April 23, Montrose, Colorado
We had one of those days that starts out great, takes a little turn for the worse, then suddenly turns dismal and stays that way. You just never know. We got up to a cloudy sky, with occasional sunbreaks, but by the time Don and I went over to the park for our walk, it was mostly bright and sunny. We had a great walk, I love this park! Wish I could take it with me. My only screwup was doing a very enthusiastic roll on the slope above the creek, and almost winding up in it.

We all had lunch before we got in the truck and headed south toward Telluride, getting underway about noon. We were about half way down the 550 to Ridgway when I felt the truck rock and swerve violently. I looked out the back window to see what was happening, and I saw a large animal, a deer, lying next to the road. Don was stopping the truck and pulling over. I could tell he was kind of shook up. He got out of the truck and looked back at the deer, who wasn’t moving. He looked over the truck, and reported that there wasn’t much damage. We got moving again, but I could tell the fun had gone out of the excursion. We all felt very badly for the deer, and I was sorry that he hadn’t gotten the training that I had about crossing streets and roads (Thank you, Gary). But then he didn’t have a human to tell him when it was OK to cross.


By the time we got to Ridgway, the clouds had closed in completely, and we couldn’t see the mountains around us. We took the turnoff to Telluride, and climbed up the hill through the clouds. There was a creek next to us, and snow all around. We were driving slower than usual, hoping to avoid another wildlife collision. Don had to pull over several times to let traffic behind us go by. When we finally got to Telluride, the first thing we saw was an Elementary School, with the kids out for recess, playing in snow about as deep as their waists! Two boys were working on making a snowman. Don was saying something about global warming and how it couldn’t come soon enough for him. We drove down the main street of the town, and stopped at the park at the end of town. Don let me out of the truck, and I have to say that I was a little bewildered with all the snow. I found a path across a bridge that was covered in snow, and trotted across it to find an inviting rock, which I proceeded to irrigate. Strangely, I found myself enjoying this cold stuff! I started jumping through the snow, unable to run, but taking pleasure in the leaps I was making. Don wasn’t keeping up with me, and I soon heard him yelling at me to come to him. Ever dutiful, I turned around and went leaping back to him. He led me back to the truck and put me back in. Too bad, I think I would enjoy some more snow time.


Telluride was very tidy looking, well appointed and quite upscale, in my estimation. Don took a few photos, but I don’t know if he’ll post them tonight. I can tell he’s still upset about the deer. As we were leaving, the snow started coming down again, and Geri was anxious to get out of the possibility of getting snowed in. So we retraced our route back through Ridgway to Montrose without incident. When we got back, we got some laundry done and dined on leftover Meatball Soup; good plates! We had a meeting after dinner, and decided to spend another day here in Montrose; we really like it here, the weather promises to be pretty good, and there’s more to see! And I think we need to make up for today being so sad. I’ll let you know how it goes!