Day 16- Ouray, CO to Gotherberg, NE

Ouray is actually a quaint little tourist town, made famous by its mining past, its surrounding ghost towns, it opportunities for mounatin sports and, most importantly, its natural hot springs.


I don't know if they have many hot springs in Switzerland, but the folks of Ouray seem to think they do.

The handlers were a bit slow in getting up this morning, and didn't check out of their strangely sized hotel room until ten a.m. However, even that was apparently too early for the hots springs, which didn't open until noon. I should mention that there are hot springs all over this town, and many of the hotels offer hot springs pools and spas as part of their amenities. However, there is a public pool in the middle of town for those of us who can't afford the expensive living.

As we waited for our chance to luxuriate in natural warmth, we wandered the town, taking pictures, and stopping in at a local chocolate/coffee shop for some 'road sweets'. Here is the town of Ouray, shwn nestled amongst the mountains.

The pool opened up and the handler were quick to get changed. Normally, when you think of hot springs you think of something hottub sized or a little larger. This was significantly larger, featuring lap lanes, 2 water slides, and three areas of varying degrees of temperature (when we were there, 78 dgrees, 98 degrees and 104 degrees).

There was also, believe it or not, a koi pond.

We warmed the remaining soreness from our legs, fed the giant goldfish, and then headed on our way north and west towards home.

We went through the heart of the Coloroda Rockies, passing by Vail and Copper Mountain (which appear very different in the summer). We also took a quick tour through Colorado wine country and stopped at a few wineries. Believe it or not, they have some darn good wines in CO. We arrived in Denver around dinner time, which was fine for Handler 2 who wanted to recreate some of the great experiences of his youth by visiting Casa Bonita.

What is Casa Bonita? Well, if you didn't catch the South Park episode based around it (and yes, it's that place), Casa Bonita is Colorado's answer to Chuck E. Cheese...with Mexican food. Basically, think of all the cheesiest, most over-the-top themeing of Disney World, then cram it into a pink colored stucco sided building in the middle of a strip mall. That's Casa Bonita.

If you can find your way through the winding halls, the throngs of excited children and the people selling glowing devices like they do at nighttime parades, you might actually be able to find your seat and eat (or the restrooms, each are equally difficult to find). There are also, for your viewing pleasure, cliff divers, magicians, puppets and "actors" who put on vaguely racist skit shows for the kiddies.

There's also a mariachi band.

And of course games.

Just a note, but there are some not-so-nice people at Casa Bonita. The handlers set one of their little bags of tokens down on their skeeball machines while playing, only to have the bag magically disappear. Not cool Casa Bonita patrons. Not cool at all.

Anyways it was fun!

After that, the plan was to make it as far as possible in the car that evening before crashing. The handlers were aiming for North Platte, NE because it seemed a convenient place to stop. It would have been, except for Railfest. What is Railfest? The handlers had to ask after they were turned away from lodging for the third time. It's a celebration of the nation's railways, of course. And apparently, people come from all over for this..."event".

The upshot was that the handlers had to travel another 30 miles down the road to Gothenburg, NE to find a room. Which just proves that trains are evil and car travel is where it's at.

Quote of the Day-

"Are you yuppies?"- Honest question from a woman working the wine tasting counter after being told that we were at the end of a 17 day road trip and loved to travel. We responded that we're probably a bit to young to be yuppies.