Hitting the Tracks

The early birds get the worm...er, well at least the first train out of town! The family woke up this day at 5 a.m. to catch the 7:30 steam engine train from Durango to Silverton. It was a beautiful, clear morning and we were promised that there shouldn't be any rain this day, unlike 90% of the days in Durango. The boys weren't all that excited about taking a 3 hour train ride and then riding a bus back to the hotel. That seemed to change as the train got going and things got a little more interesting. First of all, the train offered drink mugs that could be refilled again and again, with no charge after the intial purchase. Next, it was amazing how exciting it became to be the ones on the train waving to people on the side of the roads. Then it became real exciting as we rounded a mountain ledge (in photo)where it was a long, long way down when you looked out the window! The most surprising part of the whole ride was how much soot from the coal and smoke stack got into our faces. We kind of didn't think of that happening before we took the trip. It was a beautiful, relaxing ride through the mountains and we definitly learned a lot from this particular ride. Silverton is a quaint silver mining mountain town that obviously only sees tourists during the summertime due to all the snow in the winter and the fact that the train (the main money-maker for the town) only goes half-way to Silverton in the winter. We found some great shops to purchase sweatshirts, jerky and gifts, then grabbed a quick bite at a sandwich shop and hurried to catch the bus ride home. There is a wonderful shop in town that holds all sorts of railroad memorabilia, pictures, pins, etc. that is worth checking out if you are ever in the area. The bus ride back was very informative as we had a man that has lived in the area for most of his life giving us fascinating bits of information. Most of us couldn't help but take a cat nap during the ride.

When we got back into town, Erik and the boys decided to grab more BBQ for the rest of our trip while I checked out the local scrapbooking store. Then, we were on our way towards Denver. Lots of driving, some rain and a few potty stops later, we ended up in the quiet town of Walsenburg, Colorado. We were hoping to camp out in a tent, but we got there a little late and storms were threatening our every move, so we checked into a very bright yellow motel right off the interstate. Naturally famished, we decided to check into the Carl's Jr. in town and were served by teenagers more interested in giving out free food to their friends and losing parts of our order. Erik and I looked at each other and questioned, "Are we asking too much from them?!!" Soon after that, we traveled back to the flourescent yellow motel and called it a night.