Day 27

Day twenty - seven, August 4, 2011

For the first time on our trip thus far we had nothing planned today, so we laid in bed and watched TV all morning.  I was thankful for this decision because of my bed bug incident the night before.  However, before I was able to relax and watch TV I did have to get up and take a very long shower because I was still a little grossed out. 

Once we decided it was time to get up, we referred to Rob's "Road Food" book to find out if there were famous restaurants in Denver.  We decided on a place called Buckhorn Exchange.  This restaurant is holder of Colorado Liquor License No. 1 (1893).  It is outfitted with a few museums' worth of antique firearms and furniture, and hung with a menagerie of some five hundred game animal trophies, all of which were shot by former owner Shorty Zietz.  While the animals hanging all over the walls of this restaurant are very interesting what makes this place even more interesting is that Buffalo Bill was said to be a regular customer here!  Of the course this place wasn't only about the ambiance, Rob said that his buffalo burger was the best burger he has ever had!

Somehow the topic of liquor and beer came up at lunch. Rob began talking about how Coors is the beer of the Rookie Mountains and is brewed here in Colorado.  He became curious and wanted to learn more about where exactly this happened.  During his online investigation at lunch he realized that the Coors brewery was only about 20 minutes away and they give free tours all day.  We finished up lunch and headed to the Coors headquarters in Golden, Colorado.

The Coors Brewery in Golden is the world's largest single brewery! It was established by Adolph Coors in 1873, Coors was the third-largest brewing company, with brands that include Coors, Coors Light, Killians Red, Zima, and Keystone.  They have since been bought out by Miller and are now called Miller Coors.  The tour we took provided an in depth overview of the beer making process.  After the tour you could visit their lounge where you could sample their products!  Some of the samples we consumed included, Blue Moon Summer Honey Wheat, Colorado Native, Killians Red Logger, and Batch 19.  Batch 19 was actually a market product that they were allowing people to sample.  It's recipe was an original that dated back to before the time of Prohibition. So this was a popular choice by most!  

While we were on the Coors bus that would bring us back to the car, a couple across from us was talking about how they were attending the Rookies game tonight.  Rob and I thought that we purchased tickets in every city where a home team was playing.  So we were not sure why we did not purchase tickets to the Rookies game.  The game would be starting in about an hour and the stadium was rather close so we decided to take a ride down to the box office and see if there were any tickets available.  While we were standing in line at the box office there were a group of men behind us yelling $5 tickets for behind home plate.  I was very skeptical so I stayed in line while Rob went over to check out these $5 tickets.  The game had started 5 minutes earlier but still $5 seemed a little too good to be true.  Rob decided to take a gamble and trust Jeff.  He bought the tickets and with fingers crossed we walked up to the ticket collector.  They were legit!  We were in for $5 a piece!

 Once again the stadium didn't disappoint.  We were both impressed by how nice Coors Field was.  We especially liked the outfield. In center field there was a beautiful fountain surrounded by Evergreens and Spruces.  Next to this lovely landscape were the bullpens.  The unique part about these bullpens were that fans were able to stand right above them and watch pitchers as they warmed up.  Every once in a while the bullpen coach or catcher would even toss up a ball or two to the fans.  As we continued to walk around the entire field we were really impressed with how much there was offered for fans to do during the game.  There were batting cages, speed pitch, and other games to play.  There was also a lot of fan participation in between innings.  For example, one time a guy stood out in left field and had 20 seconds to run to second base, put a new base in, and then run off the field past first base.  Another guy was chosen to stand in left field and try to catch two fly balls.  All in all we were impressed with their fan relations!
 
The game itself was also very exciting.  The Colorado Rookies were playing the Washington Nationals.  The Nationals took an early 1 0 lead after the first.  It was not until the fourth inning that the Rookies tied up the game.  They eventually took a 6 1 lead into the 9th inning.  The Rookies closer came in and made it exciting.  He gave up 2 runs and still with men on was finally able to lock down a win for his team.  The Rookies won the game 6 to 3.  For a day where we had nothing planned, this turned out to be a pretty great day!  Now let's only hope there won't be any flys in our room and that I will finally get a good night sleep. Peace, love, and happiness, the Nomads!