Day 8 Week 2

“I'll tell you where. Someplace warm.  A place where the beer flows like wine. Where beautiful women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. I'm talking about a little place called Aspen." - Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey), Dumb and Dumber 1994.

That’s right. I’m in Aspen.  Well, today I was. I have retreated back to Glenwood Springs for the night because accommodation is expensive in Aspen. I had to come back out this way to leave tomorrow anyway.  Aspen is the vacation spot for all the Hollywood celebrities. The houses on the hills around there are massive.  Some of the roads around here are still closed so I had to hire a snow mobile and guide to take me up into the mountains to a place called Maroon Lake. The mountains behind are called the Maroon Bells. Very famous spot for photographers. Most photographed mountains on the Northern Continental United States.  Apparently it is elbow to elbow around the lake in summer but because I came at the wrong time, I had it all to myself. Still pretty impressive though.  Aspen is at an elevation of about 7900 feet so we are pretty high. The air is crisp and clear and the sky is incredibly blue. The pictures don’t do it justice... again, I am starting to sound like a broken record with that saying.

This is what the Maroon Bells look like in summer.

 The sky is incredibly blue up here!

On the way up here this morning, I stopped in Grand Junction CO, for fuel (Gas), they look at me weird when I say “I just have to pay for some fuel” Petrol is worse, they haven’t got a clue. I have to say Gas straight off or it becomes like ground hog day for me, repeating the whole thing again with Gas instead of fuel. I haven’t come across a service station that lets you pump first. They are all ‘Pay before you pump’.  You just have to go in and give the attendant an amount $50, $100, whatever and they give you change back at the end. I also had breakfast here and went to Walmart and bought some new shirts.

I also bought another TomTom from a Pawn shop in Grand Junction today for $40. My other one was useless. I have been navigating old school with a map for the last 3 days. Good fun and no problems but a bit difficult trying to read a Rand McNally Atlas spread out over the steering wheel while belting down the freeway at 75mph.

I went and visited the memorial to ‘Doc’ Holliday who is buried here in the Linwood Cemetery. After the shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Doc headed up north, like the Earp’s, and finally ended up here at Glenwood Springs. It is believed he came here for the hot springs to assist him with his consumption. He had chronic tuberculosis. He wasn’t here very long before he was bed ridden for the last 3 months of his life. Dying in bed at age 36.

"I'm your huckleberry. Why Johnny Ringo! You look like somebody just walked over your grave."

Val Kilmer - Tomestone 1993

Tomorrow, I am heading off in the direction of Denver but I think I will turn off before then and head south again. Leaving Glenwood Springs, I get to travel through the Glenwood Canyon. This is the most remarkable feat of engineering. From all reports from the locals, it is an incredible journey.