Stephen's Story

After getting up early yesterday, today everyone wanted to sleep in. We got up late and had breakfast then rode our bikes through a cemetery on the hill over-looking our RV park. Almost everyone in the cemetery died in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. It was crazy reading their headstones. Many of them died in mining accidents or due to various illnesses or diseases. It was rare to find anyone who lived into their 50’s. It was also crazy to see how many of the people were from foreign countries like Italy. They came out to the west to strike it rich mining for gold and died while mining or in snow slides near the mines. After seeing the mines, the tiny houses the families lived in, then seeing all these headstones it made me realize what a tough life these people had and how dangerous the work they were doing was. 

The group decided not to go on a side-by-side ride today so we rode our bicycles into town and had a drink at the oldest bordello to still be standing. It was no longer a bordello of course, but it was a thriving, understaffed restaurant and ice cream shop. In town we saw lots of vipers of every color. Apparently, a Colorado car club was passing through. We also saw lots of individuals who looked like pilgrims with strong accents who got off the Silverton train wearing bonnets and men with long beards. We weren’t sure if they were Amish or where they were from but it was intriguing to see them all walking around the tiny downtown of Silverton.

We rode back to camp and decided to make the trek to Ouray. We drove the vehicles this time down a really winding road. There is no way anyone should do this ride in a motorhome or towing. There were no guard rails and there were steep drop-offs the whole way. Yikes, it was a scary ride but after 45 minutes we made it. Kyle and I walked up and down the entire town and looked in each of the shops. We bought some beef jerky and a Christmas ornament and had a late lunch/early dinner at the Gold Belt Bar & Grill. The town was packed with out of towners walking around. We were only there for a few hours and headed back up the winding roads to get back to camp. All I kept thinking as we drove back was how horrible it would be to drive that route in the winter and I was wondering how many people died plunging off that cliffs. 

After we got back to the motorhome, Kyle got on his bike and Stephen and I played cornhole. We lost (as always) to the Millsap boys but we had fun. I took a nap and we called it an early night since we can’t have firepits any longer and it was freezing once the sun went down.