Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Arriving in Ouray

I had done it!  I had driven out of Texas and was arriving in Ouray, CO, where I intended to carve out a life.  There I was, driving into town in a rented U-Haul truck with 2 cats, a cockatiel, and towing my little black sports car.  The car had been quite the showstopper in Dallas but looked utterly ridiculous in the mountains where you need a 4WD, high clearance vehicle to avoid being impaled on a boulder.

There was the village.  Ouray.  Nestled in a tiny mountain valley, the whole town is only 6 X 9 blocks big and has a year round population of about 800 souls.

View of Ouray from Lookout Point

I was determined to burrow into my new home town and spend my days basking in the serenity of those old mountains.  I managed to purchase a mobile home and had it moved to a lot right on the edge of the Uncompaghre River, just feet from a sheer cliff that rose into the sky.  Heaven. The river is a narrow, swift waterway that is powered by snow melt.  Every night I was soothed to sleep by the sound of the river racing by my window and awoke to the same "lullaby."  The purchase of a mobile home was an affordable way to get "my foot in the door" of this little town.  It wasn't much, but it was mine and I loved it.

Then I began to get acquainted with the other residents of this quaint Victorian town, and it was just the beginning.  Meet my new neighbors :)


Black bear cub

Mule deer, so called because they have gigantic ears not
unlike a mule, and they are much larger than white tail deer.



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