Back in Ouray

Well, did March come in like lamb or a lion. It would depend where you are, no?

Tamara and I made it through the Denver Gift Show and did a lot of buying for our stores. The fortunate thing is that most of it won’t be delivered until May and it doesn’t have to be paid for it until July or August. We heard a lot of positive stuff from vendors about their sales being up and hearing from their customers that attendance at the national parks, resorts, and destination locations (of which Ouray is one) is projected to be up for 2009. The reservations for lodging in Ouray for the summer season are up for this same time last year. People just want to get away.

The exit from Denver was another adventure. We were going to drive back the same way we had come in from Ouray (minus the flatbed tow truck), but as we were heading in that direction to get on the main highway over Monarch Pass and through Gunnison and Montrose, I missed the turnoff for highway 285. We figured out how to get back to it by a detour. As we got close, I turned one street too soon (nowhere I’ve been has as good as road signage as California) and had to make a U-turn and finally got back on another highway that would take us to our desired 285. On the approach to 285 there was some road construction, and with no warning signs they had the exit we needed to take blocked off. It was either continue to the next exit, turn around, and get the exit from the other side, or take a couple more miles and get to Interstate 70 – the route we normally take. Screw it! I-70 it is!

Then the worry was about the weather over Vail Pass, which gets snow at the drop of any barometric pressure. Having not yet had breakfast, we stopped in Frisco (that would be Frisco, Colorado not San Francisco, California, which hates being called “Frisco.”) at a familiar diner from the past and had our repast. The weather looked good ahead and we forged on to the west. The only memorable thing about the trip was seeing big-horned sheep along side the highway as we got close to Glenwood Springs, but then, we see those along the highway just north of Ouray.

We stopped in Montrose to pick up some crystal products for one of our stores, get the cat out of kitty jail, pick up info from our accountant, get supplies at Office Depot, beer and wine from the liquor store, food from the grocery store, gas for the Expedition, wash the Expedition, and head the last 35 miles to Ouray. Can you tell we don’t like going to Montrose and do as much there in one trip as possible?

Driving into Ouray we could see that no snow had fallen during our absence and the ground was looking barren and brown. With March and April being the wettest months, it is just a matter of whether the wetness will be in the form of rain or snow. Snow would be preferred at this point.

So things are back to abnormal and we have customers coming into the store. There are 25 ice climbers from Spain in town this week who have been coming in the store for clothes and souvenirs to take back to those left at home. We call that type of buying “guilt gifts.” Even though I lived in Southern California for 35 years, I was not much assistance when the Spaniards were asking me questions about their potential purchases. One guy bought a child’s t-shirt and I finally figured out he was asking if the shirt would shrink. Then he was asking if the child’s shirt he had selected came in a larger version for women. Of course not. I was pretty worn out by the time they left. Maybe someday I’ll finish those Spanish tapes I purchased years ago. The trick will be finding a tape player on which to listen to them.

Today it has been snowing on and off between times when the sun comes in and out.

One last thing: If rain creates rainbows, can snow create snowbows?

Towed to Denver

This being the last day of a short month, a short entry should be in order.

Tamara and I left Ouray on Tuesday, February 25, to attend the Denver Gift Show. Things were going well until we reached Fairplay, which is a small town 80 miles southwest of Denver. As we slowed down to the city limit speed, I felt a pop in the rear of the truck and a grinding noise. Thinking it was a blown tire, I pulled over to the side of the road to check it out. As I toured around the Expedition, all tires seemed fully inflated. A check under the check did not reveal where the noise had come from. I got back in the truck, started driving, and did not notice any more noise, and decided to continue driving toward Denver. About 3 miles on the other side of Fairplay, the noise came back with a vengeance and increased volume. Fairplay was not playing fair. Deciding that things were not going well, I turned around and headed back to Fairplay, where a small garage still had activity visible inside, even though the sign said CLOSED. The three workers agreed to look at the truck, and after one of them took off the lug nuts to the right rear wheel after burning his hands on the hot hub, he surmised it was a break failure and possibly even a broken right rear axle. Luckily, the garage was a AAA tow service with a flat bed truck, and we ended up being towed the rest of the way to Denver. That is a heck of a way to save gas.

The truck was towed to a Ford dealer in Denver, but by now it was nearly 7:30pm and the service department was closed, as were any nearby rental car agencies. We called a friend of ours in Denver who we had known in Southern California. He came to the Ford dealer to pick us up, took us to Denver International Airport to rent a car, and we headed back to our other friend’s condo who had been gracious enough to let us stay there, even though she was out of town on business. So our plan to arrive in Denver at around 6:00pm and have a leisurely evening was replaced by a hectic evening and arriving at 11:30pm and going straight to bed.

I’ll probably write more later, but for now as February nears its end, so ends this tale.

One last thing: Can money be held for ransom?