Our Caravan to
Vettes On The Rockies (VOTR) 2006
Day 13: Thursday, July 27, 2006
Breckenridge, Colorado
Today we said goodbye to Jim and Laurie's mountain home. We certainly enjoyed ourselves there; it was a very relaxing environment. As we headed to Dillon to meet Ron and Robin, we came across this beautiful sight in the sky:
We meet up with the Floyds at the Mountain Lion Cafe in Silverthorne and had a wonderful breakfast. They definitely feed one enough food, and everything was delicious. We really needed to eat more on this trip, yeah sure.
Our plan for today was to do Leadville and maybe a Ghost Town. We left Dillon on I-70 and took 91 south and cruised down 24. The countryside of course is beautiful:
We arrived in Leadville and thought the best plan of attack was to stop at the Chamber of Commerce/Tourist Information center:
Wrong! It seemed that we knew a lot more than the charming woman in the office, and believe me, we didn't know much. There were many interesting buildings and we had planned on stopping and exploring on our return trip, but ended up having too much fun in the ghost town.
Oh well, it was off on 24 for an adventure we would not soon forget. The first turn-offs for ghost towns were not paved, so we kept on trucking down the road:
Finally we saw the road we wanted and it said that St. Elmo was only twelve miles off. The speed limit was 50+, so we just pushed the pedal to the metal and drove on down the road. All of a sudden the pavement ended and we found ourselves on hard packed dirt:
After talking back and forth on our radios, it seemed prudent to have a drivers' meeting:
We decided to keep on going since we couldn't have that far to go. Ron said that he had always wanted to go four-wheeling in a Corvette. After what seemed like a thousand bumpy miles, we ended up in town. This was worth every mile we traveled. The town is just like it was left, and a lot of fun to explore.
As you can see from the photos, you feel like you are transported back in time:
Robin said she needed a restroom:
Gary, this one's for you!
One of the highlights was this old schoolhouse:
..with a stove that seemed almost to be heating the room for the students to arrive:
Ron had to see how cold the water was so he tried to walk on it. Notice the water shoes he had at hand:
On our way out of town, we all stopped in the General Store to see what different tourist items they had for us to spend our money on. Outside the door we saw these humming birds, enjoying a late lunch:
This guy was just hanging around in front:
We got in our cars to head toward Breckenridge. As you can see the 53 Commemorative Edition gets attention wherever it goes:
Ron & Robin took off after us and it was to be our turn to have lunch:
Along the way these huge drops fell from the skies:
..and it was sort of a race to get back to pavement before the road turned to mud:
What the heck, I can always wash the car one more time.
After stopping at two restaurants only to find out they were closed, we pulled into Jan's and had a great reasonably priced meal:
With full bellies, it was off to Beaver Run for the start of the show weekend. A truck on the side of the road caught our eye and we couldn't resist taking this picture:
As we proceeded toward our destination, I looked in the rearview mirror to see how Ron was following and then I realized that they really do have a cloud following them around:
That is just like other friends, Gary & Debbie feel.
We arrived at Beaver Run, checked in and picked up our registration packet, goody bags and a door prize. We took a quick tour around the room and were happy to see Janet Curran from Spring Mountain Driving School. She was delighted to see us, but didn't like the shirt I was wearing. I told her that I didn't have one from Spring Mountain and she proceeded to find one in my size, which I immediately put on:
Thanks, Janet!
We then met up with Chaz, Gael, Ron, Robin and Dennis & Leslie Stepanik:
..for dinner. We also met the Powell's from Nebraska:
