Day 12 - Homeward Bound

Before heading out for home we walked from our hotel to grab a quick coffee from Starbucks. On the way we happened upon this donkey and couldn't resist taking a picture.

With hopes of finding a local restaurant on the open road to have breakfast, we were not disappointed.

The Sun 'n Sand Cafe in Santa Rosa was fun. Plus we found that cell phones don't have much use in this area consequently we found this wonderful old time phone booth that actually worked.

We finished up in Wichita Falls, TX for our last night on the road. Day 13 was about a 10 hr. drive home, but is sure feels good to have a reliable internet connection and comfortable air conditioning. 

Day 11 - Santa Fe, New Mexico

Our last day of touring before we head home. 

Started our day with Mass at The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. The church was different, but absolutely beautiful and services were done in both Spanish and English.

From there we went to the Loretto Chapel to see the miraculous staircase. The stairway confounds architects, engineers and master craftsmen. It makes over two complete 360-degree turns, stands 20’ tall and has no center support. It rests solely on its base and against the choir loft. The risers of the 33 steps are all of the same height. Made of an apparently extinct wood species, it was constructed with only square wooden pegs without glue or nails.

 Legend says that to find a solution to the seating problem, the Sisters of the Chapel made a novena to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters. On the ninth and final day of prayer, a man appeared at the Chapel with a donkey and a toolbox looking for work. Months later, the elegant circular staircase was completed, and the carpenter disappeared without pay or thanks. After searching for the man (an ad even ran in the local newspaper) and finding no trace of him, some concluded that he was St. Joseph himself, having come in answer to the sisters' prayers.

The stairway's carpenter, whoever he was, built a magnificent structure. The design was innovative for the time and some of the design considerations still perplex experts today.

After walking the around the Plaza we walked from our hotel shown in the background of the bottom picture. We had another great meal at Dinner for Two.

Day 10 - Santa Fe, New Mexico by way of Mesa Verde

We were all excited about going down to the ruins. We chose the Cliff Palace which is the largest pueblo ruin. 


Fortunately the ladder that we had to climb up was only 15 feet high. One of the other ruins had a 30 foot ladder to climb out.

This was different from when we brought our children, then we could walk and climb in and out of doors and windows. Today we weren't allowed to do this because archaeolgist discovered that the oils in peoples skins were destroying the ruins.

Ken & Yolanda inspecting the ruins.

After climbing out we headed to our next destination, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Day 9 - Discovering Mesa Verde

       

   
          Today we wandered over to the Mesa Verde National Park where  over 5000 cliff dwelling ruins are located.

The mesas were incredible and to see buildings that they managed to squeeze into the sides of cliffs was mind boggling.

Even though we arrived at the park in the morning, there were no more spots open for the afternoon guided tours at the times we had opened. So we scheduled a tour for the next morning.

That evening after our Mesa Verde run we headed back to Durango to have dinner at the Strater Hotel's Mahogany Grill in the downtown area. We had a special dinner planned before the melodrama in the Strater's theater. 

Day 8 - All Aboard!

We all boarded the Yankee Girl car on the Durango - Silverton train, but we all felt like we were missing something (Reuben our club's engineer).

Another beautiful morning for our train trip from 6512 feet to Silverton, 9305 feet.

We were happy to have a comfortable car with a personal attendant, much more comfortable than the open-air cars that we road in the early 90's with the kids. We did have the same car with Ethan on our stay in Durango.

 The scenery on the trip both up and down the trek was breath-taking.

 Can't wait to do this all over again.

Silverton is a terrific little town that we felt like we stepped back in time.

Most of the streets are dirt roads, but the main street is paved with a plethora of old fashion stores and restaurants.

Such great photo opportunities that Miles and Ken spent much time shooting, but every once in a while they'd take a break and try to get pictures of each other. 

 Day 7 - Heading to Durango for More Colorado Fun

Once again we were off to an early start, looking forward to that cool high altitude air. It was another great topless day.

It is a terrific morning with blue sky that looks like it comes directly from a oil painting. This is an increditable photograh that doesn't really show how beautiful this sky actually is.

We stopped in Salida, where we thought we were going to spend the night, until Ken corrected us. It would have made reaching our train boarding way too difficult. We would have had to get up around 5:00 am to board for 9 am.

So we chose to just stop for lunch in Salida and found this great restaurant right on the Arkansas River. 

Several people were working hard trying to learn to negotiate the rapid in the far top. We also watched people tubing down the fast moving river. 

Eat lunch in Salida. After lunch we continued on to Durango stopping along the way for terrific scenery and summit qualifying. We were up to over 9,000 ft.