Hello Colorado. Also, Mapquest is dead to me

I flew from Chicago to Albuquerque Sunday night, and stayed in a hotel that got good ratings at hotels.com. My experience was not like the commercials where the valet accidentally spills money at the guests' feet because they'd be writing a review about the property. No, not at all. If I hadn't already paid for it, and would only be there for 7 hours total, I would have left.

Not that I believe in omens.

I hit the road Monday at 7 am, heading toward Colorado. The iPod stopped working, but as Mapquest said this was a 6.5 hour drive, not that big a deal. The first 6 hours were gorgeous, the desert gave way to spectacular mountains and valleys out of a fairy tale. Just stunning, see for yourself:



Around hour 4 a hippie driving a camper truck nearly ran me off the road. Around hour 6, Mapquest did me wrong and told me to make a right instead of continuing as I was. An hour later, I thought, gee, Route 91 should be coming up...right? I checked the map and then realized how far off the path I'd gotten. So far that a new route looked like a better idea than back tracking. A series of additional poor decisions landed me on the interstate at rush hour.

As I was driving along I-70, something caught my eye on the side of the road. It was finally happening - falling rocks were going to crush the car!! I couldn't believe it. Then I noticed, that big rock had horns. WTF? Not a rock at all - it was a big horn sheep that had hopped down the mountain. Right next to the car. Feet away while I was going 70. Holy poop. While I was pondering this, I drove past a herd of tiny deer just hanging out on the interstate, two feet from the lane. Jeeeeeeeeez.

Then I saw a road sign new to me: "Avalanche Area - no stopping!"

Then I hit a patch of ice and skidded a bit.

The nerves, they were a bit shot.

In hour 11 I finally arrived in lovely Silverthorne. What little I've seen is adorable. Suzie would love it here - the first thing you see off the interstate is the Coach outlet. I'm staying at a friend's family vacation home, so no photos this time. I will share the view from the front door:



And the back door:

I had no idea it was still so snowy here. Plows are just starting to clear some of the roads in the more remote areas. Yeeeaah. Did I mention I'm going back to Arizona after this?