well we’ve actually been in it here for six weeks already, but after a slow start [dead battery,
low tire] departed our safe haven on the Smoke Creek for the Gerlach Post Office, then onwards
through Empire,
Wadsworth, Fernley, Fallon for gas [none shown] and beyond
Cold Springs stopped for lunch at New Pass Summit.
After that more basins, more ranges, Austin [never stop there], Eureka, Ely [second gas],
Spring Valley and after Sacramento Pass, last pass in Nevada, let the dogs out,
before losing an hour to MDT at the state line
and crossing Utah’s Western Desert
to wash up at the Taco Shop, then Delta’s Day’s Inn for enchiladas and the night.
We left there on the first day of July,
stopped to feed the Inkies after Scipio and then
in Salina had an extended stop for gas and stomach afflictions [not shown],
the Eastern [I guess] Desert
and finally Colorado, the Recreation State, where lunch at the Trail Through Time was
unbearably hot for some…a heat unrelenting all down the western slope [gas in Delta, Co.] and even up through an unusually dry Gunnison until we crossed the Divide on Monarch Pass,
making it down to Salida and the Loyal Duke, a dog friendly venue in a dog friendly town as was
the Boathouse where we enjoyed dinner and celebratory libations [across the Great Divide!].
A somewhat sleepless night was followed by a clear mountain morning, Safeway shopping and
by far the easiest drive down the Arkansas to Cotopaxi ever...only a jeep from Minnesota
who tried to race and a much more accommodating hay truck before 1A, the formerly unknown
now “secret” cutoff to 69, a chaotic fuel stop in Westcliffe,
the clear [save for a small herd of motorcycles] road to Gardner and
Libre by around noon, elevation 8130’…longer each year to adjust. Sore and sorely exhausted
taking time to slowly unload, rest, slowly unload…
