Ever northbound

8-1-2021

 I got up this morning refreshed and ready to roll - it's day two of my road trip, and day two is the day when I really hit my stride! After a quick breakfast, I puttered up to what apparently is the only grocery store in Santa Rosa - I had checked the maps and came up with a suspicious number of gas stations masquerading as groceries - and bought a pack of cupcakes. Then, I headed over to Ortega's Wrecking to deliver them. I had a long overdue promise to keep. 

Two years ago, another first-day mishap left Jane and I stranded on the side of the road at night about 30 minutes outside of Santa Rosa (dead ignition coil - another one of those 5-minute fixes, if I had had the parts). AAA sent me Ortega's Wrecking, and boy were they the right people. My driver, Carlos, put Jane in a secure building for the night and then took me to a good motel with instructions to call them the next morning. We then arranged for him to pick up a new coil for Jane in the next town over, since the next day was a Sunday and nothing in Santa Rosa would be open (or would have had the right parts, regardless). The next morning, while he was out picking up a new coil, both Jane and I were delivered to their shop, where we were actually able to find someone with a workable coil that could patch me through! A quick 5-minute swap and I was ready to get back on the road (I planned to meet Carlos halfway between Santa Rosa and the town where he had gotten me the right coil, so I could swap out to the right one sooner rather than later). But when I went to pay Ortega's for their help - after all, they had bent over backwards to bail me out of trouble - they refused the money. So, I said that the next time I was in Santa Rosa, I would bring them cupcakes and come say hello.

So that's exactly what I did. I was surprised that they remembered me - after all, it had been two years and they probably do this kind of thing all the time - but they did! I guess that it's pretty rare to see a girl and a vintage Mustang kicking around so we're probably more memorable than I think. I was really glad to see that they had weathered the past years well and were still kicking around town. I didn't stay too long, as I had interrupted them at lunch and needed to get on the road anyways, but I was still very happy to see them. Gotta take care of the good ones, you know. 

After our short detour, Jane and I hopped back on the road and piled on some miles. Things were fairly uneventful, except for one instance in which my throttle linkage disconnected itself... a 5-second fix, and one that caused me to realize that my fuel system wasn't really bolted down. Oops. These things happen - mostly from my incompetence and absent-mindedness, but also sometimes just from a lot of road vibration at high speeds. I may like to pretend it's more the latter, but trust me, it's the former. 

I love it when I get to the Flying C Ranch billboards - because their advertisements are hilarious. "Guy stuff!" "Girl stuff!" "Knives!" "Snake stuff!"

A truly impressive number of billboards

Once we had gotten past Santa Fe, our road changed from high-speed highways to wonderfully scenic 2-lane roads. Though they may have lower speed limits, these roads are nothing short of spectacular - assuming you're not trapped behind an RV going really, really slow. But that's when it's great to have a motor that is right at the top of its power band at highway speeds - slower vehicles are not so much of an obstacle when passing is easy!

As I approached the border, some very ominous dark stormclouds confronted me.

I could see rain pouring down by the bucketful in the foothills – but by lucky happenstance, the road I was on curled around the base of the hills and I never encountered more than a drizzle.

We carried on into Colorado – yes, past its terrible entrance sign, which I will complain about every single time I see it. I still cannot fathom how they managed to make such a bland, boring sign to advertise “Colorful” Colorado. Ugh!

 

Anyways, eventually I found myself in Pagosa Springs, my destination for the night. I stopped by the town’s visitor center to ask about any interesting outdoorsy stuff to do for the rest of the afternoon, but the front desk lady informed me that she was not the outdoorsy type and couldn’t really be of any help! That kind of shocked me. I had to wonder – how does one end up somewhere as beautiful as western Colorado with no desire to see it? But it occurred to me that maybe she was born and raised here so to her it was just where she’d always lived. I didn’t ask, because I didn’t want to know. I suppose some would think it a waste that I live in a city like Austin and don’t go out taking advantage of its nightlife scene every night or something. But still. A place like this!

I ended up wandering around town for a bit to check out the awesome hot springs, none of which I actually dipped in because it cost over $40 for entry into any of them! I did really like looking at the cool travertine deposits that they had created over the years though. I found myself even more interested, however, in a set of geodesic domes set up near the river. These domes claimed to be the start of a geothermally-operated greenhouse project! Super cool. I will be really interested to see it when it’s done.

As afternoon trended into evening, I headed west out of town – picking up some groceries and ice along the way at a REAL grocery store – and drove until I escaped the range of my cell phone signal. I stopped for the night at Ute Campground, a small Forest Service campground just outside Chimney Rock National Monument.

 

Well, I suppose that's Chimney Rock. Neato.

There, I set up camp, plopped down in my chair, and sat feeling very satisfied with myself, basking in the dappled sun filtering through the trees and breathing deeply of the fresh vanilla-pine scent of the Ponderosas. There is nowhere in the world that smells quite like Colorado – and if you’ve ever been, you would know that that’s true. Once you’ve been out here, nothing ever quite smells fresh again.

 

I’ve missed this.

Kelly signing out.

P.S. - This is how you know you're at a high elevation if you don't have a altimeter: