Everything has changed. Yet nothing has.

I feel this way after returning from my mountain top experience (both literally and figuratively).

This past week I took a trip to Denver, Colorado departing from my flat corner of the world of North Texas.

I had left with intentions of breaking My Steemy Addiction and so I have been away from steemit with the exception of some curation up votes and a comment or two.

Okay, I checked steemit about once or twice every day.

But for the most part I took a break.

You probably didn’t and so I will not fill you in on the changes you already know about that have
improved steemit.

However, I will let you know I am excited about the new reputation rankings and think they will help cut the junk posts.

In the same way there have been changes to steemit, yet steemit is the same in many ways as before, there have been changes in my life yet I return back to the same things as before.

The Trip

Departure Location: North Texas

Departure Date/Time: Thursday the 28th of July of 2016 @ 5:20 am

Travel Method: Car

The Crew:

My lovely wife, Sarah:

My trusty dogs, Duke and Tex:

And of course myself:

Destination: Denver, Colorado

Mission: Graduation and Vacation

Let me take a moment and explain how I got here…

The short version is that I never thought I would go to graduate school.

I finished my undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science, in 2008 from the University of North Texas.

Additionally at the time I went through the College of Education and obtained certifications to teach Secondary Education Social Studies for grades 8-12.

But upon graduating in May of 2008, I found myself in the midst of the worst economic downturn in my lifetime.

“By August 2008, financial firms around the globe had written down their holdings of subprime related securities by US$501 billion.”

I don’t bring this up for pity, but as an explanation of my situation.

With the housing market collapsing and the future uncertain, many teachers who would otherwise have retired, didn’t.

As a result there were few to no teaching jobs to be found.

And there was a “hiring freeze” in many school districts.

Instead of a full time teaching job, I found myself a "permanent" substitute teacher for the next four years of my life.

The problem with that is there isn't a need for a substitute teacher every day.

I supplemented my income doing odd jobs such as painting as a subcontractor, being a delivery driver for edible fruit arrangements and anything else to make an honest buck.

But sometimes I didn't earning anything at all...

This was unsustainable and so I got more teaching certifications and started looking for other jobs.

But all to no avail...

Until eventually I was offered a position working for a Juvenile Justice rehab-type program.

However, this was not my destiny.

At first I didn't look into other work options because it was a relief to have a full-time position.

It was a welcome change from scrounging for work all day every day.

Eventually though, I developed a longing to do more than what I was doing.

I just didn't understand what or how at the time.

I have always enjoyed reading and had an awakening in college where I started reading more and more than ever before.

But that's a story for a different day.

This reading was filling my head with ideas.

Enter James Altucher.

Which lead to blogging, which lead to self-publishing my book Conspire To Inspire, which lead to a review from a budding friendship with @stellabelle, which lead to #steemit.

But let me back up a little bit...

All the reading and writing ultimately lead to deciding to go back to school and get my Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Colorado Technical University through their 18 month accelerated online program.

And, yes, I know James doesn't think I should have done that...

Yet I did. And 18 months later we were on our way to Colorado!

We got to Colorado on that same Thursday and quickly found our quaint airbnb rental.

We promptly found a Whole Foods and bought a few groceries for the next few days.

And then crashed.

Friday

Friday brought a day of fun because we had plans to go out to the mountains.

We woke up early enough to down a quick breakfast and then packed up the pups and headed out to the Golden Gate Canyon State Park.

Although we could have used a break from driving 12 hours the day before, the hour or so trip was worth it!

We picked a "Moderate" trail, the Raccoon Trail, that was a mere 2.5 mile loop.

The hike wasn't hard and the views were amazing!

After dropping the pups off at the casa, we set out to The Source.

Image Credit: http://www.thesourcedenver.com/

Here we explored the market place before eating at Comida,"a taco truck turned Longmont cantina owned by Rayme Rossello, serves Mexican street food influenced by Rossello’s Southern upbringing."

Image Credit: http://www.eatcomida.com/

Sarah ordered the Mexi Mess, which "includes Comida rice, limy green cabbage, your choice of black beans or refried beans and your choice of protein or veg. Served with corn tortillas, salsa and topped with cotija and crema."

I tried a bite or two, or three... and it was delicious!

I had a Camerones a la Diabla which is, “Spicy shrimp over jalapeño grits with pico de gallo, avocado, lime, house crema and cotija.” I had it served tostada style and I washed it down with a nice local tap beer.

Once we finished up the grub, we sauntered over to the Mondo Market within The Source and picked up the most amazing smelling Alderwood Smoked Sea Salt and a fantastic handmade Denver Electric Lime Hot Sauce.

