedestrian bridge over to the 16th street mall in downtown Denver.



And I did.

In downtown Denver, and I am sure other cities as well, they have these rent a bike stations all over. You can rent a bike and ride it all over downtown and drop it at any of the 16 or so rental stations such as this one which are dispersed around the downtown business district. It's pretty cool.



Outside the JET Hotel, a cool old piece of architecture, one of many around the downtown area, I spotted the dress code for entry on the front window of this night spot.



And as always, another big *ss animal following me around.



The 16th Street Mall is a sweet outdoor mall that was bustling during that Tuesday lunch hour. It is closed to all vehicles except the free buses that traverse the 17 blocks that make up the mall.



It begins at the Platte River and extends to the State Capitol Building.



And in that 17 block stretch, there were no fewer than seven Starbucks, none of which were visited by this olelongrooffan that day.



I did, however, make it to this cool park I had driven around several times early on in my visit.



I also spotted this facility and it, along with the JET Hotel, reminded me of thejeepjunkie and I stopped to text him to remind him to pick me up at the airport the next day.



Out in front of the Sheraton Hotel were these



odd looking ballerina statuettes and I had to capture a couple images to share with those of you Counting Along With Me.



And, again, another large animal following me around.



There also were several old school pianos scattered around the mall and anyone with, or without, any piano playing skills were welcome to have a seat at those keyboards and do your best Ray Charles impression.



The is the marker on the 13th step on the west side of the Colorado State Capitol Building marking exactly 5,280 feet above sea level. I did wonder if that was at low or high tide but no one was around to answer my inquiry.



And this is the view looking to the west from 5,286 feet above sea level.



That park I mentioned I drove around several times earlier?  There was a beautiful flower garden in the center of it along with some huge brass statues of a cowboy and and Indian, each on their own horse. Lousy images though so they aren't included.



Do you think this olelongrooffan could do a blog without a reference to an automobile? Me neither. I spotted this Nissan Ford Transit fighter leaving an alley in the mall area. I had earlier blogged about this truck and it can be seen here.



More large animals following me around, once again.



As I was crossing over one of the bridges back to Filmore, I crossed over some active railroad tracks filled with coal laden train cars.



This is an image of the park between downtown and the Platte River. Incidentally, the building just to the left houses the McLaughlin House, one of the places frequented by cribbs and this olelongrooffan later that evening.



Just outside of it was this pretty cool sculpture that looked even cooler at nite with uplights illuminating it.



I gathered an image or two of some rapids on the Platte River as well as




a self portrait of this olelongrooffan standing on that bridge.



I also got this image as I was crossing Eisenhower's Highway System number 25. I wonder if it will be featured by Hemmings 50 years from now?

Now by this time this olelongrooffan would suspect those of you Counting Along With Me are wondering if I was able to locate a souvenir on the 16th Street Mall that day.

I can confirm a Denver, Colorado ball cap is resting comfortably on the front seat of the Indian awaiting its journey to Palm Beach Gardens later this afternoon.

But even better, if all ya'll remember the tragedy that was described here,



you will be happy to know this olelongrooffan got the Deal Of The Day on my replacement sandals and please join me and my new sandals as we

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Finale

Dateline Daytona Beach, Florida: September 2, 2011




Should one of these notices show up in the front window of a project you are working on, you know it is probably a good time to head to the beach.



But not before having three invoices such as this one presented to you and a buddy in one three hour stretch then



this dude, cribbs, decides we should stop at a liquor store for some red bull and vodka to tide us over the rest of the evening.



Well Counters, this olelongrooffan is finally back home in the Sunshine State. Thanks to cribbs for the drunkedness and the shuttle to the Denver airport and to thejeepjunkie for a late night pickup at the Daytona Beach airport.

And know this, now that this olelongrooffan is once again resting comfortably in the Taj Mahal, I am really able to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: An Unexpected Update

Dateline Denver, Colorado: August 24, 2011

So, this olelongrooffan is still in the Mile High City and things are rapidly progressing on the project which brings me here. 

Meanwhile, all four of my brothers are down in the Sunshine State dealing with yet another woman, this one in the form of Hurricane Irene. This olelongrooffan is really bummed that I am not there with them as I have Hurricane Supplies. Well, regardless of how famous and somewhat fatalistic the Bus is these days, I am sure we will all hook up once again.

