What a treat!  Today we rode on the Million Dollar Highway to Telluride.  This two-hour drive took us through high mesas burgeoning with new grass, alongside the Delores River swirling with muddy waters fed from melting snow, into the ragged snow-covered mountains of the Western Slope.

Just short of Telluride, we stopped to visit the tiny village of Ophir, where Barbara’s daughter Robin and her husband Asa have a charming cottage amid the aspens in a valley surrounded by vertical mountains and avalanche fields.  Oddly enough, April is the least attractive time for this area.  Jack and Barbara agree that winter, summer (i.e., the month of July) and autumn are in a three-way tie for the most beautiful seasons.  In July the aspens’ shimmering lime green leaves and stark white bark join with wild flowers of every color to cover the floor and walls of the valley.  In fall, the aspen leaves turn to brilliant gold.  The winter snow brings its own familiar beauty.  The tiny bohemian houses in Ophir, none of which exceeds 1800 sq ft., are home to doctors, accountants, lawyers, artists, writers, and professional ski bums.  Their communal joie de vive is evidenced in the playful designs of the cottages.  I would love to spend a weekend here.

Around the bend from Ophir is the extravagant Mountain Village, dotted with the opulent ranches and get-aways of the rich and famous,. including Tom Cruse, Oprah Winfrey, Meg Whitman (founder and former CEO of eBay) and, believe it or not, Brad’s and my high school buddy KC Murphy from Jesup GA!  If we had his address we would have popped in on him.  Instead, we toured the quiet off-season ski village and ogled the real estate offerings in the Sotheby’s window.

From there we continued to the actual town of Telluride, an old mining village turned ski resort.  This is a real town with citizens keeping shop, attending school, manning the library and generally living the good life.  Barbara’s daughter and son-in-law live here at the base of the gondola that soars over the range to Mountain Village and the joint ski slopes of the two resorts.

After a stroll through the colorful houses and city park, we had a late lunch in a local bakery.  The trip back to Durango was just as pretty in the reverse.  Now for a brief rest and contemplation of our final dinner tonight with old friends to end this wonderful interlude in our Airstream adventure.

Tomorrow morning, Brad and Doris and I will set sail for Lake Powell in Page, Arizona.  That will be a 4 or 5 hour drive through the dry deserts of Apache and Navajo reservations.