Part Three or goodbye cows (Denver, Durango: truck rental, real estate, rentals)

[jim9251]

Getting a U-Haul in Delta is like getting a rocket to Mars. No, actually getting a rocket to Mars is easier. Oh you make an online reservation and call the place to make sure your truck is there only to be told well, if we have one we'll have one, if not, we won't.

HUH???

The Budget rental in Montrose was so helpful, had the truck I wanted delivered to Delta and waiting for me Saturday. I had a small army helping me move my furniture, and loading the truck was painless. The drive to Ridgway was a breeze, sunny and in the 60's.

And after a long day, Saturday night I did manage to put my bed together, clean sheets on it and I collapsed. But not before a visit to Panny's for a great pizza! I spent Sunday putting things away, wandered around town a bit and realized there's a BIG difference in 7,000 feet elevation compared to 5,000 feet and decided to plop down on the sofa Sunday evening as my red blood cells were panting.

It's been cloudy and cool here, some rain Monday, which was very nice indeed. Everything smelled wonderful and the air was clean and crisp this morning. In my wanderings I noticed a few new things, the apparently never ending construction on HWY 62 in town over the river, a new hamburger place, a Costa Rican restaurant, some places I remember are now closed and vacant, and a new and seemingly evil Family Dollar store, that has just darn near everything I need within walking distance.

My high speed DSL was connected today, no more horrible Skybeam hooray! And my Directv will be connected tomorrow.

So, I return. And goodbye cows, I'll see you next on my hamburger, but not up close and personal. EVER! Bundled up on my patio drinking coffee looking at the cloud shrouded snow packed San Juans in the distance.

Ahhhhh...

[rainroosty]

What about the cows?

[Anna Nimity]

Jim, best of luck to you back in Ridgway. I am a native of Durango, now in upstate NY. Proverbial lurker, not much of a poster. I followed all of your previous threads/posts and very much enjoy your writing and photographs.

[jim9251]

Originally Posted by rainroosty

What about the cows?

I mooved without them, they are utterly annoying stupid creatures.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by jim9251

Getting a U-Haul in Delta is like getting a rocket to Mars. No, actually getting a rocket to Mars is easier. Oh you make an online reservation and call the place to make sure your truck is there only to be told well, if we have one we'll have one, if not, we won't.

HUH???

The Budget rental in Montrose was so helpful, had the truck I wanted delivered to Delta and waiting for me Saturday. I had a small army helping me move my furniture, and loading the truck was painless. The drive to Ridgway was a breeze, sunny and in the 60's.

And after a long day, Saturday night I did manage to put my bed together, clean sheets on it and I collapsed. But not before a visit to Panny's for a great pizza! I spent Sunday putting things away, wandered around town a bit and realized there's a BIG difference in 7,000 feet elevation compared to 5,000 feet and decided to plop down on the sofa Sunday evening as my red blood cells were panting.

It's been cloudy and cool here, some rain Monday, which was very nice indeed. Everything smelled wonderful and the air was clean and crisp this morning. In my wanderings I noticed a few new things, the apparently never ending construction on HWY 62 in town over the river, a new hamburger place, a Costa Rican restaurant, some places I remember are now closed and vacant, and a new and seemingly evil Family Dollar store, that has just darn near everything I need within walking distance.

My high speed DSL was connected today, no more horrible Skybeam hooray! And my Directv will be connected tomorrow.

So, I return. And goodbye cows, I'll see you next on my hamburger, but not up close and personal. EVER! Bundled up on my patio drinking coffee looking at the cloud shrouded snow packed San Juans in the distance.

Ahhhhh...

I remember trying to get a Uhaul to move out of Fairplay, CO. I was supposed to have a small truck waiting for me in Buena Vista, but after trying to pick it up twice, and not having it available, I gave up. I drove to Denver and rented a Penske truck. Definitely not a fan of Uhaul!

Good luck and enjoy your time back in Ridgway. Look forward to seeing some new pics!

[Colorado Rambler]

Glad to read that you pulled off your move and are happy in your old/new town. I enjoy Ridgway myself, although I don't get up that way often. We don't have much of a cow problem here in the Lost Corners. However, I can't wait until I start a thread called "Goodbye pinto beans." *sigh* Can't happen soon enough. I'll think of you when I gaze at the San Juans from the opposite direction of you.

[jazzlover]

Well, good luck, Jim. I hope your return to Ridgway is a happy one.

Some anecdotal information that I got in a conversation a few weeks ago with a manager of a major western Colorado moving company:

I asked how busy they were these days. "Pretty busy" was the answer.

I asked with people moving in or moving out? "Out, by three to one."

Where are they going, I asked. "'Oil states' mostly," he said. "Wyoming, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas--you know, places that actually have jobs."

He also said that it seemed like a lot of those moving out were people who had come in during the mass in-migration from places like California at the height of the real estate bubble a few years ago. Apparently, the Colorado "dream" turned out pretty badly for a lot of them.

Of course, I'm sure that there is a never-ending new crop of "Paradise Syndrome" people that may show up in Colorado, but the prospects for them--if they actually have to work to make a living--are not good.

As to Jim's "U-Haul story," I remember well when the "oil shale bust" hit western Colorado on "Black Sunday," 1982 (May 2, by the way). Within the first week, over 1,000 people left Garfield County. For a time, there was a close to a two-month waiting list for rental trucks out of the Western Slope. The rental truck companies began making huge surcharges for one-way rentals out of the area--to the point that it was often cheaper for people to rent trucks, move their stuff elsewhere and drive the truck back to the Western Slope to return it, then ride a bus, drive, or fly back to the moving destination. Both the truck rental companies and the moving companies were paying people to "dead-head" empty trucks and semi-trailers back to the Western Slope in order to meet the demand for people leaving. From Black Sunday through 1985, the population of Mesa and Garfield Counties declined over 24,000.

Jim mentioned some newly empty storefronts in Ridgway. That is happening all over western Colorado. I predicted that a whole lot of businesses would not survive the winter in rural Colorado. Well, a lot of them haven't survived.

Oh, and as I noted in another thread, I voted with my feet. I no longer live in Colorado--way too many things are going the wrong way in Colorado and I was in a position not to have to tolerate it any longer, so I'm not.

[jim9251]

Jazz - at the Budget place there were four other people moving out of Delta County Saturday, and all out of Colorado. Seems the moving companies here are really busy as I've been told.

And my move back has been so far so good. I've been greeted with smiles and a laurel and hardy handshake, and welcome back. What a difference from Delta.

[brightdoglover]

Jazz, without too much prying here, what aspects are present in your new locale that you favor, and could you expand on what you were glad to leave behind in CO? Is it a state-wide thing?

[jim9251]

34 degrees light rain/snow this morning. Looks like the San Juans have fresh snow. Today waiting on Directv. I slept SO good last night, I forgot just how DARK it is here at night and quiet.