(continued from here)

This turned out to be a LONG day. Not too bad, just long. The only thing I needed to do all day was to drive from a hotel in Gunnison to a hotel in Rangely. According to Google Maps, this could be done in four hours. Thanks to several delays, I didn’t arrive at the Rangely hotel until about 12 hours after leaving Gunnison.

Delay 1: Ghost Town

The first delay was entirely by choice. I wanted to check out a ghost town that lies about 18 miles north of Gunnison – when Google Maps (and my geographical knowledge) knew that the only sensible routes to Rangely required going west out of Gunnison. But I figured getting to see the remains of the town of Baldwin would be worth the extra time; I was in no hurry.

I got to Baldwin, and confirmed what I had read: that the town lies on what is now private property, so I couldn’t go in, but I could photograph it from the road. There wasn’t much left of the old town, but here are the few photos I got…

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Delay 2: Forest / County Roads

My plan was to let GPS tell me how to get to Rangely from Baldwin. I was curious whether it would have me backtrack to Gunnison before heading west or instruct me to continue north to county road 13, which I knew I could follow westward for several miles to reach a state highway. But I had forgotten that my dumb-ass GPS app thinks it needs an internet connection to function (which true GPS does NOT), and (not surprisingly) I was getting no cell coverage in the ghost town. So, I made the executive decision to continue north, navigating county and U.S. Forest Service roads. This took much longer than I had thought it would, partly because it was incredibly beautiful, and I kept stopping to admire and photograph the scenery. See for yourself.

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Eventually I reached county road 13 and headed west on it. Here, too, was excellent scenery…

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Delay 3: Pizza

After reaching the state highway, I continued north, stopping for lunch at Propaganda Pie in the town of Redstone. Like so many other places these days, this pizza joint was understaffed. That, combined with having to wait for a Detroit-style deep-dish pizza to bake, would lead to further delay. But I knew this, and again, I was in no hurry. And so it was that my lunch stop lasted two hours. The pizza was pretty good, but not great, though it was nice to not have a giant dog begging for the crusts.

Delay 4: Thunderstorm

A couple hours later, I had reached Interstate 70 and had been travelling west on it for awhile, when the radio informed me of a severe thunderstorm in the area between my destination and me. Then I drove directly into said storm. I seriously have not seen rain so heavy since 1993, when the entire midwest was under water. The rain was coming down in sheets! The windshield wipers were cranked up to maximum speed yet were not helping. I put on my hazard lights and pulled onto the shoulder (and was not alone in doing so), where I waited a few minutes for the wind to let up before resuming my drive. Since the radio claimed that the storm was slowly moving toward my destination, I opted to wander into the city of Grand Junction and do some shopping to put some more distance between myself and the storm.

Delay 5: Light Rain + Terrible Road

When I finally left Grand Junction, the bulk of the storm had moved off to the east. So, I continued west to state highway 139. This is a road I had never been on. It is also a road I need never traverse again. While I was no longer under what I would call a storm, there was still light rain, and the sun was setting. For this reason, I didn’t take any pictures, which is too bad because this was true Wile E. Coyote country. For several miles, this highway features sharp curves, steep drop-offs at the side of the road (with no guard rail), and very rough pavement. Oh, yeah. And semi’s. Out of an abundance of caution, I drove this section of the route quite slowly. But once I got through the white-knuckle section, I was able to resume normal highway speed. A quick stop at a Chinese restaurant as I entered Rangely, and my 12-hour journey had finally come to its end.