Went to the iron bath, afterwards, I love the pebble bottom, and later than that to the soda bath, the covered one. Mike arrived by then, it was about 9:30, he had taken his time getting ready in the room and having a juice at the restaurant. Our massage appointment was at 10am, and we were told to be there 5 minutes prior. We walked to the large pool/lounge area, where he took a seat, and I went to the arsenic Jacuzzi first, so hot and relaxing, and then to the arsenic pool, the coolest water in the resort. I walked around along the edge of the pool, which changed depths, and that provided me with a bit of exercise and meditation. I was ready for the massage and reflexology. We both walked over to the waiting area, and my therapist, Patrick (a short guy with good energy and mellow voice - he reminded me of Willam for some reason - and strong hands), took me to the room, while Mike waited for his. He asked me the usual questions, I got on the table, and then 50 minutes of heaven began. It was by far one of the best massages I've had in a very long time, the way he worked my arms was just perfect for me, after 30 days of intense drawing and blogging. After that was done, he moved on for 25 minutes of foot reflexology, a mix of massage, stretches and pressure point applications (including hot towels, heaven). By the time Patrick was done, all the stress from the previous, unslept night, were gone.
I floated back to the cottage to pack the room and the car, as it was about 11:20 am. Mike joined me in about 10 minutes, and once we were done with that, we drove the car closer to the main bath area and checked out. Our plan was to go to the restaurant for lunch, which we did, and it was wonderful. I had an Artesian Salad (mixed greens with pears, pine nuts, crumbled cheese and a prickly pear vinaigrette dressing) with Mexican shrimp (seasoned and sautéed first, then grilled), with water, lots of water. Mindy was our waitress, a very sweet young woman that reminded me of my cousin Rosana and my college friend Bronwynn at the same time. She complimented on my tattoo, the second time in New Mexico, and Mike opined that they like sun representations in this area (mine is a tribal sunset in water abstraction, upside down). I think he may be right about that.
We decided we should stay in the spa area until three and then hit the road, so for the second time in the day (how lucky) I did the mud, with Mike along this time, and we toured all the baths and even made it to the steam room. The place was jam packed, and the sun was hot, but we managed to do a bit of everything, even fit in more meditative walks around the pool. When it was time to go home, we took turns taking a shower some someone could watch our stuff. It was sad to give back the robes (I might order one online), but we had to get into the car, as we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us. After some snafu with the directions (no reception to activate the g-map), off we went. For the most part we stayed in the same road, US 285, from the door of Ojo to the edge of Denver. The road was almost empty, at times we'd go for 15 minutes without spotting another car. I drove the first 3.5 hours while Mike helped navigate, curate the musical background, and take pictures, mostly moving. The scenery ranged from boring, to beautiful to scary to dreamlike. Once we got into Colorado (within the first hour) rain began to pour, not a lot, but enough to require wipers, and this rain got stronger as we headed north.
When both Fiona and ourselves needed some fuel to go one, we stopped, gassed the car, and ate at this borderline dive restaurant called the Smoke Shack, a gas station attaché that served yummy BBQ (I had the pulled pork and cole slaw), and was run by Colorado hipsters (what I assume to be early 30s ski bums that never left the area). The town was called Buena Vista, located 120 miles from Denver. There were some firetrucks getting fuel, and this jolly short man, with a big smile on his face, pointed to the sky and said "thank you rain", which was beginning to fall. As he walked to his vehicle, he also thanked the firemen around us (we saw a few on the road there, among the few cars we saw in general; the longest stretch of being followed by a single vehicle was a small firetruck which I thought was a cop car, for about 20 miles, when I was still driving). We left sometime after 6:30pm. Mike took the driving after this, and the road got more beautiful and hilly, he called it a roller coaster, and at times it was down right scary. As we got closer to the city the road became very steep, sometimes with 8 mile stretches of going downhill, about 45 mph. As we exited the 285 and took on I-25 N there was some construction, but fortunately our route led us to our hotel, the Magnolia on 17th, with no problem. The receptionist told us that there were cookies and milk at the lounge until 10pm (it was 9:15pm by the time we got there), and the bellboy told us that the hotel had a free shuttle service to any location within 2 miles. I hope the museums are in that range.
Ended the night with a long shower and a soft bathrobe. Went to bed at 11pm, and when I woke up this morning it was 4:30am, an improvement in my book.
- posted via iPad
Location:Stout St,Denver,United States
No comments:
Post a Comment