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Published: April 13th 2006
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The Siesta Motel
Ooooh they're so cheeky! How could we possibly drive past? Having driven into the charming mountain town of Durango, Colorado, through various trials and hardships (ok not that many....but we did curtail our drive, the destination of which would have been Silverton, but for icy conditions) we woke from a good night's sleep at the delightful Siesta Motel in Durango to see snow softly falling outside.
Our full kitchen unit and fantastic shower were worth what we paid for the motel alone, (not to mention the TV, which brought smiles of delight to Ju's face the night before, as she settled in for an evening of American advertising.) We started the next day with a hearty breakfast of cereal, toast, hot chocolate and fruit - hey who says just cause you're backpacking you have to rough it! - and set off for another day's driving.
The roads through the mountains wound past snow covered firs, half frozen lakes and quaint little farms with horses stamping in the snow. The snow and freezing temperatures (hooray for our car's fantastic heater!) failed to deter us and we pushed on towards Wolf Creek Pass. Tragically, 8 miles short of the pass we hit whited-out roads and a huge truck inconsiderately stuck in
Lovely day for a drive?
Ok so it was a little discouraging driving from clear blue skies into snow heavy clouds...but it made for some stunning skyscapes! the middle of the highway, not to mention increasingly snowy and icy conditions. So ok, we're gutsy, but not that gutsy. We headed back down to Pagosa Springs, where the Visitor's Bureau suggested that we head further south, detouring through New Mexico and over a less snowed-in pass. Who were we to argue in our 2 wheel drive, with no snow chains or tyres?
Anyway to cut a long story short, we made our way through the lower pass, Ju driving, and were very glad we'd detoured, even when 'the pass' actually turned out to be a series of three passes, the highest at 10,230 feet and below freezing outside....the driving conditions were...interesting. The snow blowing through the hills and in drifts in the valleys was gorgeous to look at, but the pretty valley wasn't so great when the road was practically indistinguishable from it (admittedly very briefly), and it was certainly an exciting experience.
After our harrowing trek through the mountains we headed north towards Colorado Springs, passing through little farming towns littered with prettily painted wooden frontages and sprawling farmlands. Pueblo was the only less than scenic spot on our route, with industrial chimneys and factories
And the fun continues!
I didn't take any pictures when it got REALLY snowy cause they would be all boring and white. And scare our mummies and daddies. Don't worry we were very careful! taking over the landscape. Making it to Colorado Springs as twilight set in, we decided to push on to Denver further North to give ourselves a full day to explore Colorado's capital.
Finding our way off the freeway in Denver after dark, we had a lot of fun navigating the one way roading sytem designed to ensnare unwary travellers and made it to the Denver International Hostel. It was, umm, cheap. And had free internet. And flourishing colonies of, um, something in the shower. And a crazy lady reciting very disturbed poetry all night (that or talking in her sleep, I'm not sure....'they won't let me out! they won't let me out!' mind you, I kinda know how she felt after a night in this place). We also suspect bed bugs but maybe it was just the general ambiance that made our skins crawl. Still it was an experience. And had free blurry-screened internet. And roommates coming in at 3, announcing, 'it's real dark in here!', turning on all the lights and the radio. Oh, and did I mention the free turtle-paced internet?
Suffice it to say we woke...um...got up anyway, not sure if we got any sleep
Red Rocks
The sun getting low over the Red Rocks ampitheatre...we have it on good authority that it's an amazing concert venue, not to mention a gorgeous spot with a panoramic view of the city in the distance. But I photopraphed the rocks cause they're prettier! at all, and decided one night there was a lot more than enough. We took off in our home away from home Corolla (just mildly grubby with snow and mud by now) and went out through the rain and wind to track down the 16th St Mall, deciding we were both much too sleep deprived to do credit to any museums despite the appropriate weather. Instead we took shelter in Barnes and Noble and promptly found lots of things we wanted to buy but we were JUST so GOOD and didn't!
Even when temptation was so severe! Fortunately the lovely Matt, who we had met back at the Tortoise hostel in San Francisco (not to be confused with the lovely LA Matt) was happy to rescue us from our shopping dilemmas, and we instead took advantage of the miserable day to go and see a movie in a real American mall.
In favour of not being intellectually challenged, we decided on Ice Age 2 at Cherry Creek Mall, which in the tradition of all sequels was not as good as its precursor but a nice way to spend the afternoon nevertheless. Matt capably demonstrated the use of the butter machine in case the popcorn wasn't
greasy enough... Ju and Jenny looked on in round-eyed awe and wonder as it got yellower and yellower. What will they think of next! We followed the movie with a quick food shop and then drove up to the gorgeous Red Rocks outside of Denver, where we resisted the urge to jump on stage and test out the acoustics of the huge natural ampitheatre (that and we were totally out of breath after the climb of course).
Keeping with the music theme we then went to pop in on a friend of Matt's, who was performing an acoustic gig at the Larimer Lounge, which we just managed to squeeze in before dinner. My favourite was the country version of Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice, all class! Totally ready for dinner, we went back to our kind host's apartment where Jenny proceeded to excercise her long dormant culinary skills, and leave the others to clean up the mess, suckers! Hehe!
Several huge bowls of pasta later, Matt suggested a barman's tour of Denver by night. Can I just say, we were picked up by by far the nicest taxi driver I have ever met. Maybe that's cause we caught
Cheers!
American Bartenders have a different opinion about the size of a drink! Picutred here are Matt, Jenny and Ju with our ginormous Drambuie and Baileys, at Nallen's Irish Bar. her at the beginning of her 12 hour shift. Anyway we started out at an Irish bar by name of Nallen's...I'm glad to report that Irish pubs are pretty much identical the world over. We then went on to a more upmarket Mexican themed margharita bar called Lime, (where Juliet was thrilled that Matt's friend at the bar poured her a lovely Mai Tai and completely refused to take her money!) followed by an absolutely delightful traditional jazz bar with live jazz and cozy booths. Ju and Jenny decided they want to be jazz drummers and live everywhere (And why not!!)
We followed that up with a singing taxi driver who dropped us off at Charlie Brown's and then went to the 'last call' bar...we think it actually had a real name but was open later than anywhere else, hence its handle. Thus we have seen Denver by night, thank you Matt for your kind hospitality and knowledgable advice on the inner workings of bars 😊 Not to mention putting up with us taking over your living room for all of the next morning! Had a totally wonderful time.
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Gareth
non-member comment
Such eloquence, subversive humour and refreshingly informative. I really look forward to your continual updates. Maybe think of publishing as a book? I'm sure Jenny has taken a few lessons from one of her favourtite authors.