The Traveling Widower

Tag: Colorado

  • A Visit to Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience!

    Fossilized skull of a Tyrannosaurus rex showcasing large teeth and intricate bone structure.

    July 28th, 2026

    What? Van Gogh painted T-Rex skulls? Really?

    Just kidding. Read on.

    The Van Gogh exhibit has been traveling around the country for years, and I have always wanted to see it. I had an appointment back at Fallraven in the late morning, with their tailor to adjust a pair of pants, and the place hosting the exhibit was relatively close by. I checked for tickets, and it seemed wide open, so after I was done with the tailor, I cruised on over planning to just buy a ticket when I got there. There were some people standing by the entrance when I got there, staring at their phones. As I approached the doors, one person said the doors were locked. Hmmm. They already had tickets, and were looking a bit unhappy. I knocked on doors a few times, but no answer. Someone checked on the website again, and discovered that the exhibit was closed today – no shows at all. That was not indicated earlier in the day. Bummer. I’m glad I did not purchase a ticket in advance.

    I have learned the past three years to just go with the flow instead of getting ticked off. No harm done, so I just looked for something else to do. I have not been to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature in about, oh, forty or so years, and I recalled they had a great dinosaur exhibit. And there was a more than slight probability that the museum has improved since then.

    I do not recall what parking was like in the 1980’s, but it certainly needs to be improved now. Along with signage. I wound up on a narrow road going past the museum, and dead-ending in a very small parking lot in City Park. But, it was empty, parking was free, and it did not seem too far from the museum. Too bad I left my hiking poles back at the hotel – it was a bit of adventure finding the entrance. I had to cross a large grassy meadow to reach what was a blank wall of the building. No entrance. 

    A peaceful park scene featuring a paved path winding through lush green grass and trees, with a cloudy sky in the background.
    Grassy meadow
    A paved walkway leading towards a modern building with a textured facade, surrounded by greenery and sparse trees.
    No entrance here

    I asked a very bored looking grandfather keeping an eye on his grandkids where the entrance was. He just said – you’ve got a ways to go, and pointed at the path. Great. I kept on walking and wound up eventually in what I thought was the front of the building, with the big, grand staircase. Nope. Not the entrance. 

    Stairway leading up to the entrance of Sturm Family Plaza, featuring modern handrails and a glass barrier.
    Looks like the entrance….not.

    There was a construction entrance on the left hand side of the stairs – a kind worker said I needed to walk to the North side of the building. $#!#$!!!

    But, I found a real entrance on the other side of the stairs. I was thinking that I might have to call Uber to get back to the car later on.

    Upon entering, and paying my senior entrance fee (one of the few good things about being old), I discovered that a lot has changed – there was a huge, modern addition added on to the original building. And they now charge extra for most of the more interesting exhibits. But there was still a lot to see, so I stumped off, doing my best to avoid being crushed by the mobs of school children, being herded around by anxious teachers and parents. 

    One of the museum volunteers recommended I start on the third floor, and hit the ‘Changing Landscape’ exhibit..which was free. Did I look like a cheap old person? Must be. But the exhibit was marvelous, focusing on climate change impact on four famous locations – Easter Island, Mesa Verde, the Pyramids/Sphinx and Venice. Each had sort of a 3D, immersive display – not quite like the volcano experience at the Perlon museum in Reykjavik, but still pretty cool. Here’s a few snapshots and videos.

    A row of ancient stone statues, known as Moai, standing on a stone platform against a clear blue sky, with an expansive landscape of grass and rocks in the background.
    A virtual reality environment showcasing a panoramic view of the pyramids and the Sphinx in a desert landscape, with informative text displayed on the walls.
    A panoramic view of the pyramids at Giza, displaying the Great Pyramid and its surroundings on a large digital screen.
    A digital projection of the Pyramids of Giza against a clear blue sky, showcasing the ancient structures in a desert landscape.
    A projection of ancient ruins at Mesa Verde, highlighting the effects of drought-fueled fires on the landscape, with bilingual captions in English and Spanish.

    Most of the other exhibits were standard natural museum fare – lots of dead, stuffed animals. The gem/rock exhibit was closed, but they did have a Prehistoric Journey exhibit open – dinosaurs! It was very well done, taking you through the history of life from the beginning, through the evolution of mammals through the Cenozoic Period (last 61 million years…post dinosaurs). And they had some interesting assembled skeletons. Very nice. 

    Two large dinosaur skeletons displayed in a museum, featuring a T-rex in the background and a spinosaurid in the foreground.
    Two dinosaur skeletons displayed on a rocky surface, showcasing the spiny back of one and the rounded body of the other.
    Aerial view of various animal skeletons displayed in a museum, including large and small fossils, with informative signage in the foreground.
    Fossilized skull of a dinosaur displayed in a museum setting, showcasing detailed bone structure and mounted on a black stand.
    Fossilized remains of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, displayed in a museum setting with a label indicating 'Teen Rex' from North Dakota.

