Silverton Fall Trip

 If it's the 3rd week of September, it's time for our annual fall trip!  Glenn decided he wanted to go to Silverton this year and that was fine with me - we could still do the Alpine Loop, it would just be from the backside of it!

I had checked online for cabins and there just weren't any to book!  But finally found a place in the actual town above a historic building - it was 3 units that had been completely remodeled and were rented out on a nightly basis!  Being in town does make it easy for meals!

We headed out on a Monday morning - stopped for coffee at our usual spot in Johnson Village and headed on our way - I was a little concerned as the aspens on Monarch Pass were NOT yellow yet!  And nothing had turned over our way so I knew fall was arriving a little later this year!

SO we got to Gunnison and I happened to see one of those large flashing signs that said something about a road closure and some times but I couldn't read it fast enough!  Luckily there was enough service to check it out and oh gosh - up the road the highway was closed for blasting and only open certain times!  AND even if you sat in line to wait for the opening (open until 8:30 and then closed till 11:30 and open for an hour and then closed again until 5:30) it was not guaranteed that you could go through - it depended on how many cars were waiting on each side!

We talked about it and decided we didn't want to wait in line and possibly not get through so we decided to take the detour - we had forgotten that the road to Hodgekiss was twisty and loopy and you can't make any kind of time of it - 3 hours later we were FINALLY at the town we were supposed to be at from taking the detour!  On our way again and we pull into Ouray - only to find ANOTHER flashing sign that said basically the same thing as the other one - Red Mountain Pass was closed also except for certain times!  We had missed the noon time to go through and the next time we could get through was 5:30!!  OH MY!! Note to self - check the roads next year before we start out - we have NEVER in all the years we've taken our fall trips had closures!

I suggested we just go right outside the town and ATV Yankee Boy Baisin - we'd done it many years ago and it's a nice drive up a mountain.  So we unloaded and headed out!  Before we left though, I did call the contact number on our rental as we hadn't got a code yet to get in - got a recorder so left a message that we were going to be later than expected and to PLEASE get the code to us!

We had travelled about 5 miles up when the razor started sputtering and hardly going - are you kidding me?  It didn't sound good at all so Glenn said we needed to turn around and get back down. OMG - can anything else go wrong?

After loading up, we just went and sat in line to get over the pass......  And no word on our code yet.

Once we got over the pass, it was only 1/2 hour to Silverton - we pulled into the cute little town and Glenn dropped me off so I could walk in and see if there was another number to call - there was and it said to text too.  So I texted - and no reply - and then I called and left a not so nice message as we were exhausted from the days' events and just wanted to get into our place!  I started texting every minute also!

So decided to just park and go eat dinner - we were just walking to the restaurant when we FINALLY got a text at 6:45 with the code and an apology that she had been out of cell phone range all day!  REALLY???  If you're going to be out of cell phone range all day and you know you have guests coming in, why wouldn't you send the code out in the morning.  I was NOT happy!

But the place was cute as can be and exactly as described.  We had a separate bedroom with a king bed and a very nice bathroom.  It was a great place to relax in the evenings!

We had wanted to eat dinner at Handlebars - a place we had eaten at with friends Dick and Jane many years ago when we rode motorcycles with them over the trails, but the wait list was long - without much help in any of the few restaurants there,  they just weren't able to seat as many!

Heading to a BBQ place where there was no line, we ordered and it was excellent!!  I felt like I was back south in Baja as they had whole stuffed potatoes with all the trimmings like they do down there!

The next morning I snapped this picture out of the window before the sun had risen over the mountain!

And then it was Day 2....