Now this olelongrooffan asks for a bit of your indulgence here as I share yet another hurricane related story.

It was 1992 and the Hurricane was a dude known as Andrew, to my recollection, the last Category 4 hurricane the Sunshine State has seen. My not yet conceived daughter's Mom and this olelongrooffan were in France with some fantastic friends visiting a sister and her then husband. My Mom and several of her friends were down from the Sho-Me State enjoying our Naples home; thejeepjunkie and his family were living in the greater Fort Lauderdale area; and this olelongrooffan was in western France oblivious to the fact a Cat 4 hurricane was headed for south Florida. So Andrew decides to pay south Florida a visit and my Mom and friends head north to MickeyMouseLand to ride the storm out. thejeepjunkie and his family decided to evacuate to our home in Naples and end up partying like rock stars with my buddy Dr. Dudley and his family. I wake up that fateful day to my brother in law telling me a Cat 4 just hit South Beach and was heading towards my place in FantasyLand. Well, needless to say, this olelongrooffan was stressed more than Brad Keselowski with Carl Edwards on his tail. I mean my aged Mom and friends were in harms way, thejeepjunkie and his family were in the eye landfall area and no communications were available for me to contact them.

So what is an olelongrooffan to do? Well Counters, my doctor brother in law hooks me up with a couple little blue pills (I'm not talking Viagra here) and we four vacationers in that wonderful country caught that previously scheduled afternoon flight to Paris.

Yeah Counters that's right. I evacuated Hurricane Andrew to Paris, France. And know this olelongrooffan will forever tell the tale of how I evacuated Hurricane Irene to the Mile High City, no matter how premature that evacuation was.

Yeah, that's how I rock.

And that forbidden white masking tape was still on the windows of that home when I sold it!

Meanwhile back in Denver,



Big J spent the entire evening after his garage slab was poured spreading abundant amounts of H2O across it in an attempt to prevent the concrete from cracking.  So far success is showing its presence.



The next phase for his efforts was spraying out the interior of the Port Royal to evenly coat the fresh drywall with a base layer of paint.



Yeah, this olelongrooffan was able to capture yet another image of my feet during yet another image taking process.



During the same image taking process, I captured a shot of the window I had installed earlier.



Note the paint particulates in the air on this interior shot? Needless to say I beat it the h*ll out of there rather quickly I might add.



In the meantime, this olelongrooffan was out and about and captured these two beauties on Sheridan Street just around the corner. A '63 Ford longroof country sedan as well as a '65. The '65 is for sale for a mere twelve hundred bucks. Good thing for all of us that twelve hundred bucks is not in my possession on this road trip.



So after the fumes had cleared it is now time to for Big J to lay down his first ever floor tiles.



And, much to his, and my, pleasure that experience was an extreme success. Laundry room done, now on to the kitchen.



And that kitchen will be painted one of these colors prior to that flooring being installed.



Meanwhile out back a super huge garage is being installed and I don't believe these garage framers suspected they were going to be on a tree trimming crew before it was all over. But that worm drive circular saw works excellent as a chain saw.



Two white guys got the roof raised and the sheathing on the rafters in less than two days.



Yeah, room for Big J's BMW X5, girlie's Volvo X70 and my current Denver based Taj Mahal inside Big J's only requirement for his new Port Royal. Pics on Saturday!

Now if those of you Counting Along With Me will note, all of this construction based activity is super fantastic as it allows this olelongrooffan to return to the hurricane laden Sunshine State to resume some of my previous activities and I sure look forward to it once this project has come to fruition.

But if you have, in fact, been Counting Along With Me, you will remember the sighting of these two old cars that reminded me of my Dad, TheGentlemanFarmer, just a few short weeks ago, also here in the Mile High City.

Well, on my return from yet another visit to the big box retailer that loves the number 48 NASCAR racing team, this olelongrooffan spotted this



lovely offering at the intersection of Pecos and 38th street, just a few blocks from Port Royal.

And the fact this olelongrooffan was able to spot the very same old Mercury ragtop driven by a youngish bearded and pony tail bearing dude with his even more youngish daughter in the passenger seat really allows this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.

