10/11 Post Train Ride

So this was a really fabulous day. I'm pretty convinced that I'm spoiled rotten. The train was pretty amazing, but I think we both have view overload! We will be uploading our pictures to the Durango Silverton album. No captions yet, and no video.
The whole experience of traveling through the mountains on an old-fashioned train was neat it itself, but then our AARP buddies started talking to the conductor, Mike Nichols, and we found out out that he is from a railroading family. His grandfather was a conductor as well. 

10/11 Hat = Obtained

Boy oh boy. The state of mankind has been restored. I found a hat in the tiny town of Silverton during our lunch break. It's always cool to find a fun local store, and instead of a finding a hat in a kitchy-everything-from-China store, we walked into the San Juan Trading Company and low and behold, I walked out with a hat! I had a special hat fitting with the shop owner's girlfriend and after digging through her supplies, she found  me a special extra small hat! And it fits!!! Now if only I could find some bling for it......

10/11 Train ride!

We are bumping along on the D & S railroad. We're in the low-budget-AARP HECKLER section. As we eavesdrop on our recently-retired coachmates, we are cracking up! They are providing a running commentary about the trip. I think a couple of them are "SUPERrailfans." I think they've done this before.

10/11 Up Before Sunrise

It's an early morning for us today as we drive back to Durango (before the sun rises) to catch the Durango Silverton Railroad. I didn't know anything about it, but as soon as one starts looking at "Things to do in Durango" this comes up. The train is a narrow gauge steam railroad that chugs through the mountains and stops in Silverton for two hours then heads back.
We were really excited to do this, but we didn't think that a bonnet was going to disguise Nora enough, so we had to look into other options for her.
This is when I get on my soapbox about customer service, and what a difference it makes. We were talking to the staff at the KOA and we asked them about Doggie Daycare options in Cortez. It took the guy all of three minutes before he offered to take care of Nora so we could enjoy ourselves. He met her yesterday, and she immediately "Berner Bumped" him with her nose. He's going to walk her every hour and a half! Wow.
Anyway, we are excited about today, and will obviously post more later.

10/10 Mesa Verde Cliff Dwellings!

We got sick of hat shopping in Durango-more about that later- and decided to head to Mesa Verde National Park. Because we've seen pictures so many times, we both had an idea of what to expect. Since some of the areas were closed for the season, and we only had half a day there, we spent our time at Spruce Tree House. Although the dwellings were interesting, I think both of us were more affected by the serene beauty of the location itself. Even the 20 mile drive up to the mesa was filled with amazing views, cooler air, surprise deer crossings, and trotting coyotes. We just added some photos to the Cortez Album

10/10 Doing Durango This Morning

The day started slowly since I drank a bit too much red wine at the rowdy campfire last night, so we've decided to start with the town of Durango instead of Mesa Verde. Now here's the thing-my entire goal of our mini trip to Durango is to get a kick-ass hat to wear on the trip. Some of you might recall my pink cowboy hat from the Mexico trip with Colleen, and others might remember my fabulous cowboy hat from my honeymoon in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, both of those hats are no longer with us.  I know, I know, it's a sad day for mankind. I hope I can improve the state of humanity by finding the perfect hat in Durango today...I'll keep you in the loop.

10/09 Cortez!

Wow. We made it to the highly rated (not kidding) Cortez KOA. Our friendly neighbors have already invited us over for tequila and smores, and Nora made friends with a couple of canines at the 3 acre dog park here. It is quiet, peaceful, and oh-so-different than Colorado Springs and the surrounding mountain towns. I thought I would share the sunset out our back door...

10/09 An Incredibly Beautiful Drive

Wow. Wow. Wow. We haven't turned on the radio or read any books at all. Both of us are in agreement that this is one of the most beautiful drives we've ever seen.  The combination of the fall colors, the snowy mountain passes, and the pine trees are causing us to whip out the camera and take way too many pictures that definitely won't capture the magnificence of it all. We've added a ton of new photos to the Drive from Colorado Springs to Cortez album. [It's going to take hours to upload all the photos - there are over 100!]

We should be tired after driving through the mountains for eight hours, but instead we are energized.

10/09 On the Road to Cortez

With the weather report favorable again, we've headed out early this morning for our drive to Cortez. There are a couple of different routes we could take, but we decided to take Route 50 through Canon City, and the Rockies. The hardest pass that we have to drive is Monarch Pass over the Continental Divide. This is the pass that was closed yesterday. We're hoping the weather stays above freezing like predicted. So far everthing has been dry, but we will see!

10/08 We heart our internets

I think we're going to spend the day surfing and watching the Good Wife while the weather blows over.

10/08 DON'T WORRY! (updated)

We are NOT in that photo! We are hunkered down in our trailer.  So, we'd been checking CDOT for road conditions on the way to Cortez, and we knew this would be a wet...
Wait a minute! Sam just popped out of the trailer and stuck his head back in and said, "It's snowing!"
So anyway, we knew that driving conditions would be bad.  There are three ways to get to Cortez (which is clear right now), but they all involve going through a mountain pass. Last night, things still looked OK, but this morning, when we checked the CDOT cameras, we got a taste of reality.  In other words, we are waiting it out here in "The Springs" for a bit.  We'll keep everyone in the loop.

update -- here's our campsite at the moment... it's been raining for about 8 hours and there's a little snow mixed in.

10/07 Pikes Peak in the am

We are about to turn around and go down the mountain as the summit is closed. This is an amazing drive! The temperature has been dropping as we climbed up and now there's snow and it's 32 degrees. Nora has been in heaven on this drive as it's like her home in the Swiss Alps!
We stopped at Crystal Reservoir to take a walk, eat lunch, and visit the gift shop. There is a walking path going part of the way around the reservoir. The reservoir itself is it deep crystal blue with sunlight glistening off its surface rippled by light wind. Behind it is the backdrop of Pikes Peak — a snow covered mountain (14,000+ feet elevation) with a foreground of pine trees and beautiful bursts of bright yellow birch trees in their fall finest.

10/07 Taking a nap

Wow. I think we'll all be sad to be leaving Colorado Springs tomorrow morning. It's been a really amazing two days here. Nora has personally voted for us to move near the Bear Creek Dog Park, and I think Sam and I could hike here all year without getting bored.  Tomorrow we leave for Cortez, Colorado, where we will spend three nights visiting Mesa Verde, as well as the town of Durango.

10/06 Garden of the Gods Park

Nora and I are hanging out waiting for Sam to get back from the second bike loop around the park. I did the first one with him, but because of the altitude and my lack of bad-ass-ness, I had to let him take the second one solo. It is really beautiful here. I imagine Moab will be like this but better.