My wife and I each pursued careers for 25 in the corporate world thinking it was the road to fortune and success.  Well we made some money and I guess we were considered successful, but happiness, satisfaction, peace of mind and real life fulfillment escaped us.  That was when we decided to look for something different and more rewarding.  We really didn't know what we were looking for, but on a trip to Colorado we stumbled on a town called Westcliffe in the beautiful Wet Mountain Valley of south central Colorado.  We were smitten by the unbounded beauty of the place.  We knew it was where we wanted to be so we started looking for a business to purchase.  Westcliffe is a small town of about 1,000 people located in a county of 4,000 permanaet residents, so businesses opportunities are not on every street corner.  However, the hardware store was for sale and we bought it.    It has been the best decision of our life. 

When we bought the hardware store, we threw away our suits, our briefacases, our airline club memberships, most of our worries and frustrations.  We now lead what my wife calls our all cotton washable life style.  Everyday is casual Friday and we are clearly masters of our domain.  We don't make as much money, but we don't need as much.  We have added at least 10 good years to our life.  Our only regret is that we didn't do it earlier. 

Westcliffe is a special place to live.  Once home to the Ute indians, this place was discovered by prospectors in the last half of the 19th century.  Silver and gold were the attraction.  The mines played out around the turn of the last century and for many years ranching was the principle industry.  Ranching still exists, but on a smaller scale( the 40,000 acxre spreads are gone) and more people are finding this place a wonderful place to retire, have a second home or develop a business they can run from here. With the internet, has provide many people the opportunity to live here and still run their businesses.  

Westcliffe is at 8,00 feet above ahere the air is clear and clean.  In the summer the mornings are crisp, the afternoons are just right and the evenings are cool.  No one has air conditioning.  Autumn is a specil time with the aspen and oak in full blaze and we have a long Indian summer.  The winters are cold, but we only get about a hindred inches of snow a year.  It sounds like a lot but we actually handle it well and people get used to it.

There is something  for everyone here.  If you love the arts, we have a theater for live performances as well as first run (sort of) movies.  In the summer months we host a blue grass music festival in July and a western music festival in August.  We also host the largest amature rodeo in the country in July.  We also have four performances of live classical music during the winter months.  If you are an artist, we have an active artist community ith agreat art show in September of every year.  Of course we have unlimited vists to paint.

If you like horses we have avery active saddle club and our mountains have endless trails for horseback riding.  If your thing is the outdoors, we have the wonderful Sangre de Cristo mountains on the west of us and the Sierra Mojada on the east. These hills are full of terrific places to hike and camp.  In the winter we have skiing at Monarch Ski area just an hour away.  If you are a sportsman we have abundant elk, mule deer,bear and turkey in season.  If you like fly fishing the Arkansas river ( a gold medal river) is only 20 minutes away.

I personally like to hike and fish in the summer and ski in the winter.  I also have an interest in prospecting for gold in the summer.  I don't have the gold bug yet, but I love it when I see "color" in the bottom of my pan.

Our communty has a new medical clinic.  We have a new public school. We have a new fitness center with an indoor swimming pool. We also have a new bowling alley.  People here are very active in terms of trying to make our community a better plce to live and to preserve our beautifull valley.  We have a very active land protection trust that is working hard to preserve the beautiy of this valley for generations to come.  We currently have a bout 20,000 acres of ranch land and water in conservation easements which means these acres will never be developoed for rsidential housing.  When compared to many other places in Colorado and the west, property values are still affordable here and taxes are low.  So it's an affordable place to live. 

 We are 1 hour from Pueblo, Colorado a community of about 100,000 people where there is ample shopping for any of the basics we don't have in Westcliffe.  The nearset airport is in Colorado Springs about an hour away.  Denver is about 3 hours.

So, if your in this part of the world, drop in and visit, but be prepared to be smitten by this place and end up living here.  I could think of a lot worse things that could happen to you.