Leaving Silverton

Saturday 12 th May.



Today we left Silverton, wondering if we were making a mistake, that maybe we should spend a week or two here, ponsing about getting to know the locals (easy work that). I really did consider staying another week here. We took our morning coffee with our new four legged friend and headed off through the mountains with a view to eventually arriving in Cortez.

Silverton

Friday 11th May



This place is quite unique. When we got in yesterday we walked into the guest house where we wanted to stay, “Hello”, I cried “anyone at home”. One of the guests arrived down from upstairs and told us that the owner was out in the mountains, and we should look at the rooms which were open (if the door was open the room was still free) and if we found one we liked, we could ring her on the cell phone (number on the front desk). Which is what we did. The house is just great. Old fashioned like a old Victorian House, with lots of brass fittings and old fashioned bits and pieces.
Silverton is like a town locked in the past. Beautiful and totally unpretentious. Nobody locks their doors, even the shops are left open. We walked into a coffee shop looking for coffee ( the beast has to be fed) finding nobody at home we left again, to be told by a passer-by that they close at 3 pm. But the shop door was open, and that is the way it is with the whole town. Just magical. All the shop fronts are old fashioned, but genuinely so, not made up to look like that, like the theme pubs in England are. Only the main street is tarred the rest are plain gravel. The whole town moves along at its own pace. We met loads of people here, ready to talk and chat.

Today we walked up Kendall’s Mountain. Which is this mountain:


Up the mountain we go, in the snow :-)



Well we got up to 11,000 feet and then that was that. I couldn't lift me feet any further, and the last 200 feet took all the energy I had, but I wanted to reach the 11,000 feet mark (according to my GPS). Took us 3 hours to get up to that and 90 mins to get back down and I am totally wasted. Wasted but happy.

Later we went over to TJ’s place for supper and drank Blackberry brandy and ate icecream. TJ got up and played Bach on his Viola for us. A perfect end to a perfect day.

Durango to Silverton

Thursday 10th May.

We left Durango and drove to North over the Million Dollar Highway, named because the gravel is full of gold dust. Passing over Coal Bank Pass where we stopped and had a some food. The view was just out of this world. Some how I have to get around to uploading some pictures to the Web using Flickr or maybe Google Albums because the Blog isn’t really the medium for showing pictures. We were having our picnic in the back of some trees when a English chappy dropped in to say hello. He knew how to enjoy life. He has been on the road driving around America for the last two years with his missus. Wow. Four weeks seems very small compared to that. I asked how he was funding his fun. “oh I sold the house and realised all my capital gains, have enough to retire and enjoy life”. The way to go! he is only 48 years old.







Driving down hill from Coal Bank Pass we arrived here in Silverton and wow, wow, this is just a great little place, I am totally taken with the people here. Nobody locks their doors. Shops are open with nobody at home and people stop to talk. Only the main street is tarred the rest being gravel and all the shops are quirky and nice. Looks like how a cowboy town should look, IMHO.

Durango. Came Saw Ate Went.

Thursday 10th May
Morning: I didn’t realise that writing a blog would be hard work. Somehow I imagined the ideas would flow without intervention on to the page. Doesn’t work like that, so today I am playing catch up. We are in Durango in Southern Colorado, sitting in Starbucks sucking up the good vibes and there are lots of them here. The day is bright, very bright (no sunglasses, no see) clear and full of promise.
What did we do yesterday? If I had written an entry for Tuesday (note: Tuesday is the day before yesterday-well who said this would be logical or orderly, you would know we got snowed in (Yes that is snowed in as in lots of snow, no drive) in Cripple creek.



Being brave souls we decided to get out the next morning on the scenic route which is on a dirt road along the so called Shelf. High up, narrow and not for the faint hearted . The view was breath taking, but I had to keep stopping the car to see it, since I didn’t dare take my eyes off the road, which was a car wide and kept disappearing from in front of the wheels to the left and right in mad swerving curves like it was trying to get away from me.


