Jorgenson Adventures: Jeeping In Colorado: Part Two

We finished the Alpine Loop a little after 6 on Saturday. We drove a couple of miles on the highway into the little, but beautiful, town of Ouray. On the way Jake said the steering didn't feel right. He had to turn the steering wheel all the way to the left to go straight. Not good. We pulled into a big dirt parking lot and Jake and Kyle started investigating. They discovered that we needed a new steering box. What?! This is not good. It was Saturday evening on Labor Day weekend. Nothing was open. And nothing would be open until Tuesday. It wasn't just a matter of fixing the problem. We needed an actual new steering box. And until we got one we couldn't drive. So we started calling parts places. I have to admit I wasn't too hopeful we'd find anything. There were essentially two places open. The first place didn't have the part in stock. We could pay lots of money to express deliver it there. It would cost $900 just to get the part and it wouldn't be there until Wednesday. Not helpful. Then we called Auto Zone. I'll forever be in debt to Auto Zone. The closest one didn't have the part, but the one in Grand Junction did. And they were open until 10pm! We were like two hours away and it was 7:00 at this point. We needed to get the old steering box out of the Jeep before we left so that we knew exactly what parts to buy. The boys went to work, and they weren't messing around. They worked hard and amazingly got it out in 30 minutes. When they finished we threw half of the gear from the Mackay's Jeep into ours so that we could all fit in one car and headed to Grand Junction. As we started driving we realized something was wrong with the Mackay's Jeep. It was moving, but didn't have near the power it should. We kept plowing forward because we needed to make it to Auto Zone before they closed. About 30 minutes outside of Grand Junction their Jeep totally lost power and had to pull over. They raced out to see what was going on and realized the air filter was totally clogged from all the dirt roads we'd been on. Kyle was able to clean it up enough that we were able to get going and we made it to Auto Zone with 10 minutes to spare. We got all the parts we needed and headed to our hotel in Telluride. This was the night that our hotel was a super nice 5 star hotel. We'd been really excited to get there, eat yummy food, and enjoy the hot tub. That definitely didn't happen. We didn't pull up to the hotel until 1:30am. We were all so exhausted. Beyond exhausted. And we'd spent like 16 hours driving.

The boys left at 7:30 to drive back to Ouray (an hour away) to replace the steering box. They got it done in like two hours and made it back just in time to be able to shower before we had to check out. And we were all still exhausted. And no one wanted to spend the day in the car. So we road the lift into Telluride and spent the afternoon walking around town. It was a much needed break.

As frustrating as it was to have to replace the steering box, there are about a million miracles that made it work out about as good as possible. The fact that it didn't break while we were in the mountains in the middle of nowhere is amazing. It would have been really hard and expensive to get the Jeep out. Not to mention we could have really gotten hurt if it had broken while we were driving. Finding a place that was open and had the part was also a miracle. This isn't a super common repair so I don't think most places just carry a bunch of steering boxes. Having two boys who knew enough about cars that they were able to repair it, even though neither of them had ever done it before. And then having it actually go in without any problems is amazing. That never happens. There are always other random problems or issues when doing repairs. Not this time. So many miracles. We were able to finish our trip and even do the trails we'd planned. Thank heavens for good friends who were willing to drive all over in the middle of the night to help us out!

Anyway, we headed to find our last camping spot of the trip. It's kind of fun to camp out of a Jeep. You can just drive around and explore until you find a good place to camp. You never know where you'll end up, but it's usually someplace amazing. We camped outside of Telluride in a beautiful spot with amazing views. Pretty much everywhere had amazing views.

When we woke up we thought maybe it was cloudy, but no. Just super smoky. So smoky that we couldn't really see the mountains around us. Which was such a bummer. Thank heavens there hadn't been any smoke the rest of the trip! This was the day we did the Black Bear Trail that Jake's been reading about for a year. Definitely the hardest trail we did, but so amazing. I want to do it again just so we can do it without the smoke. This trail is known for super narrow roads with some tricky rocks to get over. And switchbacks on the edge of a cliff that are really sharp and narrow. Not for the faint of heart. And it was so much fun. The boys did great driving and we just loved the views. It was incredible.

That night we stayed in Ouray. We tried really hard to find a good steak dinner, but it wasn't to be. We kind of struggled finding good food places this trip. I'm sure they exist, but we kept striking out. We hit the hot tub for a second and then all went to bed really early because we were all still exhausted from Saturday night. We headed for home Tuesday morning. Just in time too because a storm rolled in. There was snow that night in Telluride. Crazy!

I think this was one of my favorite trips ever. This was the first time Jake and I have ever done anything like this without kids. And it was awesome. Speaking of the kids, I left them home without anyone taking care of them. I was a little nervous. But Zack has his license now, and they were confident they'd be fine. And they were! In fact, they did a great job. They made it to school and everywhere else they needed to be. They got the chores done we left for them. The house was even clean when we got home! They also each picked a meal they wanted to eat and ate better than I ever feed them. They had breakfast burritos, french toast, shepherds pie, and lots of other good food. I have to admit it made my mom heart happy that they knew how to survive on their own. They've actually learned something! So 5 stars and 2 thumbs up for this trip. It couldn't have been any better!