On The Road Denver Edition: The Anatomy Of A Colorado Concrete Slab

Dateline Denver, Colorado:  August 18, 2011

As those of you who have been Counting Along With this olelongrooffan will remember I am spending some time here in the Mile High City working with some buds, no pun intended, renovating their new to them home.



And if you happened to have read my last blogpost, you will remember this is what the backyard of the Port Royal looked like after someone had stolen that Teva filled dumpster.



Well Counters, yesterday afternoon at about Japanese Dental Appointment, you know tooth-hurty, this bobcat comes rolling around the corner from the alley out back and commenced to tearing that formerly nearly pristine backyard all to h*ll.



As you can see in the previous image the subsurface of that backyard was filled with all sorts of junk, chunks of concrete, asphalt and I don't know what all. But there was no septic tank! Once that skilled skid steer operator had reached clean soil, those no longer needed dump trucks were dispatched elsewhere and the backyard was then set at two distinct levels. One level was recessed for the garage slab and the other was set at nearly the preexisting elevation and set aside for the outdoor living area of the yard.



The operator of that skid steer then attached this device and penetrated the earth around the perimeter of the slab location to loosen the soils so he could then



dig the footer portion of this monolithic slab with the bucket of that Bobcat.  This olelongrooffan has most recently seen this same feat performed with shovels by a crew filled with individuals of the Manuel Labor persuasion.



Once those footers were excavated, the form boards and grade stakes were installed.



Seeing this guy on his hands and knees using a 2 x 4 as a rake to even out this subgrade reminded me of a great story.

Go ahead and refresh that cocktail...I am.... then on with that memory.

And here it is.

Around about eleven or twelve years ago, sh*t, this olelongrooffan is getting old, anyway I was living down in FantasyLand and looking for a new place to hang my hat. That Sunday I was hanging with an old friend and meeting some new friends at their pool in a swanky area of town. Some of my new friends, Terry and Debbie, were getting buzzed as we all were and were bummed out as they had to leave to show "The Little House" to some potential tenants. We started talking about the Miami style bungalow they owned adjacent to their "Big House" and it sounded extremely desirable to me. I mentioned I would be interested in renting it from them and the pool party continued on in full blown mode.

Anyway, I ended up getting that place, cleaned it up, painted it with some design assistance of my at the time girlfriend and it turned out super cool, if I do say so myself. At the time I was working for a pretty high end building contractor and we had a model home on our hands that had been around for a while.  We found a buyer for this multi million dollar home but the buyer wanted a different paver brick driveway installed. My boss balked at the $5,000 cost but finally relented so we could move on from that spider web filled model home.

Those pavers? Well they ended up in the front yard of "The Little House" awaiting installation. Terry finally got around to finding an installation crew comprised of a bunch of Manuel Labor's friends. As they were installing those paver bricks, the lead guy used a machete to sharpen a carpenter's pencil to mark some cuts on those bricks.

Terry looks over at this olelongrooffan and made the comment, "A Mexican Utility Knife." To this day we still call a machete that and we laugh about it every time we see each other.

Well Counters, you have seen, in the above image, a Mexican Yard Rake. And like that utility knife, this olelongrooffan will never look at a four foot long 2 x 4 the same ever again.

Now you know why I mentioned you should refresh your cocktail for that story.

And finally after that diversion it's time to get back to The Anatomy Of A Colorado Concrete Slab.



So the slab area was prepped and the the wire mesh installed in an attempt to prevent future cracking.



The footer preparation is a bit different than this Sunshine State based olelongrooffan is used to but it appears to be effective here in this climate.



So in the meantime, this olelongrooffan had to run an errand and while out and about a 65 Ford F250 stepside was spotted out in the wild. All ya'll can read more about that sighting here.



Shortly after my return to Port Royal, the slab inspector showed up and approved the efforts provided by Manuel Labor and his crew and now it's time to



hang with Carroll Shelby's infamous creation.



The foreman of the concrete finish crew showed up and started watering down the dry soils we have here in the Mile High City as there has been no rain here since the first couple weeks this olelongrooffan arrived.



Got Concrete?



The crew to finish the concrete was running a bit tardy



so the concrete truck drivers started filling those footers with that rapidly hardening, in the truck, mix.



The finish crew finally showed up and got the job done and we now



are ready to get some walls up on that garage and that is an excellent reason for all of us here at the Port Royal to

Celebrate Life.