Cowboys,Mountains and Harleys August 3, 2008

Colorado

Originally uploaded by chris.warn

Hello chaps,
We are still here,working our way to New York. We slept well in Farmington, New Mexico and headed out to the town for a nose around the next morning. Great antique shops, full of tat and we spent a few hours looking at all things old from the states. Their tat is pretty similar to our tat really, except we don’t have the cowboy boots and gun holsters. We were on a mission to find an old cowboy style coffee pot. I was in heaven and happily strolled around looking at pots, plates and bits of lace, Chris was keen to get on the road so looked particularly relieved when we found one. We also stumbled on a bargain blanket as well.
Back on the road we headed into the mountains passing some stunning whoppers, Engineer’s Peak, Sunlight Peak(14059ft) and Red Mountain(11075ft.)

We had been advised to go to Ouray as it was supposed to be like a Little Switzerland and indeed that was it’s nick name. We were stunned by the mountain’s beauty and some of the scarey hairpin bends. We also got to see a deer as we approached Ouray and managed to get it on camera. Ouray is in a valley surrounded by mountains from all sides. It is a really pretty town with ginger bread type houses in pastel colours like a bag of sugared almonds. I bet it looks amazing whitened in the winter snow, bustling with skiers in their bright skiing jackets.
We headed for a late lunch in a place named The Outback, a spit and sawdust looking place (with the prices of The Ritz.) The Outback has been in the same family for years, first started by an Italian who fell in love with a local girl. It was refurbished after a street train came off the rails and smashed into it in the 1930’s. Great place with cow brands burnt into the walls and lots of photos of roughish looking cowboys.
As we passed the loos we saw some photos of people dressed in the old fashioned American outfits. I think you can probably guess what happened next! As soon as we found out where they had been taken we literally ran down the street to get ours done. The photographer helps you out with your outfit, however Chris knew exactly what he wanted to wear, unbelievable. While i was in the changing room I could hear him enquiring about certain hats,  cowboy boots and insisting on having a gun (shocker). When I came out, he was fully dressed in pretty much everything he could get on him, with of course cowboy boots and the sherrif badge. And I thought I was excited about it! Chris also had decided on the pose we would do and directed me to which facial expressions to use. We had to look sternly, no smiling. I never knew that Chris had such a strong idea of what he wanted from a Cowboy Style photo shoot. I think he may have been wanting to be a cowboy for quite some time!!!
It was late and we were way behind schedule, so back to the car and onwards. We passed beautiful mountains, glowing red in the last vestiges of the day’s sunshine.
Chris had been driving all day and we were glad to see the signs for our motel at Grand Junction. The altitude has been making me a little strange and I am nodding off like an old dear all the time. Thank goodness Chris is ok, as we would never get anywhere. To bed in our great motel, ensuite, breakfast included, clean sheets, soft towels, cable t.v and wireless internet, BLISS!
Up early to head for Aspen, we got briefly side tracked by the swimming pool. The weather is glorious and sometimes we just need to lay down and soak it all up. The swimming pools in the standard US motel is normally right by the road, in the car park effectively and lacking in the palm trees and pretty seating, we don’t care a jot though. We did laugh when we talked about our roof top swimming pool back in Bangkok with Roman Statues, underwater lighting and a view of the city, now that was a hellava place.
Finally a little browner (We will return home brown,we will) we set off to Aspen where only the wealthy ski. Busy old road, all worth it when we arrived though. Aspen has lots of cafes and eating out areas, fountains and wealth is everywhere. There are the women with diamonds as big as your eyeballs and just a hint of botox. The restaurant was full of ladies doing lunch, small dogs being carried (clearly no dogs have legs here) and people generally being seen. Labels were shown on everything, Prada Bags, Chanel sunglasses e.t.c. The food was surprisingly reasonable and we enjoyed people-watching and also tried to listen to people’s conversations, great fun. The shops are mostly galleries,jewellers and even fur shops. Quite a pretty place ,but I think we will leave them to it.
It was interesting to see how close the ski slopes were to the town. There was no snow so you could see paths cut out between the pines and zigzagging across the pendulous mountains.
The next part of the day turned out to be very scenic, beautiful silver trunked Quaking Aspen trees, old gold mines, tree covered mountains and narrow cliff roads. We passed over the stunning Independence Pass resting at a massive 12093 feet, literally taking our breath away. It was all too much for me and I nodded off (again, altitude sickness is weird.)
Just when we thought the day was over we reached The Royal Gorge Bridge. This was just for Richie Ryan, but when we pulled up we knew we were going to have to cross it. It was irresistible. Hanging in the cloud with the slickest curves of wire and the biggest bolts, it was a work of art. This was indeed the biggest suspention bridge……………wait for it…………….wait for it……….
IN THE WORLD!
After seeing so much natural beauty it was fitting to see something beautiful that was man made. We crossed over the swaying wooden slats, looking to the gorge below. The river below was no bigger than a curved silver line running through the rocks, we were hanging a massive 1052 feet above it.
It was 7 in the evening and 33 degrees,most people had been and gone, so we absorbed the peace and enjoyed the rocking of the bridge. This is what travelling is all about! These perfect days just keep rolling along.
We drove North again passing through Denver without stopping and seeing the gold dome of the civic centre to our right and the even more stupendous sight of the Rocky Mountains in the distance on our left. We looked around Cheyenne, where we stayed for the night. We had the pleasure of seeing our first drive through bank, why get out of the car at all? There are also real live cowboys in this here town! The town centre was a little bit lacking with no real character, but worth a stroll. The best thing about Cheyenne was that we accidently stumbled upon a theme Restaurant. Now this is what I am talking about! I have been dying to come into one of these places, it has to be done if you go to America. The menu was massive and everything came with cheese on and 6 different dressings and side orders and coke refills. Very American. All the waitresses had those shirts with name badges embroidered on and the whole restaurant was decorated like a car wash with memorabilia. Good fun, good food, box ticked for American Theme experiences. A final trip to the cinemas to watch Indiana Jones (It was ok ), then back to a different motel for bed.  Today we spent mainly on the road, passing briefly into Nebraska to see long, flat rolling plains and prairies, interspersed with some striking Buttes near Chadron, the nicest Buttes we have seen in the States!
We are now in South Dakota. We have seen the Black Hills in the distance and sung “Take me back to the Black Hills,The Black Hills of Dakota” twice. I told Chris the story of Calamity Jane going to the ball and wearing that beautiful dress under her old coat. It was a while ago, but I didn’t think he would want to hear it again. Anyway we have arrived at a small town called Hot Springs. There is a big Harley Davidson Convention tomorrow just up the road in Sturgis so there are loads of bikers and the throbbing of finely tuned machines knocking about. All the riders are of a certain age it seems, drive very sensibly, are very friendly and wear shades with extremely well tanned arms.  We are off to look at some Mammouth Bones tomorrow (Now there is something you don’t say very often.) Time seems to be slipping away from us and we only have 3 weeks left before we come home. America is a great place to end our trip and every day is a good one, I think my altitude sickness has gone, I have managed to stay awake all day. Chris is watching “Blazing Saddles” while I write this, even the films on T.V. here are about cowboys. Let’s hope we can make it home without buying chaps and a gun or getting into a drunken saloon fight with bottles being smashed on people’s heads and men being slid along the bar (althoough the last bit sounds a bit like a night out in Plymouth)! Keep reading the blogg chaps,three more weeks and our blogg will be finitto!