For I know that the LORD is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain
and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Ps. 135: 5-7
On Friday, July 22nd, we said "Goodbye" to Ouray. We drove to Ridgway State Park and ate lunch beside the lake. We drove a more scenic route on the way home: Highway 550 to State Highway 92 to Highway 133 (where we stopped at Hays Creek Falls near Redstone and saw the beautiful red cliffs of the area) to Highway 82 (through Aspen; Independence Pass) to U.S. 24 going through Leadville to State Highway 91 (past a valley where mining towns once stood, but have been covered over) to I-70.
Sophie insisted that we stop and take a picture of Chair Mtn.
Aspen along Independence Pass
Old Schoolhouse Leadville, CO
The kids entertained themselves in the van by making sculptures out of Crayola Modeling Magic clay. That clay is great stuff, because it isn't very sticky and doesn't get everywhere. It dries to a styrofoam-like texture.
The overwhelming favorite road-trip tape for our family is Paul Simon's Graceland, especially the song "You can call me Al".
It is pleasant that our kids are old enough now, that we can enjoy a vacation like this!
Since I have a cold which worsened today, we chose more low key activity.
We went back to the glassworks shop and watched the glassblower make a couple of glass ornaments. He said that his furnace is 2500 degrees farenheit!
We drove the Million Dollar Highway between Ouray and Silverton. At every turn appeared a new mountain vista . The position of the sun at the time we were driving cast shadows on the peaks, saving us some film, but the views were beautiful nonetheless.
We stopped in Silverton for lunch. At the cafe, Sophie complained of a headache, then I noticed her lips were white and she said she was feeling sick. I immediately scooped her up in my arms and trotted out of the restaurant to the van. She threw up. We went back to the cafe and sat outside on a garden bench. James brought me my sandwich which I ate while giving her time to recuperate. When her lips returned to their normal hue, I let her finish my sandwich.
A Durango & Silverton train pulled into town and we got to see the steam engine back up the train. We will have to ride that train someday, Lord willing!
We bought some mint chocolate fudge at a candy shop. Yum yum! Mighty rich. We took the kids to a playground which had actual teeter-totters!!! Apparently the school in Silverton is willing to take more risks than the rest of America. Our kids had heard of see-saws from us, but had never played on one! We left when it started raining. The first rain we've had all week!
Wouldn't you know it, we took the wrong branch of the road on the way out of town and ended up driving past Silverton for a ways instead of back to Ouray. We did get to see some more interesting peaks.
This afternoon, James took the kids to the playground, and after supper, he took them to the hot springs pool from 6:30-9:00 pm. My cold knocked me out in the condo.