Image Credit: https://merfscondiments.com

Afterwards, we popped over to The Colorado Convention Center where our graduation was going to take place on Saturday morning.

We checked in, got our name cards for walking the stage, looked around to where we would need to be and at what time, and snapped this pre-graduation celebration shot…

Our lazy afternoon shifted into a easy meal of rice and beans at the rental before heading out to the city center for a look around at the Denver Pavilions and the local Civic Center Park.

We didn’t stay out too late because we were about to have an early morning…

Saturday

The early morning found us with enough time to get fancied up and out the door to grab a bite at a Starbucks downtown.

We then scurried over to the Colorado Convention Center and found ourselves early enough to take some more pre-grad photos as we tried on our hoods.

The graduation ceremony was great with uplifting guest speakers Dr. Charity C. Campbell and Walgreens Divisional Vice President & Chief Diversity Officer Steve Pemberton.

After a quick costume change back at the pad, we rushed off to lunch at Avanti Food and Beverage.

Here we enjoyed a delicious paella from Bixo Mexiterranean Bites along with a flan for desert.

Not wanting to leave out the dogs, after lunch we ventured to Berkeley Dog Park...

Which my dogs were not convinced we didn’t take them to Tatooine...

That evening found us at a celebration dinner at The Fort Restaurant.

“Situated in the Red Rocks country 17 miles southwest of Denver on Hwy 285, The Fort is a true replica of Bent's Fort, the first American community west of the Missississippi & rendezvous of Kit Carson & other "Mountain Men". The nine dining rooms, seating 350, are white plastered over adobe. Unusual but hearty dishes, typical of the early West, are provided from open grills. Waugh!”

We started with some Bison Eggs which were “Pickled quail eggs wrapped in house-made buffalo sausage. Served with a raspberry-pepper jam.” It is The Fort’s version of a Scottish Egg.

Sarah selected the Josefa Jaramillo’s Vegetarian Tamales described as “Green chile and cheese vegetarian tamales with New Mexican red chile gravy and Mexican crema on top. Served with Zuni succotash with toasted pepitas.”

I am a bit more wild and chose The Fort’s Game Plate that came with “A bone-in Elk chop, Buffalo sirloin medallion, and a grilled teriyaki Quail. Served with seasonal vegetables, Fort potatoes, and wild Montana huckleberry preserves.”

Sarah selected a fine Prosecco to celebrate, but I couldn't resist the Huckleberry Lemonade a “harmonious blend of citrus and berry. Made with Huckleberry infused vodka, a splash of cranberry juice, and lemonade.”

After a full day we skipped the dessert and instead dinned on the amazing view

Sunday

Sunday morning brought another breakfast in house before we rolled out to Harvest Bible Chapel where we were able to join our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in worship.

That week they happened to have a visiting Pastor Robbie Symons who gave the following message that can be viewed on their site: http://www.harvestdenver.org/sermons/the-lord-looks-on-the-heart-73116

Full of love and encouragement, we continued on our journey that would be our last full day in Colorado.

We had plans to head down to Colorado Springs where we broke bread at the Garden of the Gods Gourmet Market & Café.

My selection was a scrumptious Colorado Beny “with buffalo pastrami, caramelized onions, and a buttermilk biscuit with roasted jalapeño hollandaise and tomato scallion salsa”.

Sarah delighted in the Classic Curry Chicken “on a bed of organic greens with toasted almonds and house made red wine honey vinaigrette”.

No Sunday Brunch is complete without a fine cocktail to finish it off and so we had a round of unforgettable Gods Gourmet Bloody Marys which were crafted with “Colorado Vodka with “The Real Dill” mix, finished with celery and a habanero horseradish pickle”.

After we ate, it was off to an afternoon ball game at Security Service Field in Colorado Springs.

The Colorado Springs Sky Sox, the Triple-A affiliate of the major league Milwaukee Brewers, edged past the Oklahoma City Dodgers 9 to 8.

However, we didn’t see the exciting finish, because we had a train to catch…

Literally.

The Pikes Peak Cog Railway was the pinacle excursion of our trip.

That last picture of us was taken by the awesome elderly couple we soon became friends with pictured below, Rex and Jean.

These two were marvelous conversationalist and more knowledgeable about the mountain than even our train guide because they had literally hiked around it for a week at an earlier time in their life.

We came for the view, but left with new friends.

Monday

After our mountaintop experience, our only remaining stop was the long journey home…

The return trip went smooth without incident and we arrived home late at about 11 o’clock after losing an hour in the eastward bound transition back to the Central Time zone.

After a day off for rest and recovery, I was reminded that Everything has changed. Yet nothing has.

My takeaway from this trip:

Live a story worth reading.

@strangerarray