DAY 27: What To Do In Grand Junction.....

DAY 27:  Still in Grand Junction, Colorado
TEMP:  Still 97 Degrees....

Today we visited Colorado National Monument here in Grand Junction.........and Sam's Club.

I figured there had to be something "special" about Grand Junction; the KOA is pretty nice.....the Dairy Queen down the road is pretty nice; the two little Morman guys on their bikes were pretty nice......but what is special about Grand Junction??

My sister and Brady suggested we drive over to Moab about 100 miles away......but it was HOT today and I knew my Chuck would get cranky being on the bike that long in the heat, plus all he wanted to do today was go to Sam's Club, so after a little googling, I discovered Grand Junction is known for Colorado National Monument.....and it was only 12 miles away!!!

So, bright and early this morning, we hopped on the trike and headed the 12 miles to the Monument.  It was like a "Miniature Moab" and really cool!  I was doing the usual "taking-pictures-of-everything" when we came across this super cool rock formation, sitting out by itself, that had something red on it.

But I still couldn't tell what was on the top of this beautiful rock structure......

So, I zooooomed WAY in and imagine my surprise when I see Chuck and his pup tent on the top!!! (ok..ok....so Chuck doesn't own a pup tent........oh ya, and I photoshopped him up there).......

And we did finally make it to Sam's Club (once I got Chuck off the rock formation) where Chuck shopped till he dropped and Liz found a good book, and, along my new Sam's friend Vern, curled up on the leather sectional for $1,599, and read till my sweetie was ready to head home......

DAY 26: "This Blog Will Make You Laugh...."

DAY 26:  Grand Junction, CO
TEMP:  97 Degrees

This Blog will, in a wicked way, make you laugh......

Because we went from THIS....

to THIS......

We traveled from Ouray to Grand Junction today, a simple easy 98 mile drive north.....from Heaven (68 degrees) to Hades (97 degrees)......Because I have been torturing you with the wonderful daily temperatures all along, I knew this would make you laugh......AGHHHHHHHH....

We ain't stayin' here.........

DAY 25: OMGoodness......

DAY 25: Black Bear Pass, Ouray to Telluride, CO
TEMP:  55 - 70 Degrees

OMGoodness

Remember me telling you about the ALL DAY, scary, cliff-hanging 4-wheeling I was going to do at Black Bear Pass? Well, I LIVED and have the pictures to prove it!!  

Bill

But before I let the pictures do the talking for me, let me just say we had the most awesome 150 year old driver named Bill taking us up this mountain; and then down; and then up again; and then down.....AWESOME!!  He is a fellow Texan and has been coming back to Colorado every year from June - Sept. for 40 years giving this Jeep tour.  

Thousands of Sheep

The trip started in Ouray, went to Telluride and then back to Ouray thru the Imogene Pass.  We drove through a herd of thousands of sheep with their sheep herder living in a tent with his horse;  some of the hairpin turns required us to go down them BACKWARDS; some of the roads were so steep, we had to stop and put snow on the radiator to cool it down; and the views were beyond breathtaking.  

Waterfall on way to Telluride

If any of you are atheists out there, I encourage you to see what I have seen over the past week and you will know, without a shadow of a doubt, there is a God in control.....

One with vision beyond anything we can imagine.  

Bill and I had a "special" bond..

Hanging off the mountain....

Bill giving us a history lesson

Fellow Texan on the tour....

Assembly line adding snow to radiator

Snow packed radiator

Made it to the top!!

View of the Red Mountains...

All the jeeps ended up having to back all the way up

Bill made me get out and take this picture 

DAY 24: "$1,000,000 Highway....."

DAY 24:  Silverton, Colorado & the Million Dollar Highway
TEMP:  73 Degrees / 55 Degrees at Noon on the $1,000,000 Highway...burrrrrrr

Today was "Take-A-Break-From-Faux-Jeep-Tours" Day.....

