After a brief but excellent time in Salt Lake City, we were finally heading south -- the right direction for us most of the time! The scenery on the drive was absolutely gorgeous. I just love the dramatic, rocky topography of this area, probably because it is so very different from the green, tree-covered east and midwest I'm so used to. Rather abruptly, the rock formations changed from a sandy tan color to the brilliant red that this area is so well-known for. Ahhhhhhh....gorgeous! We took a quick pit stop at the "Hole in the Rock" rest stop south of Moab where we remember stopping (heading north) on our southwest trip in 2006. Back then, we spent quite awhile there watching many birds in the trees, including brilliant orange orioles. But that was in the spring, and today was much less "birdy". Before long, we were in Colorado. In contrast to southern Utah, the topography of this part of the state was much greener, with huge stands of evergreen trees flanked by distant snow-capped mountain peaks. Where there were deciduous trees, they were starting to get some fall color -- but nothing like what we'd see in just a day later. This was our first time in Durango, a very pretty city. That evening we met another former Nortel co-worker and cycling buddy from North Carolina for dinner at Zia Taqueria, right across the road from our hotel. Carson and his wife Carol have recently become traveling nomads like us and are spending the month of October in Durango in a rental home. It was an unexpected surprise to find that we would be crossing paths with them briefly as we zipped through town. We really liked this spot, with its "fresh Mex" style food, featuring plenty of unique, flavorful salsas. My fish tacos (below) were some of the best I've had, especially when topped with hot mango-habanero salsa. Barry went with a massive chicken/bean burrito, his favorite. And we had a trio of salsas to dip our chips into. The white one is a pineapple cream cheese variety that I dubbed a "dessert salsa". Yummy! Carol was feeling a little under the weather, unfortunately, so it was just us and Carson for dinner. It was a lot of fun to catch up, talk about traveling, and plan a bike ride for the next day. More to come from beautiful Durango!
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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