Did I mention the flooded river? No? Well, we arrived at a melted snow swollen river flowing over the road with warning signs “if flooded do not cross!!”. Remember we are on a dirt track, 4WD vehicles recommend. What to do? Go back? No, no going back. The problem was: How deep is the water and will it swamp the car. It we get stuck it is a 10 mile walk back to cripple creek (up hill).

The wife put on sandals and waded across bare foot to see how it deep it was expecting at any moment to sink up to her knees, a great idea that (wish it had been mine), see pictures of my intrepid wife, wading where no Man has waded before (they all had wives- well I mean what are wives for?), she got to the other side, without disappearing or being swept away, feet blue with the cold, and I mean blue. Great now I knew I could drive across without getting swamped. Had to stop a mile up the road and go back for the wife. She was mad as hell!!


So that obstacle out of the way we headed off on the dirt track away from Cripple Creek and our temporary imprisonment.
Eventually this dirt track appeared out of the mountains and we found ourselves o n a normal road and headed off to Salida. Had lunch, guess what we had? Leaving Salida we headed off to Alamosa. Alamosa was about 100 miles away and the road is straight as a die, and if you don’t believe me check it out on Google maps. Stayed in Alamosa and found this amazing micro-brewery that made fantastic beer. They had a really good stout but I decided on an Amber Ale. Wow it was good, reminded me of a good English Ale. The master brewer came out to talk to us and sat down and talked about beer and brewing and the good things in life, but then her husband got jealous of me and she had to go :-)
The next day we left Alamosa and headed off to Great Sand Dunes National park. That is such a mad place. Looks like the Sahara Desert with great big mad mountains of sand piled up to the sky. Me being a mountain man I decided to climb up to the top. Which I did and staggered down again unattended. The guys at the visitor centre said they were real glad of the opportunity to practice their resuscitation techniques.
Leaving Great Sands I was so tired I fell asleep in the car (the missus was driving) and woke up in Durango, where we spent the night which brings me to today the morning after we arrived in Durango, no I mean the day before yesterday because it is no longer today rather the day after tomorrow, follow? Like I said this is not going to be orderly. :-)

Leaving Denver. Going down.

Today we are leaving Denver. But before we do we have to have breakfast. The guide book says Racines is a Denver institution so we have decided to got there. Off we go.
Later: What a loadofcodslowop. We we thought it was just around the corner, and it wasn’t but rather up the road a bit. The problem with America is that up the road a bit can be a couple of miles. Since nobody walks here, you can quickly get caught out, and that is what happened to us. Eventually we found Racines, or rather where Racines used to be, they have moved. Slogging on for a mile or two to the new Racines we discovered that the whole of Denver goes there on Sunday mornings for breakfast, which means a reservation, which we didn’t have. No worries, we had to wait a half an hour, but we were so hungry at that stage we didn’t care, and eventually we got a table. But why bother? Since the menu is the same where ever you go. No really. Farmers omelette, Denver omelette, etc, two eggs anyway you want, etc, etc , so why bother going out of your way to some place? I mean Racines was great, large, loud, full of atmosphere and all of that but the food is the same as you will get anywhere, so why go to all the bother? I prefer the small places, where you just might get talking to the owner.
Later still: Eventually we got out of Denver, but very late and the mood was a bit low. A bit annoyed about the wasted hours, but eventually we headed out of Denver. We headed west on HW70 as far as Dillon and turned south on HW91, through the heart of Colorado, and the Rocky Mountains. Denver is a mile high so all day long we were travelling down hill. It is a funny feeling to be driving for hours down hill.



The weather was terrible. Cold, snowy, over cast, and getting darker all the time. This had the effect of pulling us down, since we were getting nervous of getting stuck somewhere. Bbut being intrepid explorers we headed on in to the unknown.



