Destination: Silverton, CO

On Saturday, June 30th, we left for Silverton, Colorado. A few years ago, Ryan and Kathryn went there for the 4th of July and enjoyed it so much they decided to rent a home for the week of the 4th and invited us to join them. For a week, the cost of the home split two ways was cheaper than even a fair hotel for a week, so we decided to go. (Oh, and we like to spend time with family, added bonus). So off we went... we planned on leaving at 7am, but we were up late getting ready and still didn't finish, so we didn't leave until 830am. We stopped in Payson for gas and to feed Clara and then didn't stop again until Gallup, NM. It is a boring drive, unless you find things to laugh at (like when Clara was in my lamp and I was changing her diaper, the blanket was over her face and she reached over and turned Jason's cup of "used" sunflower seeds completely upside down with no warning or the guy spraying his swamp cooler on the top of his trailer with a hose from the ground) or you see a semi truck HIT a pickup truck. That's right, as we were driving, there was a semi-truck that went to get into the left lane, apparently without looking. The pickup that was in the lane moved over and was driving halfway in the median, dirt flying everywhere and we think that's when the semi realized someone was in the lane he was attempting to get in, so he jerked, which made his trailer fishtail and it smacked the pickup truck. WOW! Then, the semi truck cut off another semi to get off the freeway and the pickup followed. Hopefully the semi was getting off to talk to the guy, but it looked liked he was trying to ditch him because of how he cut off another semi. Because we couldn't let the excitement end there, we decided to play a game we used to play when my family took road trips: see how many different license plates you see. The I-40 is a great place for this game because of the high volume of truckers. By the end of our trip we saw plates from 33 states... not bad. Of course there were the bad parts of the trip... like when I broke our BRAND NEW GPS device. When we bought my computer Jason got the GPS with Streets and Trips and it was so cool for the minute I had it in the computer on our trip. It shows speed, location and elevation. I bent down to grab, of course, the camera, for a picture and it barely tapped the door and it BROKE. I was really bummed, but it was barely soldered on, so we'll be exchanging it for sure. After we left Gallup, EVERY time we saw a car from Arizona or one towing a jeep, Jason said, "I bet they are going the same place we are..." so that became our inside joke, which was really funny the longer we were in the car. All in all, it took 9 hours to get there, which included two stops and missing our exit in Gallup (which added 15 minutes or so). From Durango to Silverton, it is 50 miles and the drive is BEAUTIFUL! Lakes, trees, mountains, all the stuff Arizonans aren't real familiar with.

The town of Silverton is like none other I have seen. The population is just over 500 and it thrives on tourism. It seems as though all of the buildings and houses are either very historic or have really colorful and detailed paint jobs (like our house). It has a train that goes to it from Durango that we chose not to ride and our house was right by the tracks, so several times a day we heard the loud CHOO CHOOO! It was pretty cool. Next time we go, we want to ride the train.

Here is Jason, Clara (she was SO happy to be out of the car, although she was super good and slept most of the way) and happy Kathryn (who also appears super happy to be out of the car) in front of our house. That night we went to eat with Ryan and Kathryn at the Bear Creek Cafe.