Durango - Day 4

Lake Vallecito in the morning

I'm not sure I'll get back to a computer until we get to the Rice's house over the weekend, so will get a quick post together about today. Lazy morning, showers, breakfast and then a trip into town. Dave dropped me off at the library and I think I've been blogging for over an hour now! I'm going to walk into the downtown area and do some shopping while they continue fishing on the Animas River that goes around the town of Durango. Beautiful day here today - low 80's and sunny. Tomorrow is our last full day here before we pack up on Saturday morning and head to Alamosa to stay with Mary and Kevin for a couple of nights.

We've loved the cool nights, windows open and clear mountain air. Last night we stood on the balcony and were amazed at the many stars in the sky. It is so dark here and you can see stars as far as you can see. We could even see the Milky Way Galaxy. The photo you see here is one of Lake Vallecito - the lake we overlook from our balcony. Ending our trip with a week of R&R in Durango was a great idea ... we enjoyed several days of down time.

Durango - Day 3

Another day of R&R was in store today, 7/30. Kevin, Mary and I slept in. Eventually, Dave and Kevin spent some time reading until Mary and I surfaced. The guys took the boys fishing, Mary read and I worked on our expense sheet. I can't say our trip was anyway near the $950+ my parents spent to take us out West 40 years ago (1968), but we are under budget, so that's a good thing! I think we surpassed their total amount within the first 4 days!

In the afternoon, we all played Cranium and then headed to a restaurant on the lake for dinner. Mary and Kevin headed for home (Alamosa) and left Chris with us. I baked cookies for the boys and Dave and I played gin rummy before bed. All in all, a quiet day.

Durango Silvertain Train

On 7/29, we all got up early to head to Durango to board the Durango Silverton Narrowgauge Railroad. The train departed at 9:45 and we enjoyed some spectacular views from our open air gondola car. From the picture, you can see that we were on some pretty narrow pieces of ground! The ride was 3.5 hours up and we arrived in the old mining town of Silverton to find very cool temps and snow on the mountain tops. With only 2 hours in Silverton before departure, we found a place to have lunch (which just so happened to be one of the oldest bordellos in Colorado!). We ate outside under an umbrella and were surprised to notice hail coming down while it was still sunny! We shopped in the touristy shops in this old town and then boarded the train at 3:30. On our trip back, elk were spotted and we also watched a rapidly moving stream of water far below us. A few days earlier, in Mesa Verde, we were lucky enough to see three elk right by the roadside as we left the park. We stopped that day and took some terrific photos of them!

When we returned to Durango, the Rices recommended a pizza place that they'd enjoyed before. We all had a HUGE slice of pizza for dinner, then walked around downtown Durango. Ash and Chris were so happy to be together again and have had a great time catching up. A busy, but fun day for all of us.

Kevin, Mary & Chris Arrive

On our first full day in Durango (7/28), we spend the day totally relaxing. We've gone gangbusters since leaving Peoria and it is so nice to have nothing to do! The boys checked out the area, played video games and watched movies. Dave and I read, watched a couple of old movies in the afternoon, and caught up on laundry. Around 5:30, we headed into town to go to the Bar D Chuckwagon Dinner. Back in '88, we'd gone to this with the family reunion and enjoyed it. Decided to take the boys, and while we were there, found out that it was the 40th anniversary of the Bar D. Back in 2002, forest fires had come within feet of the place, but luckily, it was saved.

We enjoyed a good Western style dinner on tin plates, with lemonade in tin cups. After dinner, there was entertainment - western songs sung by cowboys. At first, the boys thought it would be boring. In fact, Matt said, "Please don't tell anyone in Peoria that I came to this!" After the first song, they got into it and loved the humor, the stories and the funny songs. It was a nice evening!

Kevin, Mary and Chris Rice got a late start coming to Durango b/c of some commitments they had. They finally arrived at 1:30 AM and headed straight to bed. We were happy they found the place in the dark since it is soooooo dark here!

Durango ... R&R Here We Come!

On Sunday, 7/27, we left Mexican Hat, UT and drove past gorgeous landscape as we headed toward Colorado. We stopped at the Four Corners and we all thought it was neat to be in 4 states at one time. Great pictures of the kids as they put their hands and feet in each state (CO, UT, AZ & NM). The site is operated by the Navajo and they also have many booths where you can buy their wares. We purchased an ornament for our Christmas tree along with a few other little things. Dave has certainly increased his "dress T's" as we've traveled around this trip!

Before we got to Durango, we stopped at Mesa Verde to view the ancient ruins of the Anasazi Indians. Dave and I had visited Mesa Verde when we were in Durango in 1988 for a Copley Family Reunion and remembered how interesting it was to see how this ancient people lived. The boys loved it, too! Our only disappointment was that tickets were needed to view two of the main areas. In '88, we could walk all over the park and tour the ruins on our own without separate tickets. We did walk to the Spruce House, however, and loved the views. Matt read a story in school last year about the Anasazi and found it all very interesting.

We headed into Durango, had dinner there and then followed our GPS to the house in the mountains that we were renting. The GPS worked great until we lost our cell signal! After help from a local, we were able to find the house before it got dark. Once again, we found remnants of a forest fire on the hills around us. Luckily, the ground cover had greened up and it didn't look too bad from our home.

The house we rented has been great for us ... lots of room, great views, no air conditioning needed b/c of the cool temps, washer and drier ... just super! The lower level has a kitchen, TV room and 2 bedrooms. The kids have spent the great majority of their time down there. We have enjoyed some quiet time reading and watching TV upstairs. It's a 35 minute drive to town, but we don't go in every day, so it's not too bad - and the views are spectacular!

Our First Mishap

Forgot to mention that, as we were leaving the Grand Canyon, I slammed the van door shut on Matt's right hand! He was hysterical, of course, and we immediately put his hand in a plastic grocery bag full of ice. Three Tylenol later and we were on our way.

Monument Valley

On July 26, we regrettably packed up and left the beautiful Grand Canyon - Dave's favorite place. We took with us a few souvenirs, a new tie tack for Dave (that matched the belt buckle he bought in Durango in 1988) and a lovely bracelet Dave bought for me for my 50th. We headed a bit north to Page, AZ. Stopped to see Glen's Canyon Dam - the third largest in the US and the last dam built. Headed across northern Arizona through the Navajo Nation. Stopped at McDonald's for lunch (Matt was thrilled!) and got gas (only 3.99/gallon - the cheapest gas we'd found yet) ... all business run by Navajo. Drove through Monument Valley and admired the interesting landscape. Arrived in the metropolis of Mexican Hat, UT around 5:30 pm. If you've seen the animated movie, CARS, then you might remember Mexican Hat. All the cars drove through it and, at the east end of the city, there is a rock formation that resembles an upside down sombrero.

Mexican Hat is a dusty hole-in-the-wall with not much there besides a couple of restaurants and a few motels. A month ago we called for a reservation in this area and got one of the last two remaining rooms for miles it seemed. We paid a pretty price for our room ($122) considering it was such a dumpy town, but the room was clean and we were happy to have a place to lay our heads. The motel backed up to red rocks and the San Juan river. The river was quite muddy, so swimming was out of the question. They threw rocks and put their feet in, then headed back to the room for showers.

At dinner, we met a nice couple from Britain. They were finishing their meal and we were just arriving. They returned later in the evening and, after Dave took the boys back to the motel, he came back and we had a great chat with them. We've really enjoyed meeting people from all over the world on this trip.