Sometime in the afternoon we arrived in Leadville. Wow this is one strange place. Looked run down, lots of empty shops on the high street, and I mean lots of empty shops, like nearly all of them. It is an old mining town from the turn of the centuary that held great promise, but didn’t deliver and eventually faded away into what it is today, very nearly a ghost town. In the middle is an old saloon from the late 1800s which is also an Irish Pub??? Most peculiar mama. Some Irish chappie arrived there in 1932 and bought it and turned it into a sort of Irish pub/saloon. It is very much a cowboy saloon like you see in the flicks, but also an Irish Pub full of tacky Irish signs and things. Irish expressions all over the gaff. Funny and fun to be in. Meet some funny folk here. Maybe I will write about them later.


Later still: The weather really closed in and the snow started to really chuck it down. And then I got stopped for speeding. Doing jail-time over the limit. Lucky to have go off with a warning.
Eventually we made it to Manitou Springs.

Denver, the mile high city.

Wonderful, exuberant, happy. That is how I feel. We are staying in “The Brown Palace Hotel” Denver, have a wonderful room and have just come up from the “The ship’s tavern”. Nora Jones (the new CD) has been put on the CD player and the women’s singing is permeating the room and my thoughts . My wife has just handed me a folic acid pill (dietary supplement) which will guard me from all sorts of medical evils (think heart attacks) and is now padding around the room in an advanced form of undress (well, we are married). What an evening. I am in Seventh Heaven. Good food, great service, pregnant atmosphere, promising things that maybe. We wandered down to the in-house ( in-hotel) bar, thinking maybe we can have a beer and a snack (think pub-grub) to discover they were offering Chimay beer (all the way from Belgium- I always drink the beer from here, but who can pass up the chance of drinking a Chimay?) The snacks turned out to be Steaks. Beer and steaks, what a combination. What a steak. All that was missing, and it wasn’t, was that magical, hard to define moment when you arrive somewhere strange and get talking to someone, who is enchanting and satisfying. And that is what happened , we meet someone, who talked all night with us and filled our evening. What an evening.
If I write any more of this I risk being called a B…S….R.
I am in seventh heaven.
Off to bed.

Oak Park

Up and out. Out of the city to Oak Park to look at the works of Frank Lloyde Wright. I was very impressed with one of the houses, which is poorly shown above. I stood in front of it for maybe 5 mins and then walked away. But I had been changed. Every house I looked at after that seemed, too high, too narrow, too ugly, it was quite extraordinary and very noticable. I had to stop and go back and look at it again. I soaked for a good half hour looking at this building, it seemed quite magical. I don't have any formal, or indeed informal training in architecture or the arts so I can't describe effectively what I saw. But I defy anyone to look at this building and not be enchanted.

Some Quick Pixz

Hunger

Chicago The Windy City

When I started this blog I some how thought that I would record my thoughts and ideas (if you can call them that) as I was having them. I imagined that when I was in some café somewhere and the mode hit me I would jot them down or hack them in. Of course in order to do that I would need to have my laptop with me, and since it is not a lite laptop I not in the habit of carrying it around (note: I want a Lenovo X60 with the built in 3G Vodafone wireless broadband). The imaginings were that the thoughts would get jotted down “Zeitnah”, or a little later when I was near my laptop. The reality however is very different, tiredness, laziness, and technical issues get in the way and now I find myself playing “catch-up”.
Well we got to Chicago after a 9 hour flight and an hour delay, so we were pretty jaded. That didn’t stop us from hitting the town and running around until the wee hours (our time), and what a town it is. Chicago is just awesome. Majestic buildings of all hights and sizes. We ran around until 10 p.m which is 5 a.m our time, and remember we had 3 hours sleep the night before, and then we ground to a halt. I fell into the bed and passed out.
So skip a day.
What did we do today? The day started at 7 a.m with a blocked over flowing toilet which got us bumped up to an executive suit, thank you very much, and after that we headed out to breakfast. Boy was it cold. The day, not the breakfast. A bracing, bone chilling north wind, which didn’t stop us, as we say at home “there is no bad weather, just bad clothing”. We started the day with a typical American breakfast, which is really funny, because we don’t know how to behave. You don’t just walk in and sit down but have to wait to be seated, and then everything is fast and furious. Plus the waitress doesn’t understand me every time I ask a question, and I have a lot of questions, and worse I don’t understand the answers. “Could I have the 3 eggs please?”, “certainly Sir how would you like them done?”, “fried please”, “sure how would you like them fried?”, “eh….. properly !”, “sunny-side up Sir, sunny-side down? Over-easy? , “oh just fry them and make sure they are soft”, “sorry Sir, how would you like your eggs done?”, “what would you recommend?”, “oh I’m sorry Sir, what would you like to eat?”. My wife saved me, and it wasn’t the first time. The eggs were good.
After breakfast we went on an Architectural tour lasting two hours, which turned into two and half hours, of some of the magnificent buildings here. It was just breath taking. We walked miles and miles and immediately afterwards booked another one for 5.30 p. m. in the evening. Madness. Then we shot up to Navy Pier, walked around that, and then shot back down to the architectural centre for our second tour of the day. I thought my legs were going to fall off.
At the end of the tour we went into a local pub with our followculturevulturesanddranklotsofbeertilllateinthenight, I am wasted, happy, estatic (very happy) and falling down. Off to bed.

