Tuesday 30th December 2003, Day 108/273 - Denver, Colorado
Had a long lie and then took Steve and Ben to McDonalds for lunch, to introduce them to the dollar menu and root beer. Got asked for spare change on numerous occasions. Welcome to America!
The weather is warmer than expected. Denver is a mile up, but it's actually on the plains just to the east of the Rockies. There's no snow on the ground, although there are signs that there was recently. It's actually warmer here than it was in San Francisco.
We walked down the 16th street Mall and went into ESPN zone, which is still a terrific invention. We then went up to the Pepsi Centre as we have tickets for tonight's basketball game between the Denver Nuggets and the Toronto Raptors. We also bought some tickets for the lacrosse on Friday and the ice hockey on Sunday. We were warned that the Pepsi Centre is too far to walk, but it wasn't, for Americans it is.
The big player in Denver is a rookie called Carmelo Anthony. He was the 3rd pick in the overall NBA draft. That means that Denver had the 3rd worst record in the NBA last year winning only 17 games and losing 65. This season they have already won 19 games and the press are raving about Carmelo Anthony. A lot of pressure on the shoulders of a 19 year old.
I think Steve and Ben were blown away by the Arena and the whole event. It's kid's appreciation night so the anthem was performed by a 5 year old girl. She wasn't very good, but what can you expect. She forgot to breathe and then took massive gulps. She was better than some I've heard.
The Nuggets have a 5 foot 5 inch midget playing for them, which gives us all hope. Rocky (the mascot) drained one from the half way line. Apart from that the game was a bit of an anticlimax with the Nuggets losing 74-81.
Denver seems to love its sports. It has 3 stadiums within about a mile of each other and has 7 professional sports teams. Colorado Rockies (baseball), Denver Broncos (american football), Denver Nuggets (basketball), Colorado Avalanche (ice hockey), Colorado Rapids (soccer), Colorado Mammoth (lacrosse) and Colorado Crush (indoor football). I think I'll like Denver. To be honest it has a very homely feel to it, the people seem very proud and so they should.
