Destination (one of them anyhow) Ridgeway Colorado. What I knew about this place is was two things 1) It is close to Ouray - a town that we love. 2) It is home of Colorado Boy brewery - a brewer that I thought was pretty good at last years GABF and I made a mental note to remember if I was ever in Ridgeway.
So a few days ago we hit the road for a trip that would take many unexpected twists and turns. The first twist happened a little over an hour and a half in when we made our first of 19,000 bath room stops and I realized that I needed some coffee. Road coffee is just about always a horrendous experience but for me a necessary evil that must be suffered.
This day however we took a random exit that had the bathroom sign before the exit and that is when I saw the last thing on earth I expected to see at a random freeway exit and my hopes were raised instantly.
We got to our Destination of Ridgeway and it is an unmistakable mountain town. These small towns like Ridgeway, Ouray, Silverton etc..are obviously gold rush towns and they would have to bulldoze them to the ground and rebuild with Stucco for you not to see it. Our crash pad was the Chipeta Solar Spa and it is a rustic mix of adobe, a crackerjack box, and luxury. It's an instant conflict of shabby meets magical and while in some ways I would recommend it most highly I'd also not be able to recommend it at all. It's really just a jumble of wackyness and magic that I have a hard time explaining.
First off the goal of this place is relaxation period.
When we got there we had about 40 min until our massages were scheduled and I tried several times to ask the spa director for instructions of what we should do next. She calmly and politely told us to relax and do whatever we wanted. If we wanted to do a sauna, hot tub, outdoor soaking tub..whatever we wanted. Basically they will not give you any structured instructions at this place. I enjoy knowing what I'm doing next and this idea of relaxing and not giving it any thought made me a bit anxious. Long story short they had robes for us in our rooms, extra robes for us in the spa area and wherever we went we would not have gotten lost..they were gonna track us down wherever we went.
Anyhow, relaxing "unconditionally" is a skill it turns out I was not very well versed at....yet.
We opted to hit the outdoor soaking tub...totally awesome!
During our soak the spa director found us and said we had 6 min until our massage and we could leisurely make our way over to the spa. See John...nothing to worry about. :)
Two awesome massages later we dashed over to Colorado Boy for some nice pints and some Artisan pizza... And then we met with a real life Wally World moment.
Well, we were just moments away from the second great twist of fate.
We asked around and got recommend a burger place. We selected a nice beer on tap only to find out their taps were out of order. I guess I should say that this is about the time we began to understand mountain life is a little different as far as things being closed and running out go. The 24/7/365 supply of city life does not apply here. You either adapt to it or I guess you get off the mountain.
Anyhow the only other interesting choice was a rye pale ale from somebody I've never heard of Telluride Brewing. We tried it and to explain what we thought about it I can just say that after breakfast we headed over to Telluride to go see them.
Great time with the guys at Telluride, great beer, I wish them all the best!
Next we blasted over to Ouray to revisit a guy we met last trip Mr. Grumpy Pants. Grumpy pants also brews good beer and is a very interesting guy. In a second Wally World moment Grumpy was closed... By now we were used to rolling with it so we slipped across the street to the coolest bar stools in the world. The swing chairs at Ouray Brewery. We talked to the owners here and when they asked us where we were from they said "ya know we have some beer on guest tap".. and they didn't have to say more. We know exactly where it is. It's at one of our regular spots. It was an it's a small world moment.
Ska had a Pale on guest tap and we enjoyed it while swinging away at the bar in Ouray... Unbelievable.
Then for dinner we made another lucky break by stopping at a Mexican restaurant/resort/youth hostile. This place is called The Adobe Inn and simply put if you ever pass Ridgeway Colorado and you don't eat here you have made a serious life error. It's totally amazing Mexican food that I can't place Regionally. It's not Tex Mex, New Mex, Mountain Mex, Border Mex.. I can't tell exactly what it is other than freakishly delicious. If you are EVER in Ridgeway you must stop at the Adobe Inn.
After that we did another good long soak back at Chipeta. The sun was going down and a light mist was coming over the mountains as steam plumes were coming off the water because the temp was dropping. I tried to take a picture of a Modus Hoperandi on the soaking tub edge to capture this conglomeration of clouds, steam, mist, and light but it would not work out.
I forgot to mention how you could hear every tiny sound made in the Chipeta Lodge but this is part of the love/hate thing. We finished up the awesome soak with an off and on sleep because of waking up with every door opening or toilet flushing. It's such a strange place....
And then just as quickly as it started it was over and our groovy little road trip brought us full circle back to Headquarters Littleton.
Now we put the thinking caps back on to plan the next adventure......
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