This was very exciting news for us in many ways - a possible new kidney for Joe, the chance to stay in a hotel and the opportunity to eat in restaurants we don't have in our town. We would also be able to get out of Casper. Since Joe's heart attack in July, we had only left town twice and that was to visit the kids in Utah. Now we were going somewhere different. It wound up being a five hour drive for us as the hospital was on the southeast side of Denver. We checked into our hotel and then went to find the hospital since we would have to be there early the next morning for the appointment.
Our hotel room was a complete kitchen studio apartment setup and very nice. We were fortunate that the hospital had sent a listing of lodging and many of them, just as the Homestead Suites, gave special rates for people who staying because of appointments at the hospital.
Yes, part of the excitement of going was eating at some place different, some place that we'd not eaten at in quite awhile. Living in Casper does not afford us the opportunity to drive to another city/town to check out another restaurant. That would entail about a 2-3 hour drive to do so. We decided to have dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. It had been over four years since I'd eaten at one and though it was good, it can be another four+ years before eating at another one.
We headed to the hospital early morning and hit the "going to work" traffic of Denver almost like Atlanta with all the interstate systems coming together. Wow, that was a rush seeing that much traffic since we don't have anything like that in Casper and it's been almost a year since I've driven in Atlanta traffic.The meeting with the transplant committee panel lasted for several hours and the staff was very accommodating and helpful. At the end of this pre-screening, we were given a list of items they would required before the panel convened and we left. We headed straight to Sweet Tomatoes to get our lunch. We love this restaurant and it had been several years since we'd eaten at one. My favorite foods here...Homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup, Chocolate Brownie Muffin, Wildly Blue Blueberry Muffin, Wonton Chicken Salad, Joan's Broccoli Madness Salad, Garlic Asiago Focaccia - I'm starting to salivate just thinking of all this.
After eating we set out on a search for Popeye's and Church's Chicken. We knew there were supposed to be somewhere relatively close to where we were staying. We found them, ordered freshly fried chicken, placed it in a large thermal bag and put it in the refrigerator in our hotel room. When we returned home, I shared with a friend and put the rest in freezer bags and it's out in the freezer waiting for a day I NEED some great fried chicken.
When we were heading home the next morning, we spied an advertisement for a Cracker Barrel. We got off and went and had us a good ole-fashioned southern breakfast. First time I'd eaten at one of those in over three years.
So, we had a great trip in so many ways. It was so nice to get out of town and do something totally different and we so enjoyed ourselves. We tried eating our way through Denver and did good in the amount of time we were there. So many restaurants, so little time!
Once we deplaned then we were stuck in the terminal for another 3 1/2 hours along with these wonderful people. We had to wait for earlier scheduled flights to take off and then ours since no planes had been allowed to land or depart. The young lady behind Joe was heading to Casper to see her boyfriend who is one of our newscasters here in Casper. The couple on the right were from England and were heading to Kaycee (about 75 miles north of Casper) to see their daughter Carole who is the vicar. Another lady sitting to the right of Joe (can't see her) was on her way back from 