We left Colorado Springs yesterday (May 7, 2010) close to noon. I didn’t want to leave! I felt like we had so much more exploring and hanging out to do, but we’re running out of time to get back to Hawaii before our last paycheck arrives. I apparently wanted so badly to have an excuse to go back to Cadena’s house that I inadvertently left with her sunglasses. How I thought these glasses were mine are beyond me. But I found them in my Army camo jacket pocket later that afternoon. Looks like someone is getting a package soon!
At noon we passed the Continental Divide, Loveland pass and the highest point on our route. The Continental divide is the point at which all the rivers on one side eventually flow and end up in the Atlantic & Gulf of Mexico, while the water, river, etc on the other side eventually flow into the Pacific. Hence the photograph of pouring water.
It was sunny but absolutely freezing up there! I got a bit of altitude sickness too. We both thought it was hard to breath, but I ended up getting dizzy. Lessons on altitude sickness: no matter how cold it is, and how excited you are to be at Loveland Pass, do NOT run around.
By 3 or 4pm I noticed that we hadn’t passed a familiar town name in quite some time. And a half hour later, when we got some cell phone reception, I learned that was because we made a huge detour. We somehow ended up traveling NORTH, rather than West on some crazy other road. We were hours off our beloved Route 6! I found a scenic byway, route 1 to travel back down to the 6. You’d think a state designated scenic byway would be paved, no? It wasn’t. 2 or so hours of dirt road took us through some fantastic scenery though. I have never seen so many deer in my life. We also saw Bighorn Sheep, which was a first for us both.
A little after 6pm we were back to our paved route 6 and getting desperate to stretch our legs, eat, and call it a night. We pressed onward, hoping to make up for some of our lost time on our scenic detour, but the sky was darkening, so we pulled over in Gypsum.
It was a deadend road, at a closed trailhead. Camping overnight is free and legal, and there were bathroom facilities. Despite the traffic noise, we determined this spot to be ideal under the circumstances.
After a can of soup, we bundled up into the car to sleep. When it was far too late to change our minds about our spot, we started getting visitors. A car pulled over behind the bathrooms for about 15-20 mins then left. Then we had another visitor 5 minutes later that pulled around and left after they saw our car. When I figured out that it was Friday night, I determined that the spot must be the local makeout and drugout spot. Mateo propped himself up so that his eyes would gaze over the bottom edge of the window, performing watch duty. I buried myself under the blanket to sleep, not caring. By the time Mateo convinced himself there was nothing to worry about, I had convinced myself that perhaps there was something to worry about. And so with every loud truck engine, gust of wind or movement from Mateo or the cat, I woke up convinced we were being sabatoged. Needless to say, I didn’t sleep well. Kitty woke me up at one point with a small meow. She was shivering. I opened the sleeping bag and she crawled in and fell asleep immediately with my arm hugging around her and her head poking out of the bag.