Night 5 - Denver

Our hotel in Denver was as impressive as the one in Topeka, not for a slide, but for the sheer quality of the room. It was a suite with a couch and a 42" flat screen TV, free internet, and free breakfast. We got settled in, Mike watched the first part of the heartbreaking Capitals game on his computer, and then we hit the road into Downtown Denver for a dinner we had planned since before we left.



Warning: descriptions and images below may gross out vegetarians or animal lovers in general. Proceed with caution.

Atlas Obscura had shown us to a restaurant known for its completely bizarre range of meats. The Buckhorn Exchange, operating in Denver since 1893, offers such satisfying meats as rattlesnake, elk, buffalo, and yak. They also offer the epitome of bizarre mountain foods- the Rocky Mountain Oyster. For those unacquainted they are the sliced, battered and fried testicles of a buffalo or bull.





We arrived in what looked like a converted brick townhouse, where every single available wall surface was covered with the stuffed head of an animal. We sat down in at a table right under a display case full of stuffed birds, and ordered the risky appetizer- a steal at only $9.75 - as well as the rattlesnake which was mixed into a jack-cheese and salsa dipping sauce and served with chips- like you'd expect. The rattlesnake was no big deal, and Jon had similar feelings about the oysters. Mike ate a few slices of testicle with some trepidation, enough to say he had done it, and left the rest of his portion on the plate.



Our meals included the meats elk, quail, cornish game hen, kobe beef, and ostrich, but I want to talk about the mixed vegetables. Just kidding. The meats were all palatable, but they had cooked them to a char on the outside, so it was hard to get a sense of what the meat itself tasted like. We can now say that we have eaten those animals, but not whether we like them or not.

We then caught the the light rail to downtown- which apparently operates on the honor system because no one checked our tickets. We were looking for a bar on the main strip, 16th street, but it being a Wednesday night found the streets empty and the bars mostly quiet. We grabbed a beer in one of them, but the emptiness of the streets coupled with the tire of the day made us return to the hotel for a moderately early night. Denver has not been our favorite stop along the way, but we have a fun mountain drive ahead of us tomorrow, so spirits are high.