I was able to make a second trip to Denver for a conference in 2013, this time for the Supercomputing conference. My primary purpose was to attend the pre-conference workshops on curricular issues with parallel computing. I was also able to go out a day early, hoping to get in a day of skiing, but that didn't work out. I did some exploring by car instead.
Friday, November 15 - Amsterdam, New York, to Aurora, Colorado, via Baltimore, Denver, Laramie, and Cheyenne
My flight from Albany was before 8 AM, and after a change in Baltimore, I was at Denver International by early afternoon. After a very frustrating wait in the rental car lines at Advantage, I had my car and the rest of the day to get to my hotel in Aurora. Once I got out of the airport area, I decided to drive north. My route was I-70 into Denver, I-270 and US 36 northwest toward Broomfield, then north on US 287. I followed US 287 up through Longmont, Loveland, and Fort Collins. At that point, it was decision time - how much further to go with just an hour or so of daylight left. I decided to continue north on US 287 into Wyoming, arriving in a light snow in Laramie just after sunset. After a short ride through Laramie with no exciting dinner options jumping out at me, I got onto I-80 east toward Cheyenne. I wasn't expecting a snowstorm, but I ended up in one for part of that ride. Things cleared up as I descended from the mountains into Cheyenne. I took a short tour through Cheyenne, again hoping for an interesting dinner option. Unfortunately, nothing jumped out and I ended up at an Arby's off the last exit on I-25 south before going out of the Cheyenne area. I wasn't the only one there, but I am sure I was the only one there following the Union-RPI hockey game back home on Twitter while eating my dinner. From there, it was a straight and easy shot down I-25 back to check into my hotel in Aurora. [40 Pictures from the Roads].
Saturday, November 16 - free day in Colorado
This was intended to be a ski day, but a combination of not too much snow on the slopes and a bit of an ongoing snowstorm that would make the ride difficult in a little rental car stopped that from happening. Instead, I decided to take a long loop ride north and east from Denver to parts of Colorado where I had never been (though I'd been through a few when I was 7 years old). I started by going just a bit south on I-225, which was the last stretch of interstate highway in Colorado I had not previously traveled. Colorado is the 4th state where I can claim that, joining Delaware, New Jersey, and Florida. I left the Denver metro area on US 85 North. I saw several places where the summer floods earlier in the year did some damage all along this ride. My route was up to Greeley on US 85, east on US 34 to Brush, East on US 6 to Sterling, then a bit back on I-76 to catch Colorado 63 south to Anton, where I picked up US 36 West to get back to Denver (the latter portions of which are concurrent with I-70). Along the way, I listened to an interesting radio show about Denver restaurants, from which I got my idea for a dinner later in the trip. I was able to track down a decent lunch at a Sonic in Sterling as well. Back in Aurora for the night, I decided to get dinner at Rosie's Diner right next to my hotel instead of going for much of a search for anything else. Again, I was the only one in the restuarant following a college hockey game back east, this time with a full video feed from RPI TV on the iPad. Nice weekend sweep by the Dutchmen. [86 Pictures from the Roads].
Sunday, November 17 - Day 1 at SC '13
This was the first day of the pre-conference workshop I was in town to attend, so the day was spent primarily at Supercomputing 2013 at the Denver Conference Center. After the day at the conference, I got out of downtown quickly as crowds were flooding in for the Chiefs-Broncos game. I ended up at a local sports bar in Aurora near my hotel to watch some of the game and have dinner. [4 Pictures from the road in the morning].
Monday, November 18 - Day 2 at SC '13
Day 2 at the conference, another day of the workshop. There was a little time for a ride around the area (primarily the south and eastern part of the metro area) before I returned to the downtown area for dinner with Ray at the Paramount Cafe. [1 Picture from the road in the morning].
Tuesday, November 19 - Day 3 at SC '13
This was my one day to see the technical program, so it was back to the conference for plenary and paper sessions. I was also able to meet up with a group including Karen and others from Sandia for lunch at a Vietnamese place. There was also a long enough break in the parts of the program that interested me to be able to take a very informative tour of the Denver Mint. After the conference day, I went over to the Jack-n-Grill New Mexican restaurant I heard about on the radio a few days earlier and was not disappointed. Definitely competetive with most of what I had in the Albuquerque area. By the end of dinner, it was time to get back to Aurora to get organized for the flight home. [4 Pictures of the Convention Center's Blue Bear].
Wednesday, November 20 - Aurora, Colorado to Amsterdam, New York, via Chicago and Albany
The conference continued a few more days, but not for me. I had to get back to teach my classes. The morning was the usual travel routine: gas up and return the rental car, shuttle to the terminal, check in, security, etc.. The flights from Denver to Chicago and Chicago to Albany were pretty uneventful. I got in with time to spare to get to Saint Rose to teach my evening Algorithms class. No pictures from this day.
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