After a continental breakfast in the hotel we left for our walk around Salida. It was a lovely morning, clear skies and warm temperatures. We took quite a few pictures of the river and downtown buildings in Salida, and walked the few blocks making up the old town. We stopped in a shop where we found 2 pieces of soft sided luggage with a US66 motif and decided to buy them as they were good value. I also bought an Angel ornament for Katrina. We stopped to browse through a bookstore and John bought a bundle of 6 books for $6., mostly by Tom Clancy. He also bought a Daphne de Maurier book.

We left Salida for the short trip to Dillon, only 101 miles, so we were not in a hurry. We drove into Buena Vista, which is a short drive from Salida, John checked the tires on the car and we left, the town was not worth a picture. We drove on to Leadville, the landscape is scenic, being in the Rockies at the 9-11 thousand foot elevation.

In Leadville we spent a few hours, first eating lunch, then walking and driving around the town. We stopped at the old train station where the train was about to depart on it's 21/2 hour scenic trip. We thought about taking it, then decided it would put us back on the road a bit late so didn't take it. Instead John remembered there was an old schoolhouse that had been converted to a mining museum, we found it and toured that instead of the train ride. The museum was large and very interesting.

We left Leadville and climbed the Fremont Pass, elevation 11,318. We stopped for John to take pictures of the huge molybdenum mining operation around Climax, it covers several square miles. The ponds used for the mines buried a couple of small towns there is restoration of the area now, we took pictures of it from the overlook.

A few short miles after that we were on Interstate 70, and it was only 20 miles east to our exit. We had a very difficult time locating the timeshare, spent half an hour or more driving around nearly in circle. We stopped to ask a couple for directions, they pointed out the condo's, we were within walking distance! We made yet another wrong turn and if I hadn't spotted the very small (2x2) sign off the road, we would be driving still!

We were checked in and found it to be a very nice timeshare, fully stocked with necessities. Not having food for supper, we drove to a small strip center and ordered a pizza to go, shopped for milk in a convenience store where prices were outrageous.