2006 RV Trip Diaries - Durango, Colorado
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October 4, & 5 - Wednesday &Thursday Off to Durango, CO. We arrived in the morning and found a nice campground with lots of shade trees on the bank of the Animas River. The sun was shining through the golden leaves of the aspen trees all around us. The tracks of the narrow gauge railroad that runs between Durango and Silverton, CO actually go through the campground. There are only two trains a day at this time of year so we thought of them as quaint and cute instead of noisy and annoying. We spent the afternoon strolling through the historic downtown Durango district as shown in the not-so-representative photo at right. Tomorrow is the start of a so-called "gathering of cowboys" festival in Durango. It includes a parade, cowboy poetry, painting, and lots of other things the old time cowboys didn't do. |
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As we wandered around town, Karen saw a perfect photo op. for her with crab apples. She said it was a photo her sister Ann will enjoy. ha! |
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| As we made our way through
the center of town we found ourselves at the station for the train to
Silverton. Started as a lumber, mining, and supplies train route
before 1900, today it's a scenic trip taken by lots of tourists.
We had listened to the weather forecast before we left camp though and it sounded like tomorrow might be wet and cold. The train takes 3 1/2 hours to get from Durango to Silverton and we decided not to buy tickets for tomorrow since it might be less than pleasant weather. Soon after returning to the campground, the rain started. And it rained all night and most of the next morning but it stopped as we drove to the Durango Mall where we spent a couple of hours--Karen bought a new pair of shoes, Garrey bought a new pillow, and we shared a latte and a sugar-cinnamon pretzel. It sprinkled and then rained hard the rest of the night. We kept watching the weather forecast and hoping for better weather to travel to Pagosa Springs, CO but it was not to be. |
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October 6 - Friday
The rainy weather forecast convinced us that we should head south out of the mountains in search of sunshine. We drove from Durango to Bernalillo just north of Albuquerque, NM. At 225 miles it's the longest one day drive we've done so far on this year's trip. On the way to Albuquerque, Karen called ahead to see if we could get a campsite and it turned out that because of the week long annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the camps are all full. We could only find a place to stay in an overflow lot north of Albuquerque for one night across from an RV park. We parked in the overflow lot which was covered with about 2 inches of dust and the wind was blowing hard. There was no electric or water in the lot. When dusk came Garrey saw the fireworks from Albuquerque so we went outside and watched. They were in the distance but a grand display.
We didn't even unhook the trailer from the truck because we knew this was not a place we wanted to stay for long. After calling every campground in Santa Fe we finally found a space for Saturday and Sunday nights in Santa Fe then found space for the following 4 nights at a campground about 10 miles southeast of Santa Fe.
We awoke in the morning and the wind had died down. We went to the RV park for free pancakes and coffee. Some of the hundreds of hot air balloons flew quite close to the park and were beautifully colored.
October 7 - Saturday
The drive to Santa Fe was hilly and quite pretty with the mountains in the background. We arrived in Santa Fe and parked at a very crowded RV park. We went to a Red Lobster restaurant and had a dinner that was far too large so we brought home the next day's meals in boxes.
October 8 - Sunday
Drove many miles in suburbs of adobe homes looking for a church service that was advertised as starting at 11:00 a.m. but was almost over when we arrived. We then stumbled onto another church with a 11:00 a.m. service. After worship we looked for the campground we're moving to tomorrow and learned there are no grocery stores near there so we stopped at an Albertson's store for the most crowded shopping experience imaginable. Many of the balloon fiesta attendees camp or stay in Santa Fe and drive to Albuquerque in the early morning for the activities. In the evening we took a walk to a large mall and wandered through all of the stores Juneau does not have.
October 9 - Monday
In the morning we walked to Borders Books to pick up a few books we saw yesterday when we had no money with us. Later we moved to our new Santa Fe campground. It's in a more rural area than the last and we like it because we will stay for 4 days without moving the rig. We did the laundry, read, and watched tv. Tomorrow we'll browse through downtown Santa Fe for the first time.
