"Weather" extremes Colorado edition, and an old town called Elizabeth

These are images from this past weekend when the February weather in Colorado was in the 70's and sunny.
We went to open houses, had an outdoor lunch at Panera complete with iced tea (I'm from the South)

Milo enjoyed his socialization exercise of greeting lots of people... Panera has a good greek salad of fresh greens, quinoa, and we ask to have chicken on it. It's a great meal with a fresh baguette.

We shopped for Milo's upcoming birthday while we were out, and I'll show you more March 1 when my baby turns a year old! (who knew any of us would survive his puppyhood)

We walk around neighborhoods with homes for sale, to test drive them. It was quite windy but warm. This guy gave us quite a surprise...

Another black standard guard poodle on the job. Milo skittered past his fence quickly.
We wanted to know what the land and the commute would be like if we moved south to Elizabeth so we took a little drive out and didn't fall in love. We did however discover the old town of Elizabeth, built up along the railroad tracks around 1900. It's small but quaint, and gave me a sense of the Western feel of Colorado from the early settler days.

The days when a cluster of public buildings and shops lined a main street

Because so much of Colorado was centered around gold rush, there had to be a bank, and this one was small but really pretty

Can't you imagine living on this prairie, going into the bank and running into some friends. It would be quite an outing to come to town.

You might even have a Saturday night bath first

Some of the shops were quite small and cosy,

They often have the American false tall flat fronts

I love architecture and history, and imagining walking around town in it's heyday.

Some of the buildings are taken over with the arts

some with antiques

just right outside after closing time... must be a trustworthy place

There are notices up to remind you this is still ranch country

"Adorable itty bitty mini pigs for sale"

A hat maker  step inside sit in the barber chair and get fitted for the right one...

Cowboy stuff is real stuff around here... oh and cowgirl stuff of course...

there was a cat on guard in this saddle and tack store

She meowed her alarm at the intrusion of a poodle nose on her window

I like the wreath outside one store

use what you have right?

I don't even know what this is on one of the tiny old buildings. I guess there wasn't a lot of wood with which to construct homes out here in 1900. Thing is, they are still standing, even if the paint is peeling

and the wood is showing it's age

It still harkens back to the days when riding into town was an event, a way to catch up on news, and do business, buy a yard of cloth, store your gold nuggets, buy a new saddle or rope. One had to rely on themselves to survive, but being social animals, we also had to rely on each other.

Imagine when the town was new. The prairie stretched forever open, the mountains loomed to the West both enticing some and repelling others. The sky was blue.

 I can imagine it.
Then Monday back to my new normal, snow all day, temps going from 70 down to Minus 8 F.

Milo says, well, I don't like to pee or poop back here anyway. It's way, waaaaaay too small for that.



DH shovels, and uses his new blower to try to clear the driveway, but we are among the precious few who do that around here.

A lot of people would have driven past the old town, but not us. DH has learned I want to walk and look and take pictures and get the sense of history of little areas like this. I think he secretly likes me to stop and point out odd details I notice. Did you enjoy the trip with us?

linking to

http://abcwednesday
Our World Tuesday
Travel_Tuesday