The Hall of Fame (Denver, Day 0)
Day 0: We have decided to call the day before our actual trip day 0, because Nick is a programmer, and frankly, that’s how programmers count. And there’s nothing you can do about it. MUHAHAHAHA! Ok, anyway, so welcome to Leg 4 of Team Hemophilia, with Nick, Shelly, Dorothy, and Romero. Dorothy, Nick, and I arrived at the Denver airport Sunday night, August 17th. Nick’s flight came in first, so he kindly waited for Dorothy and me–for two hours! What a trooper!
We all took a cab to the Denver chapter, and met Lakesha, who was really awesome. When we arrived, our driver and go-to guy, Romero, (who by the way is also very, very cool) had already started the grill and was cooking like a pro. We had two families joining us for the cookout. We all raced to get in line first, because, as we discovered, the three of us are (not so) secretly fatties. We like food–A LOT. We ate like kings (and queens, let’s not be sexist), which was great because I skipped breakfast. Airport food is not my bag, baby.
After we ate, we put on some educational programming for the teens. We did some icebreaker games to learn everyone’s names, we did some trust activities, we did some team-building activities, and then we wrapped up with some discussion and M & M’s. I would have to say one of my favorite moments (and I really shouldn’t be laughing at this) was doing “Willow in the Wind”–a game in which Nick stood in the center of the room, and everyone else formed a tight circle around him and had to pass him carefully around the circle. The first time we did it, he got dropped, which could have been a really bad situation, but one of the moms jumped out and grabbed him and cushioned his fall. In the debrief, I asked Nick what it felt like to trust others, and he said, “Well, I trusted everyone until they dropped me. At first, there was a lot of ‘ooh’ and ‘whoa’ going on, and then an ‘oh no’ right before my head hit the ground.” Whoops! Overall, we had a really great group. Since it was smaller, we got through the activities relatively quickly, but it allowed for better discussion. We took lots of pictures! And we will continue to do so throughout our trip. One of the last activities we did involved the families building tall structures out of tape, paper clips, pipe cleaners, and straws. The goal was to create the tallest structure possible. When it was time for the families to go, one mother asked, “What will you guys do with our supplies?” I didn’t want her to feel bad, so I unflinchingly responded, “We will put them in the….hall of fame,” (meaning the garbage can). Nick proceeded to respond, “Yes, and we shall light it on fire…wait, why is the hall of fame on fire?” You had to be there, I guess!
After everyone left, we said goodbye to Lakesha, and then we headed to our hotel in the Team Hemophilia bus. It was a very short trip, because it was only blocks away. We had these sweet suites, where when you open the door you see this huge emtpy space, and you think, “They forgot to give me a bed, where’s my bed?” Then, you walk into the actual room and to the left is a large bed and a bathroom, and to your right is a small dining area, kitchen, and balcony. Not a bad deal! We checked out our cool rooms, and then Nick and I were hungry again, so we decided to venture out and find some grub nearby. Well, we didn’t find any grub, but we did find food. We ate at a restaurant-bar across the street called Charlie Brown’s. We thought we got lost trying to find it (sad, I know) with Nick’s GPS, but we realized we just walked right passed it. We went inside, and discovered that it was karaoke night! And so, naturally, I made Nick sit in the karoke room. One song was particularly a good one, but nearly unrecognizable, because the dude attempting to sing it had butchered it so much! I, after having ingested two nonalcoholic kiddie cocktails, got up and sang “Torn,” by Natalie Imbruglia. Fun times! Nobody laughed or booed me off the stage, so that was a good sign. Then, we returned to the hotel and headed to bed around 10:30pm. We had to leave by 7am to start our amazing road trip! It had been a great day, and the adventure had barely begun. Stay tuned!