The knees are feeling a bit better and sitting around camp is getting old. So as a test, today we drove the 35 miles from camp to Ouray, CO which is known as the "Switzerland of America". It sits at about 8100' of elevation and is the home to Red Mountain Pass, the stunning 11,018-foot summit of the Million Dollar Highway in Southwest Colorado. It's a treacherous drive that has gained a spot on the dangerous roads web site but drivers are rewarded with breathtaking views. Someday we may give it a go but today is not the day with bad knees and difficulty working the brake and gas pedals.
We settled for the short drive to Ouray and were ready for lunch. We checked the web and Red Mountain Brewing had good reviews and opened at 1 pm. Since it was just before one, we figured it wouldn't be too crowded and hoped we could get in fairly quickly. The inside dining room was small with only around ten tables and just two were occupied. There was also an outdoor seating area that was larger with a few people but still mostly empty.
Unfortunately, "quickly" was not the case. It didn't look very busy but still took around 5 minutes to be greeted by a frazzled waitress that had emerged with a tray of drinks. She seemed annoyed and informed us it would be a 20 minute wait to be seated and asked us to wait outside . Maybe they were short staffed but that's no excuse in the service industry. Her attitude turned me off quickly. We walked outside and found there was no place to sit while waiting. Well there was no way my knees were going to tolerate the wait standing. Combine that with the attitude and we decided to take our business elsewhere.
The rest of the restaurants looked as busy or busier as we drove the main drag. So forget it. While the scenery is beautiful, it's an overpriced, snooty, town full of what I call "granola people" that think very highly of themselves. Not my kind of crowd. We continued out of town and began seek other places to grab a bite along the return drive. But what we found is many places are closed Monday - Wednesday. There just must not be the demand during the week to support them. Ultimately, we went to Montrose Donut and Deli as they were one of the few local businesses open.
"Deli" is a very loose term for this place. It's mainly a bakery and smoothie shop. The "deli" choices consisted of ham, turkey, or roast beef. That's it. But they will make a sandwich on one of their croissants which are heavenly flakey layers of buttery goodness. For an additional 85 cents, you can make it a combo which includes a 1 oz bag of chips and a canned soda from the cooler. :)
We left with our lunch and headed to Riverbottom Park which is built on the Uncompahgre River, It caters to water sports enthusiasts of all levels from ankle waders to expert kayakers. We sat in the park and watched the people while enjoying our lunch.
After the park, we went back to Shannon's mother's home and spent the evening visiting. Because of our late lunch, we decline food offerings at mom's but then found ourselves a little hungry later on our way home. We stopped at Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers. The burgers are very thin so they are all double patties. This makes for more crust surface on the burgers which is a nice change from the thicker patties I am used to. But it's not the burgers that will bring me back... It's the frozen custard that is extremely delicious. Basically ice cream but a very rich and creamy ice cream. The traditional sundae is vanilla custard, both chocolate fudge and carmel sauce, toasted pecans, whipped cream and the traditional cherry on top. Very good and I'm sure we'll be back for the custard.
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