Trip to the big city….

Trip to the big city….

This post may contain affiliate links.

So, today we were working on the truck (story later on that), and we needed a tool.  A wrench. That’s it. A simple, 18mm open-end/boxed-end wrench. Unfortunately the closest tool store is Ace Hardware in Elizabeth…about 50 minutes away.  That’d be a good 2 1/2 trip today just to get a damn wrench. Well hell, they are expensive as hell anyway, and I did’t want to go there. So, we decided that for 15 more minutes of driving (one way), we’d head to the big city and make an afternoon of it. We had pretty much lost the afternoon for fixing the car anyway having to go get a tool, so why not.

The nearest BIG city is Aurora. Big city means a city with a population of over 50,000. Now that’s chump change from where I come from… The Ft. Lauderdale area. But around here, that’s a BIG city. You figure, the nearest ‘real’ town here has a population of less than 500 people…that’s Deer Trail. These towns don’t have gas stations, grocery stores, or any other business’ a city girl is used to. I’m used to fast food, Sam’s Club, dollar stores, big chain stores, health food stores, and any other number of retailers just a hop skip & a jump away. This has been tough move on me and my girly retail therapy, I tell you!

So, after mapping out a route, we took off. My son wasn’t all that happy, he’s kind of tired of long road trips. He can’t stay home by himself. He’s old enough, and I trust him, but four to six hours alone, without a phone or a neighbor closer than a quarter mile away, I just don’t feel comfortable. Maybe that’s just the parinoid Florida girl in me, but that’s how it is. So, he armed himself with a Star Wars book, and we were off.

An hour and ten minutes later, we were in the city. OMG OK, I’ve been to lots of cities in Colorado, but I swear I had closed my eyes and woke up back in South Florida. The roads, the traffic, the medians, the concrete, the people…..it was South Florida!  I know ya’ll don’t understand, but Colorado is VERY different from Florida. It’s hard to explain….just take my word for it.

So anyway, we went to Harbor Freight to get the wrench (a wrench set), and picked up some other stuff while they were there.  I mean, it’s an awesome store, and you can’t beat the prices when they’re having a sidewalk sale!! After a quick browse at the Dollar Tree in the same lot, we headed to Sam’s Club for gas. You can’t beat club gas prices. It was .20 cheaper a gallon than the gas station on the same corner. And of course, while your at Sam’s, you just gotta get a big fat buttery salted pretzel and an Icee, right?! After my son and I got our indulgences, we walked around. I picked up a couple recipe magazines and a new vacuum, since mine died this week. If you have three dogs, a long haired cat, three kids (yes, I include hubby in there), and live off a dusty dirt road, you just cannot go without a vacuum! We headed off to Sprouts for some fruits & veggies. I’ve been going crazy with no produce in the house. I moved here too late to plant a garden, and the Wal-Mart I go to in Elizabeth doesn’t really have a good selection. So it was a stop I just HAD to make while here, ya know. We got excited that there was a Halloween City next door….but it wasn’t open. Poo! We then traveled to our last destination, the auto parts store to get another part for the truck. Throughout the entire city excursion I looked around, kept an eye out for stores so next time I come out here to go shopping, I have an idea of what is here. I was happy to see a Burlington Coat Factory. Haven’t been to one of those since the Sawgrass mall. There was also a Toys R Us, which will be good to know come Black Friday.

We knew we wanted to take in dinner while we were here. We don’t get the option of calling for Chinese take-out, or pizza when I don’t want to cook where we live. We can’t run to Taco Bell or McDonalds if I’m too beat to cook either. We didn’t have time to sit down & eat in a restaurant, but that’s OK. We were trying to decide whether to go to Wing Stop or a NYC Style pizza joint. We used to eat at Wing Stop in FL. Hubby loved their cajun wings, and I loved their fries. I haven’t eaten at one since we moved out here four years ago. They had Buffalo Wild Wings, and some other wings place in Greeley, but neither compared to Wing Stop. Of course NOTHING compares to Wings Plus in Coral Springs. Oooohhh….how I miss that place. Oh, sorry, I started to drool. Anyway, even though the wings sounded good, I chose the pizza place. I haven’t had a NY style pizza in over four years. That’s the kind they sell in Florida pizzeria’s and I miss it soooooooooo much. All they have here in Colorado is Chicago style. While it’s good, nothing beats a thin, greasy, more cheese than crust NY pizza! I was really hoping that since they were a NY pizzeria they’d also have garlic rolls. No dice. It’s so strange, these people out here don’t know what garlic rolls are! They have garlic bread…..it’s not the same thing. 🙁

We got a large pepperoni pie & took it on the road, back to our little rural area with dirt roads and no stores. It was late afternoon, and the thunderstorms were rolling in. That’s the problem with going out…you don’t want to be coming back in the rain. Not on these dirt roads! You gotta make the most out of your city trips, and make them quick.

We were gone almost six hours. Hard to believe; We didn’t do much. You figure it was three hours drive round trip, then about two & a half hours driving around and shopping in the city. It was a good day though. Sure, we didn’t get to fix the car…again, but we got some things we needed, and some damn good pizza at Anthony’s!

The car….we’ll work on some more tomorrow.