Colorado

 

Claritin for the pollen.  Nitroglycerine for the altitude.  It worked for a while, but the altitude started wearing me down.  At least we think it’s the altitude.  There are a number of other possible reasons that might have been making me feel crummy.  We considered staying where we were and one-by-one eliminating all the non-fatal possibilities first, then retreating to a lower altitude only if we needed to.  We decided to deal with the altitude first instead.

 

Ridgway is in the 7,000s.  Too high.  We were going to go to Rifle Gap State Park next, but that’s not much lower.  Today we changed our plans and moved to the lowest place around: Fruita (outside Grand Junction) at 4,400 feet.  When you decide to get out of the altitude here, it’s not that easy to do.  What we’ve done so far is good.  I feel much better this evening.  We’ll spend the night, then drive again tomorrow to get lower still.  I want to feel all the way better.

 

The plan is to drive east to Kansas.  We have to go over the high country to get there, and once we get over the high country, Denver isn’t any lower than Grand Junction, but after that, our country slopes off to the east all the way to the Mississippi River.  We don’t have to go as far as the Mississippi River, its only a few hundred feet above sea level for most of its course.  The cardiologist tells us that elevations between 3,000 feet and sea level should all feel about the same to me, so we’ll get down to the 2,000s for a few days to let me reset and get comfortable again.  Then we’ll come back to Colorado gently.  No high country to cross.  No mountain hikes.  Hopefully that approach will work better and we can hang out at 5,000 feet for a while.

 

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