    I had enough by then, I did not want to push my luck any further dodging mobs of children, so I exited the museum, and started the long trek back to the car. A very large thunderhead was passing over, which made me more than a little nervous walking across the large, open meadow….there were flashes of lightning overhead. But, I made it back to the car without getting burned to a cinder by a bolt of lighting. 

    All told, including my morning treadmill exercise, I walked about 5 miles today. I had been hoping to do one or two hikes this week. This counts as the first. And I still have a couple of days left if I really want to see that Van Gogh thing. 

    Peace

  • Shopping Heaven in Denver or the End of the Universe

    An older man in a tan jacket stands on the sidewalk beside a golden retriever dog, in front of a Starbucks coffee shop in an urban setting.
    The End of the Universe. AI generated

    July 27th, 2026

    I managed to complete my shopping list in just a few hours over two days. Denver really is the Mecca of outdoor gear shopping. You can buy, or even rent, just about anything you need, for just about any outdoor activity, in the Denver or Boulder area. If you just want one-stop shopping, you’ve got the flagship REI, which I’ve posted about before. It’s sort of like the Walmart or Macys of outdoor gear – multi-levels, with just about everything you could possibly need from rock climbing to kayaking. And with extremely helpful staff. You can even rent most of what they sell. And parking is free. Woo hoo. 

    I’m attracted to that climbing wall, but I’d probably tear out my shoulder joints and a few muscles as well trying to get off the ground.

    If you are looking for high end outdoor clothing and footwear, there are an incredible selection of manufacturers to choose from, all of which have large stores with most everything they sell. Kuhl, Fallraven, Patagonia, Arc’tyrx, Cotopaxi and much more – all carry a much wider selection than REI. And unlike the online Websites for these clothes, you can try the clothing on. I was really impressed with Fallraven – great service and they do in-store alterations for free (which they should given the price of the clothing). 

    For rock and ice climbing,  REI carries a lot of gear, from ropes to anchors, but there are other specialized shops as well. Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder was around back when I was climbing. Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS) used to have a large store in Denver, but they closed a long time ago. Another of my favorites in my climbing days, Forrest Mountainering, sold out long ago.

    And of course you can find all kinds of stores that specialize in skiing gear (alpine, mountaineering and cross-country) – you’d expect that in Denver and Boulder since this is sort of the gateway to all the big ski areas across the state. Back when Jan and I first moved to Denver and used to ski every week during the winter, the Gart Brothers Sports Castle was the place to buy skiing gear, and people waited for the annual ‘Sniagrab’ sale (bargains spelled backwards…clever. Not really). They eventually sold out to the Sports Authority, which faded away.  

    I was not planning to advertise for every shop in the region since I’m not getting paid for advertising in the blog. If you are interested in visiting Denver and are looking for gear, this article in Westword is a good starting point. 

    The fun and very convenient part of searching for gear, is that many of the stores are clustered within walking distance of each other, and also close to brew pubs and restaurants. I mentioned in a previous post, finding Patagonia and Arc’tyrex across the street from each other in the RiNo district of Denver (River North). REI and FallRaven are across from each other, with a few other outfitters within walking distance. Plus, there is an ice cream shop across from FallRaven. I’m always on the lookout for those. The cross-street proximity made me think about the Lewis Black routine, The End of the Universe. Check it out on YouTube. One of the few times I’ve heard a routine of his without a continuous string of f-bombs.

    After reading through this absolutely riveting post, I’m certain you must want to know what I was looking for on this shopping outing. Aside from my obsession with wandering through stores like REI, I’ve been searching for the perfect pair of hiking pants for years. That’s a lot like my search for the perfect camera bag. I must own a half-dozen hiking pants (and camera bags) by now, some of which are convertible (they convert to shorts, not to a sports car), some are heavy cloth, others light weight material. The problem is that every trip I go on has varying conditions – Iceland was cool and damp, but not always raining hard enough to pull on my waterproof shell. My first Alaska trip had the same conditions, maybe a bit cooler. Some of my upcoming trips will be cool and damp, and then there are all the cave trips and rock scrambling where you need more rugged material. I’d like to just have one or two pairs, not a half dozen. 

    Before this trip, I had gone through the online stores for most of the major outdoor outfitters, and had picked four or five to look at on my shopping outing. Tops on the list was one particular model from Fallsraven – I liked the looks of it, with large sections of heavy nylon in appropriate places – water resistant and scuff resistant as well. This turned out to be the winner over Kuhl, Arct’yrx and Patagonia. I wound up buying two, one was a bit heavier, and better suited for my upcoming Patagonia trip, as well as the Iceland trip next year. 

    The perfect hiking pants…at long last

    Now I can pack up all the other pants I have at home, and give them away to a charity clothing collector. And try to stay away from REI and any other outfitter for a while. I need to keep repeating –  “I do not need any more gear”. I’ll let you know how that works. 

    Peace