My Favorite Place on Earth...

... Is Copper Mountain, Colorado!

And almost any place in Colorado comes in a close second. My lovelies, I am in paradise. This is the view from our condo's balcony. That big whitish/silvery roof is the Starbucks. Three hot tubs are between our building and the *$s.

The DMC is ready to leave Pagosa.

We started out on Wednesday morning and met up with other cars from the DMC and proceeded up to Pagosa Springs, CO, which makes a nice halfway point. It also means that you get to see all the glorious scenery on the drive up to Copper in the daylight. We took a slightly different route this year, coming up US 285 through Fairplay and then taking CO 9 through Breckenridge, where we stopped for AWESOME burgers and onion rings at Empire Burgers. With a party of 20, we still had great service, too. And the cute little server told me that that was the first time she'd ever waited on a party that big. She did great.

We'd hit nasty, unaccustomed traffic on the mountain roads because of road work. The whole town of Alma, CO is dug up for road improvements, including widening and the installation of cement sidewalks! Come on, people! Tiny mountain towns like Alma at 10,500 feet are not supposed to have actual sidewalks. Cities like New York have sidewalks. No comparison! The world sure does change fast. There's a big grocery store in Fairplay now and it actually looks prosperous. It must be nice for people to not have to drive an hour to Dillon or Conifer to go to the grocery store, though.