Day 29: Cortez CO -> Eagle CO

Mr Google suggests that the optimum route from Cortez to Eagle involves flogging back up the 491 to Monticello, then north up US-191 until you hit I-70 north of Moab and sit on I-70 the rest of the way.  This is Utter Bobbins.  No, what you have to do is head east to Durango, then take US-550 and US-50 north to the vicinity of Grand Junction and only then get on I-70.  Interesting facts about Durango:

• I was having breakfast in the Super 8 here in 2003 when I heard that Johnny Cash had died
• I bought some boxer shorts from Walmart here in 2010 and, unlike those from Mr Sainsbury's House of Toothy Comestibles, they have not yet fallen apart
• Grizzled veterans of the IHPVA mailing list will recall that prolific poster Wade Nelson lived hereabouts and regaled us with tales of racing the Durango-Silverton narrow-gauge railroad on his recumbent bike

One can only hope that there's some kind of bike path parallel to said railway, because US-550 goes over the Coal Bank and Molas Passes between Durango and Silverton and they both top out somewhere over 10,000 feet in elevation.  I did spot a happy roadie coming down the former this morning; he must've been doing about 150% of the speed limit 👍.

Silverton in the valley, 'neath lofty and SNO-capped peak...

Terrible places to be stuck at temporary traffic lights #28948

After Silverton the 550 goes over Red Mountain Pass, at a whisker over 11,000 feet.  The portion of the route between Silverton and Ouray is sometimes known as the "Million Dollar Highway"; the origins of said nick being shrouded in legend and/or Lie.  It's steep and twisty and has big drops off the side and is lots of fun in a car that isn't an Horrible Honda.

North of Ouray it flattens out and eventually meets parent road US-50 at Montrose, so bizarrely, having down a fair stretch of eastbound US-50 in Nevada on Monday I now find myself travelling westbound on the same road.  This is because the aptly-name Grand Mesa lies between Montrose and the valley of the Mighty Colorado in Grand Junction.  This section, mercifully, is a nice dual cabbageway because coming up behind the convoy of four oversize loads on a two-lane highway would have been grim.

Bypassed the majority of Grand Junction and got onto I-70 just east thereof.  Not far up the road They repurposed the only road as a lay-by:

Mighty Colorado on the left

A while later I-70 hits Glenwood Canyon, which is one of the more bonkers bits of the Interstate Highway System.

I-70 is on the upper bridge; the lower is the slip road from Grizzly Creek Rest Area

At Dotsero I-70 suddenly starts following the Eagle River up to here, because the Mighty Colorado flows through the middle of bugger-all, as you are no doubt aware, Constant Reader, from the opening overs of the 2014 Automatic Diary.  From here 'tis but a short hop to Denver and if BA would pull out their collective finger and let me do the online check-in wossname instead of just stating:

We are experiencing high demand on ba.com at the moment.

why, that'd be just peachy.  Sort it out u muppets!