by Mr. Tiny Brain

Created on: January 31, 2009   Last Updated: February 28, 2009

I once got in the car with my wife and a weeks worth of luggage and asked her "Which direction do you want to go?" She was amazed. She had expected me to completely plan our vacation and the idea that we didn't have reservations anywhere shocked her. I decided to go south west. As I drove slowly into the sunset I tried to explain my reasoning.

I said that without reservations we could go anywhere we felt like. There was no stress on us to be anywhere at any time. If we decided to stay an extra day or an entire week at anyplace we stopped it was OK. She wasn't buying it. As we drove on the first day we called a truce. That meant that I was only in trouble if she got bored or tired before I found something interesting to do.

The good news is that we were living in Denver at the time. When I headed southwest it took us to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. The tremendous sights were..aahtremendous! We enjoyed the canyon and had a wonderful lunch at a local bar along the route. One of my wife's concerns was that we wouldn't be able to find a hotel every night. While I wouldn't have minded sleeping in the car in a national park, my wife's idea of camping includes the words "Holiday Inn". I explained that all we needed to do was simply stop early in the evening before most travelers feel the need to find a room. Luckily for me it worked every time. We spent the first night in Durango. I don't remember the name of the hotel but they had a marvelous hot tub. We went out and picked up dinner, watched a little TV, then soaked in the hot tub until we were sleepy.

The next day we discovered that there was a famous steam engine that took day trippers to Silverton through yet another mountain gorge. We took the trip and had another wonderful day. Note to travelers: When traveling on a train pulled by a steam engine; choose the covered car instead of the open gondola. Steam engines emit cinders. They can be fun for a few minutes but after a while everyone in the gondolas had moved to other cars. Silverton came alive when the train pulled in. It turns out that much of the towns economy was based on the once daily infusion of tourists. Almost every business sent someone in costume out to meet the train. It was like being in a theme park without having to pay an entrance fee. It was also a lot less crowded.

We decided to head north and ended up in Telluride, Colorado and stayed at a small Friendship Inn. We asked about local sights and the innkeeper told us about a local park just

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>