My wife says I've been blogging too much about food. I think that's to do with the Wi-Fi coverage, w

What a day! Things we did just this morning seem as remote as bits of my childhood: the Silver Bean in Cortez ; our all-too-brief visit to Mesa Verde ; cold and hot swims ; Durango ; Andy Maclure playing a home-made dulcimer in Silverton . The drives have been absolutely stunning. Jeff, you weren't wrong.
We're still on the Million Dollar Highway as I write this. The sun has set, but there's a lovely peachy blush in the sky. I'm going to give Andy a break from driving so I'll sign off now. We'll stop soon for the night and we'll be back in the car very early tomorrow for the last push to Denver. See you then.
The right thing to do now would be to sit in an armchair in a cosy Ouray hotel and read Wallace Stegner until bedtime cheap hotels in venice italy while glancing up occasionally at the mountains. But it's back in the car, and off we go again...
So beloved and feared, a 'subjective' documentary was recently made solely to talk about what is going on in Kubrick's Colorado classic. Like any classic, of course, it's also been parodied brilliantly:
The million dollar highway is lined by a number of ghost towns, most abandoned after mining booms died down and harsh winters forced drove the rest away. The towns abound throughout the state, and the most exciting- and/or haunted-looking ones can only be reached by 4x4 vehicles; quite a few, however, are accessible by passenger car.
Ouray's city site provides a handy guide to those along Rt 550, and National Geographic did a whole road trip dedicated to Colorado's ghost towns. This remarkably thorough (if chaotic) site on ghost towns , meanwhile, has collected submissions for the entire state.
Animas Forks is one of many near Silverton and Ouray on the Alpine Loop . The mining town boomed in the 1880s and busted by 1910 and its 'downtown' of tilting shacks, cabins and spooky halls look spooky mostly cheap hotels in venice italy for their juxtaposition against the stunning mountains around them.
St Elmo , meanwhile, is generally regarded as one of the best preserved ghost towns in the country. The catalogue calls it a ghost town "in miniature" and "an antique doll house". cheap hotels in venice italy The once thriving gold town had hotels, saloons, dancing halls and a newspaper office in its heyday, much of which is still preserved. A few people still live in the town, though even the postal service stopped coming round in 1952.
The road's winding down the mountainside, past the old mine workings. There are deer grazing right beside the highway. The mountain peaks are bare red and yellow rock. "Like a chemical spill," says Andy.
I've searched high and low but none of the Silverton bookshops stock The Female Eunuch. cheap hotels in venice italy Fudge, yes, cowboy hats, yes, but not a single copy of Greer's seminal text. We bought harmonicas instead and are now back on the road to Ouray.
But our in-car consensus thoroughly bantered and interrogated cheap hotels in venice italy on this drive past slippery cliffs and mountains is that there's no way pregnant cheap hotels in venice italy women, children and elderly people went rock-climbing cheap hotels in venice italy every day. The Maclure Hypothesis is that ladders were fixed into the holes.
I should say there is absolutely no evidence for this, but then again when I quizzed one of the guides in the park I had the feeling she was also just making stuff up. "They had very naturalist beliefs, you know, like Mother Earth, Father Sky."
This bit is even better. It used to be the red light district. There were 32 saloons on the three block stretch. Wyatt Earp played cards here! And no wonder it looks familiar it was used as the set for Westerns in the 1950s.
For those of you who love trains *cough* Andy Maclure *cough* and for those who love breathtaking mountain landscapes: a video of the Durango-Silverton train in action, cutting some very sharp turns along a very narrow looking ledge.
My wife says I've been blogging too much about food. I think that's to do with the Wi-Fi coverage, which tends to be great in restaurants. When we are out of Wi-Fi range we often talk about things like feminism, and what great wives we have, but it's just not reflected in the blog.
We've been getting a lot of suggestions for Telluride, though it might be too much of a detour for Marcel cheap hotels in venice italy to make. That hasn't stopped the high praise, however. @Circle_West says it's "Heaven on earth". @bix783 gives us a contrarian moniker and the literary lowdown:
Neither can we smoke any of the decriminalised marijuana that the state of Colorado is so keen on. I gather that it's only a matter of time before it's sold openly in shops. Can that possibly be true?
