Durango

As I said we didn't plan to go directly to Durango, but the weather and road situation had us change plans.

Since there is no way on earth I would drive the motorhome down the Million Dollar Highway, let alone the truck, we took a alternate route around through Ridgway, skirting Telluride, through Rico, Delores, and Cortez, a little longer, still with great views, just not terrifying:-)

Near Telluride.

Our lunch stop.

I should also report that the new clock spring did not fix the cruise control problem either, working on a few more things:-(

So we had several must do things while we were in Durango and one of them was pizza, I would say it's the best pizza we have found anywhere, Fired Up in downtown Durango.

Wood fired oven with incredible crust!

Then the next day we picked up some sandwiches and drove up behind Purgatory Ski Resort to the Harris Ranch area for a picnic.  

Then the major thing for Jan was a hike to Spud Lake, she had to go solo as I am not able to hike right now with my hip.  She had a nice peaceful hike on a gorgeous day and only saw 3 people, perfect!

I went with her and waited in the truck with my Sunday crossword puzzles and after we went on up to Molas Pass, 10,910', then back to Andrews Lake for a picnic.

Molas Pass

Andrews Lake

We stuck around town the next day and had a delicious lunch at Akami Poke and Noodle Bar before running errands and grocery shopping.

Fantastic pork belly Bao buns

A wasabi tuna poke bowl

And a tempura shrimp roll

The next day we drove over to Pagosa Springs to see what the flooding had done, and thankfully, the river is back down and not a lot was impacted, although the road through town is under major construction, causing a lot of back ups.  We had a meh lunch in Pagosa and then went up to Williams Reservoir, another favorite for coffee, and then worked our way back.  Unfortunately the lake was still showing signs of the flooding and really didn't look very appealing so that is my excuse for no pictures:-)

Then our week was almost over, we went back into town, had a nice long walk around, as long as I can stay on level ground I can still get around, then had to have one more pizza lunch.

So now we are on the move, a few days here in Santa Fe, and we want to do a few things, yes they revolve around food, then make our way into Texas to visit our daughter, Kelly and Brian, then eastward bound all the way to Florida so I can get some of my pre surgery doctor appointments out of the way.

A Small Change of Plans

We left Heber City and headed south to Montrose, CO to another of our favorite campgrounds, Centennial.  We lucked out this time and got a site on an end with no one in front or beside us with an amazing view.

 

We are quite fond of Montrose and the surrounding area, Ridgway, Ouray, even Telluride are right down the road, Black Canyon of Gunnison is nearby, and Last Dollar Road.  But one of the first things we had to do was go to Gnarly Tacos in Ridgway for their amazing tacos!

Beans, they call them Whistleberries:-)
Ahi on the top and Korean BBQ on the bottom

Ahi, pork belly, and fish

Eclectic and delicious!

I related earlier of our travails with the cruise control, sometimes doesn't work, sometime works for a few minutes, and sometimes works for 300 miles?????  We replaced the controller, same results, so we decided to replace the clock spring, and like so many projects it was a 30 minute expectation that evolved into several days.  You have to pull the steering wheel to get to the clock spring, we had replaced it one time many years ago and had used a cheapo puller jury rigged with some angle bolts, but this time it wouldn't budge.

You can see the two angles in the hub, they just straightened out

So that found me looking around for a decent steering wheel puller, and after 3 auto parts stores followed up with a hardware store we finally got the wheel off.  By the way a clock spring is what allows you to turn the wheel and still operate lights, wipers, cruise etc, no matter where you turn it.  Pretty clever actually.

Inside the clock spring

The new in my hands, the old on the top of the column

But the bad news is, it didn't fix the problem, now what?  I'm trying to work on that now:-(

Enjoyed some beautiful sunsets.

Next was Last Dollar Road, a fairly famous drive through incredible mountains, forests, and fields starting just south of Ridgway and ending at Telluride, it is a fairly rough 4X4 road, but worth it, a real favorite of ours, especially in the fall.

Started it off with a shot of a house used in the filming of True Grit, with John Wayne.

It was a beautiful fall day with a touch of snow on the peaks.

And our view for coffee with snow showers over the peaks

Ha, then back for another round of tacos before our next ride.

A fish and a shrimp

2 fish and a chicken

This time we went up over Owl Creek Pass, 10,114', then by Silver Jack Reservoir, almost empty, over to Cimarron, then had coffee overlooking some of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Jan took this picture, Black Canyon terrifies me, it is so deep, 2,722', and so steep and sheer, so I do everything I can do to stay away from it, but if heights don't bother you it is amazing:-)

As for the slight change of plans.  We had planned after Montrose to go to our "secret boon docking" spot near Clear Creek Falls, unfortunately there has been huge flooding that closed Wolf Creek Pass, and parts of Pagosa Springs so our route from our spot to our next stop in Durango was impacted, and also the forecast of highs in the low 40's and lows in the 20's didn't seem all that inviting, so the two situations changed our route to go directly to Durango where we are now.