Colorado

We left Moab and drove up the Colorado River on a back road to Colorado. At Grand Junction, we decided to get our tires balanced to see if that would fix our 40mph shudder, so we found a Big O Tire store that could do it, and they found that one of our front wheels was out of true. That could be the problem! By the time they had finished with the tires, a storm had caught up with us and we had a downpour and thunder and lightning excitement! The back door of the Big O Tires suddenly turned into a waterfall, as water poured off the roof and into the store! This is why awnings or porches are nice! We had the Jeep tires rotated and alignment checked at the same time, and the guy drove the Jeep around front close to the door so I wouldn't have to get drenched. They were very nice and inexpensive, too - I'd recommend them if you are going through Grand Junction.

Now we had to find a place that sold propane, as we were pretty much out and heading up to the mountains where we expected cold nights. The helpful folks at Big O spent some time looking up propane places in their phone book and we found one place that was open still (it was after 5pm at this point) at the Junction RV Park. We got there just as the storm let up - perfect timing! Again, people were very helpful and friendly, and it was a nice park, but we had reservations at another RV Park up in Ouray, so we didn't stay. I found a postcard with a poem there, though, that summed up some of my good feelings about the region and the people:

Out Where the West Begins

Out where the handclasp's a little stronger,
Out where the smile dwells a little longer,
That's where the West begins;

Out where the sun is a little brighter,
Where the snows that fall are a trifle whiter,
Where the bonds of home are a wee bit tighter,
That's where the West begins.

Out where the skies are a trifle bluer,
Out where the friendship's a little truer,
That's where the West begins;

Out where a fresher breeze is blowing,
Where there's laughter in every streamlet flowing,
Where there's more of reaping and less of sowing,
That's where the West begins.

Out where the world is in the making,
Where fewer hearts with despair are aching,
That's where the West begins;

Where there's more of singing and less of signing,
Where there's more of giving and less of buying,
And a man makes friends without half trying,
That's where the West begins.

--Arthur Chapman

Isn't that nice?

After the storm, everything was gorgeous with parting clouds and evening light. Delta and Montrose looked like great places to live, and Ridgway was spectacular. We continued up the Uncompahgre River valley, past lovely rural scenery of farms and ranches to Ouray, which feels like the gateway to the Rockies.

Ouray is called "The Switzerland of America" for good reason - it is a lovely little historic town nestled in a valley surrounded by waterfalls and snow-capped peaks. The thing that "saves" Ouray is that it doesn't have a ski area, so it retains its old-timey flavor without pretension. It has a wonderful public hot springs pool, and as we drove in at dusk in the light rain, it looked very inviting with the steam rising up. We turned off of the main street to a dirt side road and 4J+1+1 RV Park, right in town, and right on the river.

Everything smelled wonderful and the air was crisp and clean after the rain. The sound of the rushing river right next to us ensured a good night's sleep here in the mountains. I had to go out for a walk! I walked into town, found a New Orleans restaurant that sold beignets right around the corner - oh boy, can't wait for breakfast! Also found a variety store that sold everything under the sun, and lots of other neat shops. I wandered up to the community center and the courthouse, built in the 1800's. Great views of mountains, waterfalls, and the river. Ouray is quite wonderful!

The next morning, after a peaceful night's sleep, I walked over to Papillon, the "N'Awlins" style home cookin' restaurant, and picked up some beignets and bread pudding, and coffee with chickory, and brought them back to Devin. OMG. This place is a real treasure! We had to stop there for lunch before going out to do some exploring - crawfish enchiladas and a muffaletta sandwich - yum!!

We decided to explore some of the surrounding communities before going up in the mountains further, and went back to Montrose to drive around the neighborhoods and check out the town. It has a neat historic main street section, some nice neighborhoods, and lots of surrounding farmlands and horse and cattle ranches. Some of the new development we saw looked pretty nice, too - not just slapped together strip mall style, but it seemed more like planned and zoned growth. We decided we should add Montrose to our list of potential places to settle, someday. The growth predictions are huge - so investing in real estate there would probably be a good idea either way - if it stayed the kind of town you'd want to live in, or if it grew too much and prices skyrocketed. It's also close to the San Juans (Southwest Rockies), and not too far from Moab and all that southern Utah country we love so much.

Montrose is the "gateway to the Black Canyon" which is a national park. The Gunnison River cuts right through a mesa and has created the Black Canyon - you drive up to the mesa top and it's just gently rolling countryside and all of a sudden, this huge gash is opened in the earth - must have been shocking for early explorers and quite a barrier! We drove around and took some photos from various viewpoints along the south/west rim of the canyon and headed back up into the mountains.

That night I decided to make beef stroganoff for Devin, since he had mentioned he liked it. I've never made it before, like most things, so I searched online for recipes, and once I figured out the basic principles, got down to business with what I had on hand. Here's my recipe:

Recipe - Black Toad Beef Stroganoff!

Basic ingredients, in whatever proportions suit you (all the recipes I checked first had portions for 4 or 8, so I cut down and just guestimated what would be enough for two): Beef, Onions, Mushrooms, Noodles, (Light) Sour Cream, and ingredients for sauce - butter/olive oil, flour, broth, sherry/wine/beer, seasonings.

• Sautee onion and mushrooms in olive oil/butter
• take out of pan and add meat - brown in more oil/butter and remove
• add flour and brown and mix well with oil in pan to make roux
• add broth and beer or wine, cook down to half
• correct seasonings - most original recipes call for sweet sherry, so since I used Black Toad Beer, which is a bitter dark ale, I added a little raw sugar to get that slightly sweet flavor. I also added salt, pepper, a dash of worcestershire sauce, a dash of apple cider vinegar and a little balsamic vinegar to get that nice sweet-n-sour balance that makes beef stroganoff tasty. Also a little rosemary and thyme.
• Cook the noodles (wide egg noodles)
• add the meat and onions/mushrooms back into the sauce and cover, simmering on med-low for about 5 minutes
• turn off heat and let it stop simmering before folding in sour cream - if it's too hot, it will curdle.
• Serve over noodles!

HINTS: if you end up with a slightly lumpy sauce like I did, I used our Bamix Hand Blender with the whisk blade attached to smooth it out while it was cooking down - worked great! Also, obviously, beef broth would be the best broth choice, but I used chicken broth and a little "better than bullion" added in to give it more body. The beef you use should be super tender - I used stir fry beef, which was a little tough, but okay since it was in small pieces. Vegetarians could use Tempeh or Saitan (or even firm tofu, just braise it nicely). If you don't like the taste with wine or sherry or beer, just use broth, but I think that slight alcohol flavor adds to the stroganoff. I think it might be nice with red wine, too. You can use green onions or shallots, or yellow onions, if you prefer. You can add finely minced garlic, or other seasonings, to your taste.

This was my first time making stroganoff - I made it because Devin mentioned it the other day, so I thought I'd try it. He loved it! My sauce was a little thinner than I've had, but it was so tasty nobody cared. The only negative was the tough stir fry meat, so next time I'll get some tender cut and slice it thin. Not too hard to make in an RV as it only used 2 pans - one for the noodles and one for everything else.

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