We spent part of today exploring the downtown of Gunnison. It’s a small town, but everything is there, from the western outfitters to the old barber shop. Uptown you’ll find the newer places such as Wal-Mart and the quickie oil-change place. We stopped to get the oil changed and found ourselves in line behind Rich C’s Titan.

I think you can learn something about a town from the architecture you find. In Gunnison, you can find …

a beautifully maintained stone Victorian …

a colorful former hotel …

and an industrial-style artist’s cooperative, complete with welded steel fence — all within three blocks.

To me, this indicates a town with vivacity, a sense of community, and history. I’m sure we’d like to live here, if it weren’t unbelievably cold and snowy all winter. But we’ve been warned by locals: this is nothing like “banana belt” Salida, even though the altitude is similar. I can believe it. Each evening we’ve felt the wind rise and the temperatures plummet. It’s nice now, but I don’t want to be here in December!