If Marcel is to stick to Theroux's First Iron Law of Happiness , which states that lunch must always cheap hotels in venice italy happen at 1pm, he's going to have drag the crew off the mesa, and drill the car to Durango pronto Tonto.
cheap hotels in venice italy Yesterday @ukboy cheap hotels in venice italy challenged the team to hit all four of Durango's microbreweries in one night. FAIL. And I suspect that won't be happening today - driving, heat and full bladders don't mix. But they might just make one for a pint and a bite. Here's a reminder of the microbrewery menu:r
Steamworks Brewing Company: Between the drinks menu (Lizard Head Red, Tax Alement, One Wit W nder) and the food menu (chimicurri steak tacos with a side of calabacitas), Steamworks looks like a sure bet for quality "gastropub" fare.
Carver Brewing Co : For a more casual taste of American beer, you can hit Carver for growlers and kegs. Their site quotes Ben Franklin (a sure sign of good character): "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
Ska Brewing Company : Complete with comic book mythology relating the story of "two guys named Dave and Bill [who] learned cheap hotels in venice italy that while they loved gulping down good beer, they weren't old enough to buy it." Inspired by "thinking music, also known as Ska," they decided to brew their own beer. And so the Legion of Ska was born.
Cliff Palace is huge! Across the valley, I can see another, much smaller dwelling cheap hotels in venice italy in an alcove. Somehow its inhabitants must have scrambled up and down the overhang to farm and hunt on top of the mesa.
We posed the question on @GuardianTravel #TwiTrips cheap hotels in venice italy as to where Marcel, Andy and Jacob should head after Mesa Verde, and this invite immediately popped up from @Telluride.com , which looks stunning (even out of ski season) cheap hotels in venice italy and is around 75 miles from Cortez...It just goes to show how warm, friendly and generous everyone is being on this road trip.
Now actually standing inside a kiva, a kind of underground chamber reached by the ladder. It takes a while for my eyes to get used to the gloom. This would have been a gathering place, the ranger tells me: for weaving, preparing food and religious ceremonies. cheap hotels in venice italy It's got a ventilation shaft. It's nice and cool down here, and would have been easy to keep warm in winter cheap hotels in venice italy with a fire.
The Cliff Palace Loop Road takes you past Cliff Palace, Balcony House, and overlooks other cliff dwellings - but you can only get into these with a park ranger. So it's going to be a driveby/walkby experience for Marcel and co.
Even if you can't get tickets, a drive around the Cliff Palace Loop/Mesa Top Ruins Road is worth it as you can look down on some of the ruins and also you should be able to get some Frybread. Just at the southern tip of the park, the road juts into the neighbouring Ute Mountain Ute Indian Reservation and there you should find a stall/stand selling it. It isn't very healthy but it was good.
Spruce Tree House is the third largest cliff dwelling in Mesa Verde and was built between 1211 and 1278 by the ancestors cheap hotels in venice italy of the Puebloan peoples of the South West (Taos, Acuna, Hopi, Zuni). It was first discovered in 1888 by two local ranchers cheap hotels in venice italy out searching for stray cattle. The dwelling has about 130 rooms and 8 kivas (ceremonial chambers), built into a natural alcove in the cliffs. It is thought to have been home for about 60 to 80 people.
Okay. The morning tours are fully booked. They look AMAZING. You get to climb up ladders into these ancient dwellings. We've armed ourselves with guidebooks and are setting off on a DIY tour of the bits we're allowed to visit on our own.
I'm excited to see these ancient dwellings. Back at the Silver Bean, I got chatting to a woman who works at Mesa Verde. She said the people cheap hotels in venice italy who lived in them are the ancestors of the Pueblo Indians who live in Arizona and New Mexico.
We celebrate the reunion of Andy and his wallet cheap hotels in venice italy over breakfast at the Silver Bean on Main Street in Cortez. This is an eyecatching cheap hotels in venice italy little diner housed in an old Airstream caravan. It's run by Pamela cheap hotels in venice italy Lutz and Hayley Randall. Pamela's had the business for 14 years and one end of the caravan serves as a drive-thru window.
But also, over the band's 14-year history, Olly has put in his fair share of time on the road, criss-crossing the States in a tour bus/van/car. Here's the film to prove it. So he should know what makes for a good playlist.
One blip yesterday was that Andy lost his wallet and was facing a classic travel nightmare. We spent last night trying cheap hotels in venice italy to figure out where it might have gone (Moab? Dove Creek? Hanksville?) and today he was going to have to cancel all his credit cards on a crackly international call.
I loved the landscapes and Mr Depp reprising his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in a Native American disguise, but we were so shattered from yesterday's exploits that we crept out at 11pm, trying not to disturb the other two punters.