Salida CO

Friday, August, 27, 2010
Today we went into the old town of Salida. Pronounced So - leeda. As opposed to the town So LI DA in CA.
It was established in the late 1800's. Elevation: 7036 feet.

Somehow we felt very comfortable and at ease in this town.

At the end of Main St. is  a huge mountain. We drove up to the top of a mountain to investigate what this house was on the very top. The dirt road up there was a little tricky and very nerve racking at times.  At the top we climbed 37 stairs to an empty house. We signed our names, as everyone else did previously.  We weren't  extravagant in our name signing as others were but we laughed at what other people wrote.

The view was incredible. We really like this town. We found this bar, sitting on the river, through the binoculars. The Arkansas River. We stopped there when we descended and had a couple of margaritas and some jalapeno poppers. Man, were they hot!!! We had fun watching the kids and dogs swim, and people tubing and crashing in the eddy that was close by. (They all spilled over!) We laughed outloud!

After leaving the Cantina we walked the main street and stopped in this bar called Hattie's. It was for sale. $45,000.00. We walked by it at first, but then when we stopped in this antique store and were paying for some purchases we inquired where we could get a good margarita and we were told Hattie's. So... we walked back up the street and entered the establishment. It was cute and before we entered, we discussed whether we would go in as patrons or potential buyers.

We sat at the end of the bar towards the back door. (We screw around with alot of people and tell them that we are in hiding and last week we both had black hair and if anyone looks suspicious we will exit, abruptly, through the back exit.). It starts alot of great conversations, especially here in the mountains. hehehehehe. (Tommy is nuts, and I just go with it!)

Anyway, we had a great time in the bar Hattie's and met the owner Terry. He makes a mean Margarita. After that we headed back to base camp and made a fire. Tommy decided to let the cats out....I could have divorced him for that! But the Hellion (King Arthur) was chicken shit - thank God - and headed straight back inside. My guy, Sir Lancelot, decided to explore...he was always in sight but I was a nervous wreck. If he saw something to chase he would have been gone. Finally, he came back and is now inside.

Tomorrow we will explore the 'old town' of Salida and plan out some trails for Sunday. We stopped by the Forest Rangers Station and picked up a map of all the trails around here. There are plenty. I have a feeling that Tommy will actually contact a Realtor here, and not just look at whats for sale.

The RV Park that we are at - the Heart of the Rockies - is a really nice park and I'm glad we found it. (Sometimes its not what the Woodall's book says it is.)

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.





Its the strangest thing, some towns we feel 'at home' and other towns we just want to pass through. Salida is one of the towns that we do not want to leave. It has that 'community' feeling and we plan to stay here a while. (If you saw our picture on Facebook and you look closely, you can see that there is a Real Estate Guide in the background. Tommy is obsessed.)