Day 28 (by Krysta)

From Alamosa, CO, we drove up to Colorado Springs, where we visited Cave of the Winds, which was very cool.  The guy said that if we touched the wall we would be fined about $2000, Paul wanted to note that insanity.  Also, they had some wall that people could throw metal things on (like pennies, etc.), "legend" has it that if the penny doesn't stick you will get divorced or something. It had something to do with two women who left  bobby pins there and right after they got married.  Also, when they were discovering the caves, people would smoke and hold candles for light, so there were black marks on the ceiling of the cave from them. It was a fun place to visit.

Afterwards, we drove to Denver, where we sat in traffic waiting to get into the city and drop off the car before the Hertz closed.  We thankfully made it there just before it closed, parked Mazey, emptied it out, and said bye to our Mazda! :(

From there, we dragged all our crap to the bus station.  I laughed a lot during the walk to the station since we must have looked so ridiculous dragging several suitcases through the streets of Denver.  We were also not sure which was to go, so while Paul was calling Dad to have him look at a map on Google, I asked some random dude on the street.  We walked over to station and stood outside of it, confused.  Paul went in to figure out what to do, while I waited outside with some homeless dude and a security guard watching him.  Eventually Paul came back and we went into the station and sat down.  Thankfully they had a bathroom and a little cafe store thing.  We waited for our bus, only to get into the wrong line and miss our bus.  To be fair, though, the driver did not stay there for more than about one minute and the announcement that the bus was here was said as the bus was leaving (or had just left..). We asked some guy working there and he said it hadn't come yet, but he was wrong and so we waited an hour for the next bus to the airport.  We ate sandwiches from the little store cafe place for dinner. 

When the bus got there the second time, we did not miss it, thankfully!  So we began our trip to the airport, though at one point the bus stopped at some stop for at least 20 minutes and I was very happy we didn't have to catch a plane!  Finally, we made it to the airport, where we called the hotel.  They told us that their shuttles come at every hour and half hour, and of course it was about 8:26pm.  So Paul quickly ran to see if he could find and ATM to get cash for a tip for the driver, but he couldn't find one and came back.  We rushed outside, waiting about a minute until shuttle that said Fairfield Inn (a Marriott) drove up.  I thought we were staying there, so I almost got us on the wrong shuttle, but thankfully Paul asked the guy if he was going to the Residence Inn (also a Marriott), which is where we were really staying, and the guy said no.  So, we didn't get on that one and waited for the right shuttle to pick us up.  Soon after, our shuttle showed up and we headed to the Residence Inn.

When we got there, we attempted and failed to print the boarding passes for our flights due to weird computer issues they were having.  Paul then washed all his clothes because of the bed bugs and the fact that he was heading back to LA and not home.  I think I just showered and went to bed.  That Residence Inn was nice because it reminded us of the one we had stayed so long in while in LA..like our "home" during the trip.