100 Days In Denver

                      A Summary Of 100 Days

During our time in Denver we jumped right into different communities immediately. We have been fortunate to meet very amazing people, doing incredible things. Such things we've been apart of thus far is immersing ourselves in the DIY music scene. Joining free weekly running/bicycling groups. And conversing with the Couch Surfer Denver group. It's been very exciting and beneficial meeting new people and learning about the city.

Denver DIY music scene has been uncanny how much it resembles the Baltimore music scene. We have gone to artist takeover parties, shows, and community meetings at really great places here. The scene is very creative and a lot more open minded than most others groups we've met here so far. There's a space called "Juice Church" that originally was a church now turned into a music venue/home to artists within the city. Rhinoceropolis is definitely the best art space in the city. It has art painted on all walls, there are installations throughout the spot. It's connected to two other awesome DIY spaces. We went to Rhinoceropolis most recently for a Halloween cover band show, it was thriller. Great place, great times.

Boulder Running Company hosts a free weekly run every Tuesday. We've attended this run many times and have met some awesome people while doing it. There is a major athletic brand marketer there every time to let us try on their newest gear, giveaway prizes, and provide us free beer. It's a cool thing, the employees there have been fantastic and give the runners discounts on their store products. Being part of this group helped motivate me to enter Rock N Roll Denver Half Marathon in October. I finished 13.1 miles in an hour and fifty seven minutes. My goal was to complete it in under 2 hours and that I accomplished. It's also pushed me to surpass my goal of running 366 miles this (leap) year. Now I'm over 500 miles. It's been an inspiring place.


Denver Cruiser Ride has been another weekly event we occasionally have joined. It's ended for the season, but it is an extreme bicycler event. Every Wednesday around 1000 bicyclers will meet up at Gin Mill, get hammered, then ride the streets of Denver in a massive pack. It was a pretty cool thing minus the unfortunate side effect of the cyclists being too drunk and crashing often, which we witnessed many times.

Denver Couch Surfering Crew (Facebook) has been amazing when it comes to weekly meet ups and reaching out to make new friends. They have regular happy hour meet ups, sports hangouts, and house parties. We attended the Thanks Giving party hosted by one of the CS members. It was a massive house, with a great group of people, endless food and drinks, and most importantly a hot tub I relaxed in a good majority of the party, We exchanged contact info with a bunch of people, giving us a whole new group of future friends.

We've also been going out to bars, restaurants, and hikes throughout the state with new friends. Some of the more legendary hikes we've done is Rocky Mountain National Park, Estes Park, Boulder, Bailey, and more. There's lots of nature trails and parks around our neighborhood we've been exercising around.

The bar/restaurant scene here has been absolutely amazing! Some of our current favorites include

Pon Pon - Amazing hipster bar, the decoration is very rad. There's a small room used entirely as an art gallery. Drinks are cheap, the people are great. There's a wall entirely made up Simon and Garfunkel's - The Sound Of Silence record sleeve

Forest Room 5 - Literally a forest, you sit on logs, you're surrounded by trees, grass, animals, nature. It's super awesome! I think there's a tree house outback of the bar people can go inside.

Ratio Beer Works/Los Chingones - These two places are right down the street from each other. Super good abstract art at both places, it's a place for artists to enjoy and go out. Los Chingones has incredible food. Ratio is by far the best brewery in Denver I've been to.

Illegal Pete's - Definitely the most popular bar in Denver (I think). It's meant to be more known as a burrito place. I think more people go for their daily happy hour from 3pm-8pm. The HH has terrific specials and free chips!

Sputnik - Cool dive bar, neat lighting, has dj's play music most nights. Seems very community driven place.

Chopper's Sports Bar and Grill - Best sports bar possibly in Denver. Very expensive, but they have an entire room dedicated to the Baltimore Ravens.

We've been getting involved in other fun things such as going to the Museum of Contempary Art. Kim, myself, and our friend Courtney checked it out. The art was great! We were informed they were having a late night museum party, we decided to go. There was lots of dancing, live bands, and being able to explore the museum after hours was cool too.

