Hi Ho Durango!

Well, it's the end of the first long day of my road trip! I made it all the way to.... Durango! Yes, Durango. Those of you who have been following my Colorado adventures might now think to yourselves "but isn't Durango, like, 3 hours away from the ranch?" Yes, that's right I drove a whopping three hours today.

After staying up until four in the morning "packing" (a.k.a. looking at photos from Pam's and Gary's Tasmania trip), I was still not packed last night. So I got up in the morning and kept "packing" (a.k.a. admiring how handsome Fenton looked in his new dog bed that is like the La-Z Boy of dog beds) until about 12:30. Then Pam and I looked at the clock and she said "You know, you might consider just spending the night in Durango tonight..." Yeah. Then she made it even more appealing by reminding me that staying in Durango would mean sushi for dinner, and the deal was sealed when we called the hotel she recommended in Durango, the Rochester, and the nice woman on the phone (who asked me "Do you know us?" and when I said "No", said "Oh, you just sounded so friendly I thought you must know us.") told me that they had the "Maverick Queen" room available for me. Perfect.

And guess who the Maverick Queen turned out to be? Barbara Stanwyck, star of the Lady Eve and all around Fast-Talking, Wise-Cracking Dame. I love her, and there she is in all her glory on the poster outside my door. All the rooms in this hotel are named after movies filmed in or around Durango, which sort-of makes it the Wild West movie version of the Sylvia Beach Hotel. The music playing in the lobby when I walked in featured a whistling cowboy. I love whistling cowboys songs!

Clearly this road trip is starting out on a good note. The drive over Wolf Creek Pass was gorgeous, check out the view from the top:

But as gorgeous as that view was, the sushi dinner at East by Southwest might have been even more gorgeous. I realize it seems unlikely that Durango, Colorado would be the home of one of the best sushi restaurants I've ever enjoyed a meal at, but it is.

On the far left is a plate of Kumamoto oyster shells. The oysters, which were prepared with ponzu sauce and wasabi tobiko, were devoured seconds after arriving at the table. And that was just the beginning. Perhaps you are looking at this photo and thinking, damn, that's a lot of sushi for just one person. Well, the best part of this dinner was that Pam and Gary drove over from the ranch to share it with me. I'm going to miss those two. And I'm never going to think twice about driving to Portland again!