Leadville
September 30 – October 1, 2016
At the end of the day we got to Leadville, the incorporated town with the highest elevation in the US. The name comes from the days when they hoped to mine for lead there, but they found silver, which somehow diverted their attention from the task at hand. Once the second largest city in Colorado, it is now a charming little town about half of which was destroyed by fire some years ago. We had with some trepidation booked a room at the Delaware Hotel, which was variously described on line as charming, creepy, and haunted. My main concern (as the porter) was lack of an elevator. We tried not to take more up to the room than we needed for the one-night stay. The other concern was food. Torrey is doing a great job keeping his weight off, mainly by exercise (swimming and walking). He also eats a light salad for supper. That means that by 9pm it is time for a Frosty and a big bowl of chili. No such luck in the little town. We wandered down the street looking for a restaurant we had found on line. We had called the number and were told they were open. It turned out that the restaurant was the closed one in our hotel, open only for breakfast now. The phone number had given us the hotel desk, and the clerk of course told us he was open. I'm glad we solved that mystery so we didn't think we had talked to the ghost restaurant. But we were still hungry. The desk clerk sent us out to a grocery store that was still open, and we got some food to snack on. He even let Torrey use the staff microwave to heat up soup.
Yet again, with our misgivings we had stumbled upon an interesting place to stay. The hotel was the vision of the woman who had owned it. The front had housed an antique shop in earlier days, so she turned that, the lobby, and areas upstairs into a showcase for things she collected over the years, and most things were for sale. She died earlier this year, and her husband is trying to keep the place going and figure out how to proceed in the future. He closed the restaurant except for serving breakfast to the guests. They were about to close for the season, to reopen for ski season and holidays, I think.
The House with the Eye Museum was not open while we were In Leadville.
on to Indepence Pass ->
<- back to Rocky Mountain National Park