Moan Moment
No moans, I am on holiday.

Chicago, Chicago, I’m coming your way.

The relentless march of time. It only seems like yesterday (well actually it was) that I was lying on the bed, thinking “ I have to get up in 3 hours and go to the airport”, and now that is all behind me. I put my head down and was gone out like a light. My wife told me this morning that she asked me to turn out the bedside light, but I was already gone. Flop, I’m asleep.
Yes I did get up in time, and no I didn’t miss the flight. The taxi picked us up at 4:40 a.m. exactly, as ordered. The taxis in Germany are punctual, which is more than can be said for the trains. But that’s another story. The driver put his foot down and we whisked along at 120 MPH in comfort talking about life, the universe and everything. Well not really, we talked about how expensive everything has got since the Euro has come in, swapping stories about the humble cup of coffee and its fortunes under the Euro. Imagine, a double tall cappuccino costs €3.70 in Starbucks, that’s all of 7.40 DM. Ah, the mighty Deutsche Mark, gone but not forgotten. Maybe the Economist should replace its “Big Mac” foreign exchange index with the humble cappuccino. The taxi driver had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the coffee landscape in and around Bonn. How much it costs, how hot it is, how strong, bitter, smooth etc. This guy really liked his coffee.
Enough! Where are we now? In Schiphol, Amsterdam. The flight has been delayed nearly an hour so we have to hang around here. But no worries, I am on holidays. Sooner here than in the office. I put the card reader in the suitcase so I can’t upload any pictures, silly me, didn’t think of that. Well maybe later when we get into the hotel.
Going to try and login to the local WLan network here. If you see this post I was successful. :-)

Moan Moment
No moans, I'm on holiday. :-)

Once apon a time.

In to the blue we go. With some trepidation I have decided to start a blog. The reason for this brainstorm is we are off to the USA for a four week holiday and I wanted to record my thoughts and feelings and share them at the same time with my friends (Hello Friends :-). We were in the states four years ago on a mega-tour and I have always regretted not recording my thoughts; not this time.

And what has held me back from keeping a blog? Fear. Fear of being boring, of writing poorly, of exposing myself and my thoughts to the world, of making mistakes, publicly. But caution is being thrown to the wind and I am jumping in.

It is 22:56 p.m. the panic is on, not everything is packed, I am tired, a bit strung out "have I got everything?", etc etc. The taxi is picking us up at 4:40am and then we are off t0 Cologne-Bonn airport. An other worry is my English. Yes believe it or not. Why do you ask? Well I speak German at work and my English is really getting rusty: Will anyone be able to understand me?
And what is with all those speeling mistakes? (that one was intended). Like I have just said, "I am jumping in", starting an adventure, having ago, and going to have fun on the way.