Alyssa was kind enough to prepare us eggs for breakfast, which came out quite well and were quickly consumed. She then proceeded to dress me up in some women's clothing from the Salvation Army and then we moved on to dance lessons, which Liv continuously enticed her to teach me more moves each time I nearly succeeded in finding an excuse to stop. Becky finally came and saved me. Thanks Beck.
Once the laundry finally finished, we loaded up the Wagon and embarked on the next leg of our showerless journey. We headed southwest on SR 285 with our sights set on Gunnison. The five hour drive was spectacular, crossing over the Continental Divide at Mammoth Pass (EL 10,0001), seeing the real South Park (essentially a rest stop in a field after descending from Monarch-the people were very odd), and potentially having a Jon Childs sighting.
Steaming into Gunnison, we found a City Market and restocked, then drove through Western State College to check out Paul Cyr's Alma mater. (Note: Alma mater means "bountiful mother" in Latin. Kind of a stupid term to reference a past university attendance.) The campus was small but quite nice and looked to be in the midst of an expansion of some type. I debated with going running, but after finding a library I decided to wait.
Now, this was not your typical library or library Internet stop. First off, The Gunnison Public Library is the type of place where few people know how to use a computer and the librarians are hands down louder than the children. They even took personal cell phone calls while we observed the quite rules. But, what truly set this library visit apart was its status as the most expensive stop on the trip. Anxiously researching plane ticket costs to Alaska, we blew $1,349.49 in a series of clicks that finally resulted in a flight departing San Francisco in a little over two weeks. Luckily, the fight was San Francisco to Anchorage and back and not the tickets I would have purchased from Anchorage to San Francisco and back to Anchorage if Liv hadn't proofread my work before finalizing the sale. It was a near miss, but we made it.
Getting kicked out of the library at closing we drove a bit more southwest and found a site at Curecanti National Recreation Area. Again, the BLM felt the (probably) once beautiful Gunnison Canyon was too good of a place to pass up a dam location and the they flooded the place, replacing a canyon with a lake (albeit quite picturesque).
After setting the tent, I took off for my run during an awesome sunset. Crossing the Curecanti Dam, I ran along the canyon's rim with the Gunnison River flowing a few thousand feet below as the sun gave the walls a golden glow. It was a top notch run.
No comments:
Post a Comment