GTV First Loop: Durango

Mel here. We had a great brunch in Durango (Oscar's Cafe—great green chili gravy!), then struck out to find the Hermosa Creek Trail—one of the original epic Durango mountain bike trails—to squeeze in a ride before the forecast storm arrived. Turns out, there was a lovely, quiet and FREE campground at the trailhead, so we decided to call it there, even though we it was unusually early for us to make camp. Off Jeff went for his ride, while Flynn and I opted for some trail running. Lovely views were had by all.

We let ourselves chill at camp that afternoon, reading, trip-planning, and TRYING DESPERATELY TO CATCH UP ON WRITING THIS G-D BLOG so our many fans (ha!) can continue to be included in the awesomeness that is this trip.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand cue the snow. That’s right folks. The white flakes are chasing us back into Colorado. Well, as I said to Jeff, there are far worse places to be stuck waiting out a snow storm than Durango CO. So, we decided to make it a day of Breweries and to-dos. Though it started with CrossFit for me—a great morning drop-in class at CrossFit Durango while Jeff GRACIOUSLY and GENEROUSLY cleaned the van—inside and out. Then lunch of course, at Carver Brewery. Next we had scheduled an oil change at a place that can do such things for larger (most often commercial) vehicles like ours. Not surprisingly, it was in an industrial type district…but fortuitously right next to Ska Brewery! Oh well, guess we’ll have to have more beers and snacks. Darn.

Needing to dump our actual crap and fill up on H2O anyway, we checked into Alpen Rose RV Park for the night. Unfortunately a power outage thwarted our attempt at “going out”—seeing some rock-climbing-action-porn called Reel Rock—so we retired to the GTV and luxuriously plugged in the cable TV for the very first time. 

Day’s lessons:  CrossFit still rules. Beer is good. TV sucks but, occasionally, indulging in an SVU marathon is the right choice.