We packed up Sunday morning and headed North up Hwy 550 the “million dollar highway”.  We   videoed the whole trip on the GoPro, I will edit that and put it on our You Tube Channel at some point.  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwT5YPNLWv_v3UiwNQ8_R1A.  We have shot a lot of video, so I have a lot of editing work to do.  The drive to Silverton was not bad; we had done it in the jeep so we felt pretty confident.  It is good road and has a shoulder, and is wide enough.  From Silverton to Ouray is a different story, everyone told us we would be on the inside which is better.  As we headed out of Silverton the road seemed the same for a while, it then became narrower and the shoulder would come and go, the outside edge of the road had damage in places where there was no shoulder and sunk slightly below the road grade.  Pia and I kept saying why did they tell us we would be on the inside, because we were not.  We took our time and pulled off several times to let the cars behind us go by.  As we got up into the higher elevations it started sleeting, which made us more nervous of course.  As we went over Red Mountain Pass the scenery took our breath away, the color, shear rock faces, the height of the mountains was magnificent.  They call this area Little Switzerland, or the American Alps, and for good reason.  Here is where the road is very narrow, with rock out cropping’s on the inside and 1,000 foot drop off on the other.  In this area descending into Ouray we were on the inside.  The switch backs are in some places doubled, the bus handled it fine, I did not need to cross the yellow stripe into the oncoming lane, which was one of the things I was concerned about.  We did not meet any large trucks, RV’s, or Busses on the very narrow stretches, I could see where on some of those blind curves that could be dicey.  We took it very slow, and steady it was well worth it to experience such a spectacular drive.

It is Sunday morning June 14, we have been on our trip for a month, it is strange how time flows differently when you travel, and especially knowing that we are not on a vacation, worried about returning to work.    This is a life style that is to me the ultimate retirement, Pia and I both want to keep doing this as long as we are able.