Monday April 26^th. The Riverside Hotel Fairplay Colorado

16.00

A strange 24 hours. We actually slept very well in our little log cabin, thanks to the electric blankets and Mike heroically getting up in the middle of the night to keep the stove going. However we woke up to four inches of snow which makes the early morning trip to the out-house even more stimulating. Breakfast was coffee with Bill’s bagels and cheese and the last of our own little stash of oatmeal.

The thought of another night in Guffey, rustic heaven though it is, didn’t really appeal to me but nobody in town could say for certain whether the roads to Fairplay would be clear or not. They didn’t think the snow ploughs worked Highway 9 on a Monday (another triumph for the Colorado Highway Department). In the end, with a lot of misgivings -all on my part, I knew Mike was secretly relishing the thought of sliding along on icy roads in sub-zero temperatures - we decided we’d risk it.

Then we had an incredible stroke of luck. Just as we were leaving the cabin, Joanne, the bar owner, drove up to say that Bill had managed to arrange us a lift. We spent the next hour in the saloon drinking coffee and chatting with Joanne until Holly arrived to take us all the way to Fairplay. Suddenly instead of fifty miles of hell we were cruising along in air-conditioned comfort. Being driven gives you a chance to properly take in the scenery which is, I have to admit, spectacular.

We owe a big thank you to Bill , Joanne and Holy who were all very kind and hospitable to us and genuinely concerned about our safety. Holly is a Real Estate agent and I will never hear a word spoken against these fine people again.

We arrived in Fairplay at 12,30. In the end the road was clear but it was still several degrees below zero and the wind was strong and coming towards us. Cycling would have been hellish so I was a very happy bunny. Even more so after a bowl of chilli and a pint of Guinness in O’Brogan’s bar next door. It’s about as Irish as a bar mitzvah but who cares. They were showing Avatar on big screen and I had to listen to Mike extolling its cinematic virtues but I figured he’d been denied his daily dose of masochistic pleasure so I let him enjoy himself.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is much better, which is a relief because we are heading through Hoosier Pass, the highest point on our whole journey at 11,542 feet, According to the guide book the day ends with “12 screaming miles down hill, with lots of curves, into Breckinridge”. I know where the screaming will be coming from.