We decided to start off with a long drive, made longer by the presence of a sinkhole (Oh no! Sinkhole! Oh no!) in the I-70 near Vail. It was a good idea, I think - we were in enthusiastic spirits, we had 5 (FIVE) new mix CDs made specially for the road trip.
While we were drivin', we decided to note down things of interest along the way, which gives me most of the material for this account. In particular, I am a fan of WILDLIFE and got hyperbolically excited whenever a previously unseen (by me, I mean - a chipmunk may not be exciting to all of you, but I almost wet myself on first seeing one) example of north American fauna leapt out into the road in front of us. First day sightings: bighorn sheep (I got less excited about sheep than Sarah did, funnily enough), hawks, deer (one alive, one very dead), a wild cat! A groundhog! Whoot!
Colorado rocks because it has pretty much everything. Starting off on the plains (sorta), winding into the mountains, hitting almost 15,000 feet, and ending up in shrubbish, deserty, rocky country. It also has Telluride, a posh yet hippyish winter resort which is kind of nice in summer too. We stopped here for dinner, and wandered around its picturesque backroads after having a tasty but pricey Mexican. Then we undertook the 100-mile mountain road to Cortez, taking it in turns to try not to fall asleep at the wheel.
Cortez itself, however, sucks. The Best Western chain does itself no favours by making our first hotel experience our most unpleasant, with our first attempt at speech resulting on a vicious bang on the wall from the room next door - a room to which there was a connecting door which you could see through. Ugh. It was a pleasure to leave.
Throughout the journey the high schools we pass congratulate their graduating students via the (it occurs to me I have NO IDEA what the proper name for these things is) signs outside buildings where you write messages in those individual letters you only see in England on old-fashioned cinemas and nowhere else. The cheery folk at Montrose High went one better with their sound advice - "The heat is a bummer, but have a great summer!" Are they allowed to say "bummer"?
Also, Sarah nearly rear-ends a police car. After 4 hours of our trip. But she didn't! Whoot again!
Posted by biondino at June 18, 2003 11:31 AM