July 31- Aug, 1 2007


From Durango, CO to Flagstaff, AZ

July 31, 2007

After two earlier, near-complete entries regarding our train ride were eaten by a Word error message and crash, I gave up, postponing the third try until today. I will “Save” frequently to avoid another disaster.

The Durango-Silverton Steam train lived up to advance billing. We left Carly and the rig at 6:40 a.m., picked up "two large non-fat hazelnut lattes" en route and were properly on the train at the requested 7:00 a.m. boarding time. We were in a covered ‘gondola car’, which meant we sat on a bench facing outwards, covered by a tin roof. No sides except a railing. These were cheap seats, but on a perfect weather day, they beat the coach seating by a mile. And we did have perfect weather: 60 to 75 degrees.

After a ho-hum first 8 miles as we escaped the immediate environs of Durango, we started climbing, going along the Animas River. The views from that point on were spectacular, stupendous, and then just continually beautiful. The first jaw-dropper occurred as we hung on the side of a cliff, 1000 feet above the river chasm. I could have jumped into the river, we were that close to the edge. And, if you ever do this ride, get the ‘east seats’ like we did, otherwise you will spend 2/3 of your trip looking at rock walls or hillsides next to the tracks. Not us, though. Just eyeball-popping views as the cars creaked, wheels squeaked and the engine chugagchugged up the grade, tooting whistles into the forests. It was a wonderful 3 ½ hour ride, despite a mixture of steam, soot and cinders that wafted our way occasionally. Pure ambiance. Could fill several pages with photos, but won’t.

Arriving in Silverton (11:15) , we mistakenly stumbled into the first restaurant for lunch, where we enjoyed excellent Reuben sandwiches. The restaurant bills itself as the last whorehouse in Silverton (where prostitution finally ended about 1950). One street over in this two street town were some pretty nice dineries. Whether they could beat the Reuben’s, I dunno, but we just kinda felt hornswaggled into the whore house as we initially walked down the sidewalk from the train. Then we had to dig through our pockets for cash when they advised, “no plastic.” Hey, we could still be washing dishes there.

With the rest of the couple hundred train riders, we walked the town, going from gift shop to gift shop. It was almost a mandatory shopping experience.

On the return trip (1:15), we had opted to take the bus, which turned out to be a really wise move. The temperature was falling and rain began falling as we headed up the hill. The bus driver was exceptionally informative, and managed to keep us awake for the entire 1 ½ hour trip back to Durango. As beautiful as the train trip was, doing it in reverse for another 3 ½ hours in the rain would have been torture.

We dined out at the “Serious Texas BBQ”, exposing ourselves to the culinary taste of the Texans who have completely invaded Colorado for the summer. Just cain’t believe how many of ‘em there are. Nice folks, but they do talk funny.

August 1, 2007

Hit the road early (8:10) hoping to cover the 370 miles from Durango to Flagstaff. There really isn’t anything in between except Gallup, NM, sage brush, large rocky formations protruding up out of the desert, Indian reservations and crumbling double-wides. One would only live in this part of New Mexico as a matter of personal calamity or unfortunate destiny. After noon, we were on I-40, the first 4-laner we had seen in a while. Had to cruise 65-70 to avoid being eaten up by the trucks, who passed us even at those speeds. It was nice to be driving on straight roads, though.

Arriving in Flagstaff about 3:00 (gained an hour), this will be our home for 2 nights. Carly is wishing for a significant drop in altitude as she has been at 5000-7500 feet for too long for a geezer dog. Short walks for this pooch. Fill the blue bag, Carly.