We also went to Riot Fest one of the first weeks we moved here. We got to see Dan Deacon, Deftones, Death Cab For Cutie, Rogue Wave, White Lung, and more. It was a good time, Denver is definitely more into the "punk" style/bands, but we got to see a few bands we wanted to see.

We've gone to a Rockies MLB baseball game, we walked around Boulder one day and saw Kristen Schall rallying for Hillary. We got sneaked into a Hillary rally that was hosted by Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. We also went to the hotel where The Shinning was filmed and shot a Pelvis Presley music video for the song "Hieroglyphics".

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The Other Stuff

We officially stepped foot into our second new apartment in Denver August 15th. After a dramatic horror story of rejecting being given a dump of a place in Capitol Hill. Where the door wouldn't even open from the inside to go out. While our door was riffed off with a crowbar. We were presented a much more suitable garden level 1 bedroom apartment in Washington Park for $925 a month.


Since moving to Denver it has been an intriguing learning experience. We're learning about the city, communities, and ourselves every day. The sad realization of Denver is how expensive the city really is. Local business owners struggle to keep their doors open every day especially when their rent increases frequently. A city that originally was developed as industrial and labor working city. Now has become gentrified and over populated. The city isn't entirely bad though, there is a lot of wonderful local business owners and community members trying to keep the city local and accepting to all.

I initially contacted the hostels in Denver before moving there. I was shocked to realize that an enormous amount of hostels had been recently foreclosed. I was offered an interview at the 11th Avenue Hotel and Hostel, once I arrived to my new home. I was hired on the spot. After two weeks of working at that hotel/hostel. I realized how awful the environment was there. The employees/management were extremely selective on who they choose to stay at the place. It primarily was decided upon race, appearance, and clothes. I have personally witnessed this place deny individuals without giving them the opportunity to present themselves. Although the hotel/hostel had more than enough beds available. I was told by the management that one of their initial goals is to have the rest of the hostels in Colorado especially Denver close down. The reason being is because they saw this as competition. I am furious knowing that one of the two only hostels in Denver is a greedy, judgement place that denies individuals due to poor reasoning. I also discovered that Denver International Hostel had been foreclosed which was a community based hostel, volunteer ran, and only costs $19 a night. When I became aware of this information I called the owner of DIH. He told me the police came to their door and ordered everyone to evacuate without warning due to it "not meeting code". The owner told me that he had the hostel inspected regularly and was shocked that they were shut down. He believes other competition could have called in to make false complaints. After hearing this compelling story, I decided to contact the mayor and express my feelings towards this situation.

"Dear Michael,

I want to express to you my grievances about Denver International Hostel being closed down. I believe the hostel, employees, and owners truly did a remarkable deed by providing very affordable rates for individuals on a budget. Despite the building not being up to code. The hostel was a gracious community space that welcomed all ethnics, religions, and ages. I cannot say the same about other hospitality places in Denver. Many people staying at Denver International Hostel were individuals who have been recently employed searching for residency. Unfortunately due to the recently foreclosure of the building. It left many homeless causing them to lose their respective jobs. I believe although it doesn't meet the code of the city. It deserves help from the city to meet the code. This is the type of place you want in the city. An affordable, community driven, caring for all people no matter who they are or where they come from. I appreciate you reading my opinion and I hope you seriously consider helping a wonderful place to get back where it should be.

Thank you,
- James Lane"

I unfortunately never heard back from Michael or anyone else. I also was unemployed and needed to reach out to potential jobs leads. I quickly was offered a position I am currently at which is Zip Car. It's always been something on my mind to apply to, considering I have such a fond notion towards car sharing. I do it all at ZC including marketing, admin, partial car repairs. The job itself is okay. It pays decent and has been offered to me as a full time position. However it's not as community focused as I am use to working. I continue my quest regularly for new opportunities in the job market.

We're constantly learning and thriving to enjoy our city for the next year and will continue to seek knowledge, wisdom, and friendship in Denver. We will continue to succeed to help the community and the people that are in need.