With no alarms set, we slept in, waking to a fantastic view from our loft master bedroom. When in I rustled, Amanda was pointing, saying look!
I worked on catching up on multiple posts while Amanda made us lattes. She began work on the puzzle she didn’t finish in Wyoming, keeping large pieces intact the best we could when packing it up.
We had enough food to make spring rolls. So we knocked them out for a light lunch. Spring rolls are always a team effort. I chop everything, then get the rice paper ready as Amanda rolls. We usually stuff them to the brim but kept these more of a traditional lettuce roll style. Butter lettuce with cucumbers, carrots, avocado, and sweet potato noodles all wrapped in brown rice paper. We can’t find brown rice paper at home, always looking for it but only come up with white. We tend to shy as from anything processed and stripped of nutrients, such as white rice and flour. I whipped up a quick peanut sauce to go with the rolls as well.
The cabin is impressive, with views out over cattle fields overlooking the San Juan Mountains. It has the amazing master loft views over the living room and the mountains in the rear. The kitchen is a great size as well, fully stocked. A nice laundry room which, after a week and a half in Wyoming without washing clothes, we promptly started a couple of loads. The downstairs has two bedrooms and a bath. The bathroom even has a view out its window. If you don’t shut the door, you have a nice view over the pastures while sitting!
The main heat source for the home is a pellet wood stove. It sits on an old fireplace hearth and is entirely automatic. Complete with a remote and thermostat. Then each room has an electric baseboard heat strip, each having its own thermostat. The heat strips are the same as our cabin in Wyoming. I was blown away that electric was the main heat source. I would have expected gas or a fireplace/wood stove as here. I would imagine that is what most homes here have.
Once we had full bellies, we decided to venture out to town, not but a couple of minutes away. There was a coffee and bookshop, so we stopped in. Figuring Colorado is hipster enough to have milk alternatives, we were right and got excellent honey oatmilk lattes.
Coffee in hand, we make the short mountain drive to Ouray. Once in the little town, you can see why they call the area the Switzerland of America. This small town sat flanked by towering mountains on either side. I wouldn’t think a quarter mile wide and maybe a mile long. Nothing about the ground is level! The streets are at a heavy incline, and all the buildings are built on the side of hills amongst the beautiful red rock cliffs.
We shopped a bit; many restaurants closed in the afternoon, and other shops closed altogether during this lull of off-season time. We didn’t find much. I picked up a sweater off the sale rack, but Amanda didn’t find anything that would suit her fancy taste! We grabbed a spicy Mexican oatmilk hot chocolate for the road and made our way to the top of town for the view. This road is a crazy winding road all the way to Silverton, which we plan on taking later in our trip when there isn’t snow in the forecast.
We drove back to Ridgway to scope the grocery store out. The views on the short drive were amazing. The grocery store was a bit small, and we’ll likely wait till we are back in the Montrose area to grab a big load for the week. We head through there, going to the Gunnison area tomorrow.
As we arrived at the cabin, Mule deer lined the front lawn, including a couple of noteworthy bucks. We unloaded the few things we had, then proceeded to chill and watch the sun go down. Drink in my hand, I walked around the cabin. I felt much like my father, just walking around surveying the property! It’s funny how the older we become, the more of our parents we see in our elves. A snowstorm was blowing in, so it made the 50-degree weather feel much colder.
After a bit of prompting from Amanda, I started dinner. She assisted by starting the brown rice for the stir fry. I would proceed to make a horrible meal! I could talk about the unfamiliar electric stove, not all my usual seasoning, and so on, but I simply dropped the ball. I wished we had eaten on paper plates so I could have just thrown everything that reminded me of that meal in the trash. Needless to say, you won’t get a description or pic of that meal.
I’m terribly behind on post, so I sat back down to catch up, and Amanda finished the Teton puzzle. Well, almost there was one piece missing! I was worried about the transport and ensured I didn’t miss a piece when packing. Either way, one piece shy was enough to make my petite wife fiery mad!
Off to bed with a soft up time. Since there was snow in the forecast, we didn’t want to leave before daylight. The road between Gunnison and Montrose was showing closed on Apple Maps as well. The route around would take three and a half hours. That trip would be thrown out the window after all our long Yellowstone days. There are a couple of state parks we will hit if the road is closed.