I know a lot of people who don’t care for road trips, but Dan and I prefer to drive anywhere we can. Trust me, we are not immune to the exhaustion that comes from long hours on the road — in fact, as I sit here writing this, half an hour after this very road trip, I would be quite happy to never see a car again.

What gets us to climb back in that car again is the feeling that you miss the best stuff if you don’t drive. Dan and I come from “flyover country,” but both love the hidden details and the sense of discovery that comes from driving from place to place.

Georgetown doesn’t look like much from the highway, but on other drives we had often commented that we should stop some day. On our drive home from Vail we finally made our pit stop, hunting for lunch.

Are you seeing these buildings? Georgetown is an architectural time capsule for the late 1800s, a favorite time period of mine due almost exclusively to the author Willa Cather.

Georgetown profited from its silver mines and its position along Clear Creek.

Every now and then I would tear my eyes from large, gorgeously preserved buildings such as Hotel de Paris above… only to notice small, stunning details like the fence below.

And then there’s the beautiful Clear Creek, which winds it way through town. We stopped into a fascinating museum about Georgetown’s hydroelectric generator, which still functions.

The best advice I can offer:

Fuel up your car, buy some gummy worms, drive an hour or two in any direction. Find your Georgetown.