Friday: Not many miles on the tires today – just 100 miles to Breckenridge. And up in elevation. Seriously?! Yep. I-70 follows the Colorado River through a beautiful gulch to the east of Glenwood Springs. There had been a fire here not too long ago, so the westboud lanes were closed, and all traffic was one lane in the eastbound section.
The mountains are so rugged and the river just chiseled a way through a zillion years ago.
Along our way, we passed Vail. It is right along the freeway, and the buildings and condos are really a unique style.
Lots of slopes!
And then we went past Copper Mountain. I’m not a skier, so I’ve never heard of it, but there were lots of condos and slopes here, too.
Next up was Frisco, where we took a right and went about 12 miles to the town of Breckenridge. It’s kind of a long stretched out town. Most of the ski lifts do not come down all the way to town, so maybe you have to ride a gondola to a lift station? I don’t know.
It is an old town! Established in 1859, so there are lots of historic buildings.
Since masks are required EVERYWHERE due to Covid, we didn’t browse any of the shops. We didn’t want to take up space for real shoppers who might want to buy stuff.
There are gobs of shops and restaurants. And there were people! The summer season ended last weekend, so none of the gondolas or any of the summer activities were open. This was truly the off season between summer and winter.
There was the Breckenridge Brew Pub at the south end of town. We had just bought a sample case of Breckenridge beer while in Puyallup to share with the kids, so we thought it was a good idea to try it out.
We had lunch, which was good burgers, and Kenny had one beer. Then we were way full. Too full for him to even try another beer. So we walked through town. But doggone it…. this elevation is not healthy for us sea-level people. It was slow movin. Here’s what my app said. Geeze! Nearly 10,000’? At the BASE of the slopes?
Since it was Friday, there was some music going on in the river park. People just hangin out having fun, and kids playing in the creek.
Another adventure on the agenda was to visit the Breckenridge Distillery on our way back out of town. Kenny had some Breckenridge bourbon at Brian’s house and really liked it, so that was enough reason to make the stop.
They had a couple of vodkas, rum, gin, and several bourbons and whiskey. We sampled a few things, and Kenny bought a bottle of good bourbon to take home.
Lodging in the town of Breckenridge was out of our budget zone, so our motel reservation was back out at I-70 in the town of Silverthorne. We were on the 6th floor of a LaQuinta, and this was our view looking west from our room.
We were still so full from lunch, and maybe the elevation, that we just had snacks from the travel bag for dinner and called it a night. Tomorrow is the first of two really long 500 mile days to get across the heartland of America.