from cortez, colorado

so we escaped from rawlins wyoming. what a disaster!. we get there and everything is cool, then they start predicting a snowstorm to start that night. so it did. the next morning there's maybe 3-4 inches of snow on the ground at 8 am. not bad, but it's supposed to get a lot worse and snow for several days. stuck in rawlins with the blizzrd blues again. they had closed I 8O east but we weren't interested in that, we wanted to go west on 80 for 25 miles and then take a state road south. then we heard that 80 west was closed. facing the prospect of being stuck there for days was very depressing. we got conflicting info over the next 2 hours from the internet and the tv and the telephone, so finally i said let's go see for ourselves. so we did. and it was open going our way. we left and had to deal with the icy snowy rt 80 for 25 miles, and then the state road for another 40 or so before we drove into the good weather in colorado. thank god.


Colorado National Monument video

so from the prospect of being snowed in at rawlins, we went to grand junction colorado, found an amazing park there, colorado national monument, that was like a mini grand canyon. lots of good photos. top down drive through the park, whiskey and cigars on the veranda after supper. it's a good life.

today we had to change the itinerary again because of snow in the high passes, 10k-11k feet. we didn't want to chance it, so we took an alternate route to cortez. found another great scenic drive, we had the road to ourselves, a little rain after a glorious morning, but more great photos. i can't seem to get them up here. but i'll keep trying.

tomorrow we head to mesa verde and then durango for 2 nights, then into new mexico for 3 days.


Mesa Verde N.P video

it feels like we've hit the far turn and are starting to head home. frankly, i can't wait to get home and back to the family routine and all. not that i'm having a bad time, not at all. but i wouldn't do this kind of trip this way again. too long and too many 1 night hotels; sometimes it feels like the only reason we're going somewhere is because we have a reservation there that night. don't cry for me argentina, i'm not looking for sympathy. i'm just saying hindsight is 20-20. so thanks to the nice people at best western in cortez, who are letting me use their office computer for free.