Travel day! We hated to leave Crested Butte, but then, it will be nice to be able to breathe again – I never did fully adjust to the altitude up there. Plus, because of the Jimmy’s generosity, letting us stay in his townhouse, it will be very hard to go back to the beds in The Beast – they’re not uncomfortable, but they’re not Memory Foam mattresses, either! Thanks Jimmy! It was great staying there!
It’s not a terribly long drive to Durango, a bit less than four hours supposedly, but first, a stop in Gunnison for breakfast! I’ve read that The W Cafe is a really good place for breakfast, so that’s where we head. We have to walk a few blocks, because, with Junior and The Beast as a package, parking on the street is a miracle – you have to find at least three adjacent spots with a good approach! The reviews are right – breakfast is awesome! Gotta come back here next year!
We get back on the road, and in a few miles hit our first hitch – road construction! Well, we knew about this, because we hit it on the way in to CB, and sure enough, it takes about a half hour to get through it. Twenty minute wait, and ten minutes to drive through, but soon enough we’re on the other side, cruising along at speed. The vistas are great, the passes all have snow on the ground, it’s outstanding!
And this:
And here is Junior and The Beast up in the snow:
At this point, life is grand! We’re cruising right along, really close to Durango … maybe 30 miles away … DETOUR! Yes, turn right, and get on a little two-lane road, speed limit 35. Hmmm, it’s gonna take a while to get to Durango on this road. We’ll hardly get there before the bike shops close, but maybe, if we’re lucky! Yeah – well, you know us – if it wasn’t for bad luck, we’d have no luck at all, sometimes. Yes, traffic slows to a crawl – I mean truly stop and go – why? Why? Because there is a trash truck up ahead, picking up the trash! Move up one house, stop, pick up the trash, move to the next house, stop, pick up … ok, you get the idea. Yeah – we got to Durango almost at six. Shops were looong closed. Oh, well. We’ll hit them tomorrow.