Today we took a drive and headed for Silverton, Colorado. It was a beautiful clear morning and the scenery was the best we’ve seen so far. It was only about 30 miles up to Silverton and once we got close we decided to continue on to Ouray and do Silverton on the way back. Karen was a little apprehensive about the Million Dollar Highway, with it’s winding climbs, descents, hairpin curves and no guard rails, but we really enjoyed the beautiful drive and I was reminded that I made this drive 34 years ago – in a VW bus! Ouray is a neat little town with its many late 19th century buildings, one of which is the Artisan Bakery & Cafe which was our first stop (can you believe it?).  One chocolate croissant and oatmeal-walnut-chocolate-chip cookie later, we made our way through a few shops and suddenly found ourselves at the Ouray Brewery.  There we snacked on chips and queso while enjoying their Box Canyon Brown Ale. Before heading back to Silverton we drove around town a bit and found an RV park that has some great views. We could spend some time here in the motorhome and, yes, we could do that Million Dollar Highway in the big rig!  Silverton is an old mining town and today is best known as the destination end of the Durango-Silvertion Narrow Gauge Railroad. While enjoying a pint of Red Mountain Ale at the Silverton Brewing Company I thought I remembered an old photo of our family standing next to the train in Silverton from 34 years ago.  A quick check on Shutterfly with my iPhone proved me right. Check out today’s Photo of the Day!

Since Jake & Peggy were left in their room and waiting for our return we decided to get on back to take them for a walk and find something to eat back in Durango. What we found was Fired Up Pizzeria – and what a find! With a wood-fired pizza oven like this we figured it had to be good and it certainly was! We agreed that this one even tops Amarillo’s 575. I don’t know about the winters here but I do know for at least a summer, we could live here!