We were up a little late Monday and dragging. So once we finally got moving, the first stop was, you guessed it, Starbucks! The only one in town is inside a grocery store. In our vast experience, these tend not to be as good, but this one was great. I filled up on $4.20 gas, a dollar higher than Texas, while Amanda grabbed our go-go juice. After driving in silence for a while and talking, Amanda didn’t seem to chipper. When I said something, she told me she needed some Jesus music to wake her up!
It was nice to see this area in the summertime. The ground looks so different, colorful, and pretty without snow. Lots of red rock, more than I was expecting for Colorado. One thing in Colorado is never judging distance by looking at a map; you have mountains to contend with here. For instance, when we were in Mountain Village today, I looked at the time to Ouray. It showed 11 miles, a straight shot, but it was 50 on pavement and took an hour and ten minutes.
As we went through Durango, we decided to hit some thrift stores up. This is much more my speed; we both love finding great deals. First was an outdoor clothes thrift shop. We both came out with some Patagonia attire, a fishing shirt for me, and a sweater for Amanda. Next was a church thrift store. I scored an Eddie Bauer wool sweater for $8, and Amanda got a cute crop top shirt for $1.50. Much more our speed and our money goes much farther than it would buy all the turquoise Amanda was looking at on the way up! Durango’s downtown was much nicer than I expected. I remember not liking the area we went through on the last trip.
I still can’t get over how fast the drivers are around here. And this is coming from a guy who consistently drives eight over. I’m telling you, we were getting our doors blown off by all the locals. It’s wild, and boy, do they hate the looky-loos blasting by and cutting the RV and rubberneckers off!
Once we got into the Ute reservation, going west to Cortez, it started looking like dessert; this is close to Mesa Verde National Park, where the Pueblo Clift dwellings are. I wanted to go by, but we were already putting a lot of miles down. We’ll hit it up on our way back from Slat Lake in October, though.
Once we turned north toward Dolores, the scenery changed quickly back to mountainous. The farther north we got, the more you were in the mountains. This is what I like: being surrounded by towering rock formations, displaying all of God’s might and power. In the book of Romans in the bible, Paul speaks of how clearly we can see God through his attributes. How could we deny there is a creator amongst the creation like we drove through? To think I was an atheist at once! When we got to spots where you had to lean down to see the sky above the mountaintops, I told Amanda we’re in my country. That is absolutely what I love and the terrain I’m most fond of.
The closer we got to the Telluride area, the more beautiful it got. We went there from Mountain Village via the gondola, which goes up and over a 10k mountain! I assumed you went down from Mountain Village into Telluride. You do, but you go up first! It was a little scary for us, especially once you’re car clamps on to the cable and it whisks you up. Neither of us is fond of heights. Once we got accustomed to it, after swapping sides for me twice and getting to the midway point, Station St. Sophia, at 10,500 feet, you drop off shapely and abruptly. I’ll be honest I closed my eyes for a bite as we dropped; good thing I was filming!
Once we got off the gondola, I texted a friend we were meeting later, joking. I asked if there was an Uber we could take back to Mountain Village because the gondola was scary! The gondolas don’t stop while you get on or off either, so that was a little hairy for Amanda to get on with her bad knee. As she was getting off, I could hear her saying to herself bad knee first! But she did great and got on and off both with no problem.
We had a quick lunch, a mezze plate from a Mediterranean place. Then went by a bakery, grabbing a loaf of whole wheat bread and a small sweet snack. After one more thrift shop, we were back on the gondola. I found a neat Telluride tee shirt on a sale rack, but nothing in Amanda’s size. She was butt hurt that she didn’t find one. With nearly $50 tee shirts, we weren’t about to buy one that wasn’t on the sale rack! On the way to the car, we stopped in one more shop, and Amanda found herself a $10 tee, too.
We left Mountain Village, heading towards Ouray. As we left, I called to extend our stay one day. I was told months ago to do it this way since we were staying in points, and they assured me they would accommodate us. Turns out they can’t accommodate us so we’re changing plans for our last day. The last night, we were going to eat out, so having the condo with the kitchen isn’t necessary; a hotel will work just fine. Currently, we’re discussing going to Colorado Springs or maybe staying in Ouray. It’s frustrating, but I think it will work out well. I’ve come up with some good ideas.
Coming down the steep mountain in the Ridgway, I noticed the brakes pulsating as the cruise control slowed us down. This continued and didn’t get any better. It was a little scary going down a steep grade with brakes pulsating, and I was already using a lower gear. I asked Amanda to do a quick Google search of the model and year and issues like this. Her Google-fu is not as strong as mine, but she found the problem quickly. There was a service bulletin about this exact condition while you went down the mountain. This is a known issue to Toyota, but there was no recall, yet we found it on a national motorist safety page!
In Ouray, we meet some friends for dinner. They moved away from Brackettville about five years ago, and we haven’t seen them since. We swapped places with them the last time we were in Colorado. They went to Brackettville while we were here, and by the time we made it home, they had already left! It was really good to see them. They live in Montrose and have an amazing business, Elope Telluride. They plan elopements in the mountains. Joe is an amazing photographer and showed us some phenomenal photos of bride and groom with Rocky’s as the backdrop. We chatted with them nonstop, catching up on all the things.
Our thrift shopping put us behind a couple of hours. I wanted to be through the Million Dollar Highway before dark. Dark is much earlier when you’re in a town surrounded by mountains! The sun had long set past the tall mountains as we drove south. This highway is filled with curves, ten mph switchbacks, and straight drop-offs that go down hundreds and hundreds of feet. There was no sightseeing for me as I was concentrating on the road as it got darker and darker. We made it to Silverton, the end of the Million Dollar Highway before complete darkness sat in. Then, we had to contend with the vast mule deer instead of sharp drop-offs. Amanda’s eyes were peeled. She has eagle eyes for things like this!
We made it back to our condo at about 10 p.m. I made a quick social media post about our gondola ride in Telluride, and then we crashed! It was a long day, but the trip was so beautiful that it made all the seat time worth it.