Goodbye rustic, hello up-town! We made the climb from Ft Sumner, NM to Ignacio, CO., a neighboring town of Durango. It is early in the season for Durango and many of their services are not up and running yet, especially RV parks. And the ones that are have nightly rates that made my eyes bug out. We found a Casino resort in a very small town 17 miles to the southeast of Durango that also had an RV park. With our Passport America and Good Sam discounts it got the rate down from excruciatingly painful to just painful. And wouldn't you know it, instead of it being our usual two-night layover we were in for an extended stay of 11 days.
But no more dirt and gravel for us, no sir. It's asphalt roads, concrete pads, poured curbs, and a driveway to park your car in.
There is no campground host or anybody that watches over the RV park that we can tell. All administrative duties such as checking in, paying, etc. are done at the hotel registration desk inside the Casino. We pulled in and picked a spot, we had our choice of any of the 54 sites except the lone one that was occupied. Despite the photograph above, this place had only been open 4 days and we were only the second rig to check in.
We'd been driving for four hours, all uphill, some very steep climbs, and it was around 1:00pm. We were tired, thirsty and hungry. So having picked a spot and not knowing exactly how Skye Ute's process worked, we decided to head over to the hotel registration desk before unhooking and setting up. We knew that we were going to go find something to eat as soon as we got checked in so we chose to drive Cyndee's SUV the quarter mile around to the hotel entrance, cargo trailer still attached. Check-in was easy but slow, they were still knocking the cobwebs out after being down all winter.
While waiting we took note of several eating establishment just a few steps from the registration desk. We weren't going to have to go far to get something to eat.
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| This is pretty up-scale dining compared to our last couple of weeks. |
All checked in and fed we returned to the RV park and completed all our setting up chores. Utilities were all connected, rig was leveled, slideouts deployed and antennas locked onto signals. We are settling in for an extended stay.
One of the less pleasant aspects of being a fulltimer that is someplace new every few days/weeks/months is accessing health care. Doubly so when you are plunked down in a remote area. But stuff comes up and you have to act. Such as it is this week, the last week of April. Moving north with the spring bloom has kept both of us at the height of our pollen allergies and all that sneezing and congestion has caught up with Cyndee. She has a well developed sinus infection and I have a need to see a dermatologist (not because of allergies).
Cyndee can get quick access via an urgent care facility but dermatologists in the Durango area are booked out four months in advance. Lots of phone calls later I was able to find a cancelation for a PA at a dermatology clinic in Farmington, NM., a little over an hour away from Ignacio.
We made the most of our trip back to New Mexico and did a grocery run at Farmington's Super Walmart as well as enjoying a soup and salad lunch at Olive Garden. Cyndee came home with a sack full of antibiotics and I had a few big blisters from liquid nitrogen and a hole in my chest from a biopsy.
But none of that is slowing us down. We've got first class tickets on the Durango-Silverton narrow gauge railroad. This train excursion is something I have wanted to do ever since I first read about it in the late 1970's. Cyndee has been working on surprising me with tickets for weeks. Can't wait.
And here we go!
The 493 steam engine is one of several that the Durango-Silverton operates. But like I said earlier, we're here a little early in the season and the train can not yet go all the way to Silverton. So we are on the "Winter Train" that goes to Cascade Canyon, a little more than half way to Silverton.
Cyndee got us tickets for the Knight Sky car, a glass topped car with lots of windows for seeing all there is to see. This car also comes with complimentary mimosas, muffins an insulated tumbler and a shopping bag. As if Cyndee needed another shopping bag. I think the back of her little SUV is squatting from the weight of all the shopping bags she has acquired. And to top it off she sweet talked our car's conductor out of an extra one.
We slowly chugged through town and then the view began to open up.
Then the climb started.
She'll be coming 'round the bend!
Cyndee got some really nice shots that included the Animas River below.
Crossing the Animas River. Currently swollen with melt water from record breaking snowfall.
Pulled in for a service stop to take on water for the boiler. Look close and you can see the boom being pulled down to the engine.
After the train got some refreshment it was time for us to get some too. We pulled into Cascade Canyon and took our box lunches out to a picnic table and enjoyed lunch al fresco between the train tracks and the Animas River.
Our lunch break was long enough that a short hike to a footbridge over the river was possible. There was still a good bit of snow on the trail in the shaded areas but the hike was easy.
The Animas River is kicking up its heals. Record snowfall this past winter is turning into spring melt flood warnings all along this river and many others.
The engineer is signaling with three long whistles that there is ten minutes till departure for the return to Durango. Time to get a move on.
And this beautiful sight greeted me when I got back.
The trip back was just as beautiful. Didn't feel repetitive at all because the view was looking in directions not seen when going the opposite direction.
Arrival at the Durango Depot. I sent this clip to our daughter and the grandson keeps asking her to show it to him again. Turn on the sound of your device(the train sounds are pretty good) and click the link.
Like good tourists, we hit the gift shop on our way out and picked up patches to sew on our travel blanket and post cards for the grandkids. Did a few minutes of shopping downtown and then called it a day. While we didn't make it to Silverton by train today we'll make it tomorrow by car. We're going to do the Million Dollar Highway.
