Boxes galore!

Final countdown! We have joined forces. Zippy has arrived in bazerklee (Berkeley)...in three hours awaiting for Pippy to pick her up, she was invited to a kumbayah circle, was nicknamed "Hey Denver", asked if she could recite. "Hare krishna" all while hanging out at Starbucks. 

But then again, look at Zippy's outfit. A backpack, roll away, ghetto lunch bag, lost look on her face....she couldn't have fit in better. All she needed was a cardboard sign.

We traveled from bazerklee to Sonoma for the night and met up with a great friend for a glass of prosecco given to us by Pippy's supervisor to celebrate the ending of her medical internship!  Thank you soooo much to Katie a.k.a. Snack Attacker.  

Next , we drove up to Sacramento to begin our organized chaos of packing. 

10 resupply boxes sent out ranging from 8 to 14 pounds were timbuk 2'd to the great Rockies of Colorado! 

Now, to our bags. We decided to ship our bags in disguise. "Mcgivered" a recycled cardboard box into the best duffel box ever and used our handy bear bag string to secure it. 

Constructing the masterpiece...

Final product with Zippy's bag on the left in a vintage 1980's dirt bike bag waiting to check into to our Denver bound flight!

Arrived in Denver International Airport. Thanks for Zippy for pointing out my hard -to-see duffel (notice the bystanders in the back...they asked us later what we were doing). 

Unveiling of the adventure pack. 

Whoa! It's a transformer! 

Zippy wishes her unveiling was as cool as Pippy's, but she does have a cool outfit. 

We immersed ourself in the culture of Denver like adding oil to vinegar (a.k. A. Stood out like a stubbed toe) and took the locals only (apparently) bus to downtown Denver. Let's see...we meet shopping cart lady, an addict counselor who could've made lots of money that day, a how loud can you ask what time it is guy ( and he was wearing a watch), and no teeth man who needed speech therapy as he mumbled in our conversation. And because we are the duo of Pippy and Zippy, we smiled and nodded the entire time. 

And this is what happened next. 

Backpacking three blocks, we spy an old, antique, abandoned-like building with iron bars on the doors and windows and a bus full of immigrants blocking the sidewalk. So naturally, we hop, skip, and jump to the other side of the street and further analyze the scene. And then... As in any horror movie, the realization of "ohmy f***ing gosh, that's our hostel!" we really made reservations to stay there?!!"

Okay, it's 8 o'clock at night and were tired, it justs 8 hours in here and we can manage one night. Now tell me... Would you stay in a stairway that looked like this? 

And the answer is no. 

And the answer is still NO. DO NOT STAY HERE unless you want to be a ghostbuster and meet weird people. Basically, imagine sitting on the floor and feeling the floorboards creeping and moving around you and then hearing a chair making noises as if someone is sitting in the chair the entire time. And what's up with the sealed door closet with the chair in front of it? It didn't take us long to dial 1-800- getmethefoutofherepleasehotelandtaxiservice. In 33 seconds, we were on the street hailing a taxi and checked into to a fluffy Hampton hotel and dove into our king sized cocoon for the night. 

The adventure continues!