Yep, I took a day off from being the very best customer the San Juan Scenic Jeep Tours has ever had......but tomorrow......well....tomorrow is going to be the "cherry on the cake" tour......I've signed up for the scariest tour they have.....the ALL DAY Black Bear Pass tour......

But back to today.....

Today we headed south on the Million Dollar Highway to Silverton.....about 23 miles down the road from Ouray.  If you haven't heard of the Million Dollar Highway, here's a quiz on how it got its name.

Did Highway 550, or otherwise known as the Million Dollar Highway, get its name because:

a)  It cost 1 million dollars for every mile to build....
b)  It has a million dollar view....
c)  The women in the olden days said "You couldn't give me a million dollars to ride on that road!"

You think about that as I tell you a little bit about this awesome road.....

The actual portion called the Million Dollar Highway is only 12 miles long through a gorge to the summit of Red Mountain Pass (remember.....we went there a few days ago on our first faux-Jeep Tour!).

This stretch of highway is best known for its steep cliffs, narrow lanes, lack of guardrails (which helps with photo taking!) and hair-raising "S" curves used to gain elevation.  If you're traveling north from Silverton to Ouray, you get to hug the inside of these curves and practically scrape the edge of the cliffs with your vehicle.  If your going south from Ouray to Silverton (my favorite direction!!), thats when the fun begins!!  You get to perch on the vertiginous outside edge of the highway.....I personally like to scare Chuck by asking him to "take the wheel"  just as we're coming into one of these curves, so I can snap a few pictures......  <;)

But enough about the Million Dollar Highway......once we arrived in Silverton, we stopped and had mexican food for lunch.....yes...I know....Mexican Food in Colorado.  This probably was not one of our "better ideas"......but as we burped and belched our way out of there, we headed on down the dirt road to  an old silver mine that had long been abandoned.  And this is where we met Mr. and Mrs. Simmons riding on their 4-wheelers.  They were a retired couple originally from around the Houston area who had moved to Colorado several years ago.  We learned  that Mr. Simmons isn't a big a fan of Mr. Obama.....matter of fact, I believe he referred to him as a......well, I'll leave that for your imagination.  I just regret not getting a picture of the Simmons' for you!

Well, that's about it for today.....my eyes are growing heavy and Chuck's deep in his snoring phase, so Good-Night and, oh ya, it wouldn't hurt if you sent a few prayers up for me tomorrow on the Black Bear Pass!!

G'Night.....

DAY 23: "Blessed Indeed....."

DAY 23:  Mt.  Sneffels, Ouray, Colorado
TEMP:  68 Degrees (High)

"Live Every Day with Enjoyment - We Don't Know What Tomorrow Will Give Us....."

Today was cold, rainy and dreary......

I take no satisfaction in telling this to my family and friends in Texas who are suffering through a blistering summer of 100+ degrees each and every day with no rain in sight......I tell you this cause sometimes we lose sight of the blessings we have even when they may not have the appearance of a blessing.....

Let me explain....

Today I met Gib and Marge......they were on the same Jeep tour I was on to Mt. Sneffels, or otherwise known as Yankee Boy Basin.  Matter of fact, us three were the ONLY ones on the tour due to the nasty weather.

Marge was nervous; Gib held her hand and smiled lovingly at her, all the while, patting it reassuredly.  She had a laugh just like my Ant Ellie, so much so that if you closed your eyes, you would swear Ant Ellie was sitting right next to you.  I actually closed my eyes many times over the course of the 4 hours just pretending Ant Ellie was really there...she would have loved this adventure!  Marge would do the "Ant Ellie" laugh when she was especially tense; like when we would meet another jeep on the narrow trail or the back wheels spun due to the rain soaked trail.....

We got to know each other pretty well over the course of our soggy time together in an open-air Jeep made for 12.......See, Gib and Marge have been married for 54 years; have 6 children; 9 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren, and are the happiest married couple I believe I've ever met.  Even with the cold, rain and scary cliff-hugging trails, you could tell they were madly in love....even after waking up to each others' face for 54 years.  They were blessed beyond words....

