relocation to Durango area (Bayfield: sales, how much, school)

[DurangoJoe]

Originally Posted by Colorado Rambler

^^^

I gotta agree with parfleche. When I worked (and lived) in Durango way back in the 80's, one of the women I worked with commuted in from Bayfield. Even then when there was less traffic and both towns were smaller, she'd come in anywhere from 30 - 45 minutes late on snowy days. And 5 minutes from Three Springs to Durango? No way! Not unless you consider the Wal-mart to be Durango.

Way back in the'80's? 30 years ago? I drove it 3 times in the past week. That's how long it takes me. I live there, I drive it regularly, period. That's how long it takes.... and if you drive under 60mph, you'll be pushed along by people who want to drive faster. For years I've heard about how bad the drive was from Bayfield to Durango (mostly by posters on this board). Then, when looking at purchasing a house in Bayfield, we decided to seriously look at traffic & commute times for ourselves & imagine the surprise when we discovered that it didn't take anywhere near as long as it was claimed here. The longest it ever takes me to get into Durango from Bayfield is 25 minutes.

You can believe what you want. That's my experience and my wife who also drives it would confirm it. BTW, I consider Durango the 160 west intersection, not Walmart. Regardless, the OP is working out near the airport. If they lived in Bayfield, they wouldn't need to go anywhere near Durango.

[parfleche]

So what do you do sell real estate in Bayfield? 25 mins to Durango really? 21 miles lots of traffic and 5 or 6 traffic lights. Can't be done even early sunday morning heading to Panhandler Pies for coffee & donuts.Had to go to Alpine lumber for a door at elmores corner took me 20 mins to get to the tech center.Time is money for me and yes I keep a log and charge for my time.

[Colorado Rambler]

Originally Posted by DurangoJoe

Way back in the'80's? 30 years ago? I drove it 3 times in the past week. That's how long it takes me. I live there, I drive it regularly, period. That's how long it takes.... and if you drive under 60mph, you'll be pushed along by people who want to drive faster. For years I've heard about how bad the drive was from Bayfield to Durango (mostly by posters on this board). Then, when looking at purchasing a house in Bayfield, we decided to seriously look at traffic & commute times for ourselves & imagine the surprise when we discovered that it didn't take anywhere near as long as it was claimed here. The longest it ever takes me to get into Durango from Bayfield is 25 minutes.

You can believe what you want. That's my experience and my wife who also drives it would confirm it. BTW, I consider Durango the 160 west intersection, not Walmart. Regardless, the OP is working out near the airport. If they lived in Bayfield, they wouldn't need to go anywhere near Durango.

I brought up the 80's because there were far fewer people living in both towns back then. But even with less traffic, it still took extra time to get from Bayfield to Durango on a snowy day - sometimes alot of extra time. With the passing of time and the advent of more people, the commute from Bayfield to Durango on snow days certainly hasn't improved.

[jazzlover]

In a supposedly "rural" area, the road from Durango to Bayfield can be a traffic-choked mess, with a good dose of wildlife thrown in just to make life interesting. Some real winter driving conditions can really mess that road up.

And, of course, Durango Joe, who loves to pontificate about how great Durango-Bayfield is, has not yet lived there through anything approaching a normal winter. One of these years, maybe, southwest Colorado will actually experience the kind of winter that used to be "normal," or maybe even one considerably worse, and the overconfident newbies will get b****slapped back to reality.

For the record, I've driven that road regularly for over three decades. There is not been a single time that I've driven it in the last three years where that road had the rigorous winter driving conditions that it used to regularly have in winter. Anybody who has relocated to that area within the last three years has not seen winter weather that would be considered "normal" by historical standards.

[parfleche]

Originally Posted by DurangoJoe

I live in Bayfield. I've timed it. Have you? I drive it several times a week.

Yeah I used to lease 160 acres right off the buck hwy right by the Fitzgeralds place and just to get to farmer's supply on co 3 was an easy half hour even with my powerful 60 f100 with the mighty 223 inline 6 powerplant.

[DurangoJoe]

Heaven forbid that somebody's real life (& repeated) experience doesn't fall in line with the opinions given by the "Oracles of SW Colorado", the all-knowing, all-seeing wizards.

I drive the route regularly, you all "used to" drive it. Can't imagine that I might actually have a current picture of commute times on US160, & you don't. All you have is past history......

[DurangoJoe]

Originally Posted by parfleche

So what do you do sell real estate in Bayfield? 25 mins to Durango really? 21 miles lots of traffic and 5 or 6 traffic lights. Can't be done even early sunday morning heading to Panhandler Pies for coffee & donuts.Had to go to Alpine lumber for a door at elmores corner took me 20 mins to get to the tech center.Time is money for me and yes I keep a log and charge for my time.

Nope, I'm retired. We volunteer for the hospital & other organizations and drive into Durango at least 3 times a week. Easy...easy drive. Good for you that you log & charge for your time, that tells me that you have a strong financial incentive to add minutes to your daily tasks to get more money. After all, you yourself have bragged about how you charge people in Durango a lot more for carpentry work than anywhere else..... because.... well it is Durango after all. You must be one of those subs that I told to take a hike after they wanted $40K for framing in my 2,000SF timberframe house.... even though there are only partition walls in a timberframe, no internal load bearing walls.

160 is a straight shot & is a raceway. I've even had people pass me across the double line in Gem Village. People fly on 160. Once again, you "used to" drive it. I drive it now. Who do you think is more current on traffic & times for the drive?

[DurangoJoe]

I drove into Durango earlier this week and just snapped a few pics of my GPS along the way.

Picture 1 was taken as I was just pulling onto US160 from CR521 at the traffic light in Bayfield. It shows the time as 11:46AM.

Picture 2 was taken at the intersection of US550 & US160 west. I was headed up to the tech center. It shows a time of 12:08PM.

By any measure, that's 22 minutes from Bayfield to Durango. Granted, middle of the day. But later that day, between 5 & 6 PM I drove back from Durango to Bayfield during rush hour..... 27 minutes.

[CosmicWizard]

Hey Joe....what some of these "Oracles of SW Colorado", the all-knowing, all-seeing wizards have never experienced, is driving on the snow laced, winding, hilly, icy backwoods roads in the heavily forested country of southwestern PA, so naturally, they are prone to think that the road conditions that are so severe to them, will appear that way to everyone. They conveniently forget about the relativity factor.

[jazzlover]

I will repeat--Johnny-come-lately types who haven't been in SW Colorado but a couple of years haven't seen what a real winter can dish out--there just hasn't been a bad winter--not even a normal one. SW Colorado desperately needs a very cold and very wet winter--for water supplies and to kill overwintering spruce and pine beetles. A side benefit would be that it might also shut up the newbie know-it-all types who think that they know what a real Colorado winter is.