But my blessing today was not just in meeting Gib and Marge, but as we came to the end of our wet ride to Yankee Boy Basin, we rounded a corner and saw the most amazing field after field after field of wildflowers and waterfalls.......Everywhere we looked, there were wildflowers......

In an instant, the rain and the cold no longer existed.......we were surrounded by the most splendid, magnificant site one could imagine.   It was like the rain had washed the dust off the flowers, which caused them to be even more vivid.....and then the clouds starting surrounding us....which, if possible, made them even more brilliant!

After an hour of exploring and while waiting on our tour driver, the three of us just sat there on a rock; rain pouring down on us, soaking it all in saying nothing.......you see, we all realized there were no words to say.....

Blessed Indeed.....

DAY 22: Our Roller Coaster Ride to Heaven......

DAY 22:  Ouray, Colorado (I told you wrong the other day; actual pronounciation is "YOU-RAY"...as in "How YOU doin', RAY??")
Temp:  72 Degrees (Sunny with slow showers this afternoon)

WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! 

WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! 

I know I'm using "Heaven" a lot to describe stuff I've seen since we left on July 4 (well, except pictures from Amarillo, of course...), but here in Colorado, it's the best and only word that describes what I've seen.......

It just so happens the name of our tour today was called "Road to Heaven"......and boy-howdy, they weren't lying!!

We took a Jeep tour today, except it wasn't a Jeep; it was a modified Chevy 1/2-Ton Pickup with open air seats for 12 in the back.  I immediately had my eye on the exact seat I wanted; the very very back on the end.  With camera in hand; extra battery in my pocket......this was going to be a phenomenal picture-taking day!!!  And 365 pictures later, I'm having a hard time picking and choosing the pictures to share with you that won't put you to sleep.....

We took roads in that Chevy PU that were barely roads.....just dirt paths up 13,000+ to the very top of Red Mountain #3.  This is a private mountain and only one tour group in town is allowed up to the peak of this mountain which makes it even neater.  At times, we were hanging on the edge of the mountain; other times, we were avoiding bolders covering the road....

As we climbed higher and higher; making hairpin curves that required us to back-up on several occasions in order to make the curve, which allowed MY seat to be hanging over the edge of Red Mountain.......I couldn't stop giggling.......It was like a 1/2 day non-stop ride on a roller coaster at Six Flags.......SOOOOO COOOL!!!  I kept saying to Chuck, "WAKE UP.....we're backing up again.....!!!"  How he could nap at a time like this is a mystery to me.......

It was SOOOO cool, I'm taking another tour tomorrow.........and then again on Wednesday......and maybe Thursday too!!!

BUCKET LIST:

46) Take a Chevy PU up a non-existing road to the peak of Red Mountain #3.  DONE!

DAY 21: We Are The Proud Owners Of.......A Chunk of Wood

DAY 21:  Montrose/Ouray, Colorado
TEMP:  Montrose: 93 Degrees / Ouray: 79 Degrees

We found the most awesome piece of wood today!!

I know its just a chunk of wood, but its "our" wood and really cool.....We found it in a really neat state park called Amphitheater Campground that sits just south, and high above the heart of Ouray with incredible views of the town below.  Thanks to my friends back home, Robin and Eric, for having us check this campground out!   Maybe Chuck will make you something neat out of this wood he had to carry around in his lap for awhile.....(I wouldn't hold my breath, though).....

Today was one of those "do nothing much" kind of days.......I took Murphy for a LOOOOONG walk this morning only cause I couldn't figure out how to get back on our side of the river......

We rode through town and then on to Montrose, a larger town with a Target store and a Chili's restaurant in it.....but dang, it was 93 degrees in Montrose!!!  WAYYYY too hot for us, so we scrambled back to Ouray and our comfortable 79 degrees as quick as possible.......

And for those of you who think Chuck and I have this magical, charmed life where we never grow weary of each others company; think again.  Today was one of those days where everything we did irritated the other.......