Colorado Trip 2009

We're back! We returned from Durango late Friday evening....And had a wonderful time!

The trip to Durango was long...Especially from Ft. Worth to Amarillo. The room was stayed in was SUPER nice. Except for the bathtub...Whoever designed that was CLEARLY NOT disabled! I have no clue how ANY disabled person bathed in that. It was a nightmare!

Once we got into the New Mexico area, we began seeing mountains and the scenery got a lot more interesting and pretty. we pulled over and had a lunch of sandwiches and chips and water (yes, water). I was trying to get ahead of any altitude sickness that might await.

We finally arrived in Colorado Sunday afternoon at 2:41 Texas time and rain, thunder, and lightning was there to welcome us. Our hotel room was nice...The living area was where I stayed. It had a television, and the couch made into a bed. Then you went down a small hallway and that was my parents area with a king sized bed and a television. It was great, because I had my own space and could close the door to be able to get dressed or watch t.v. after my parents had gone to sleep.

Monday was the train ride. It was a three and a half hour ride to Silverton. We shared a train car with four other people. They were all traveling together and one guy was also in a wheelchair. They were so nice and fun to travel with! They made several trips through the train and everyone decided that our train car was the best one because it was the least crowded and we all liked each other! The ride up was beautiful going way up into the mountains...AMAZING scenery! I was so glad we were in an enclosed car and not one that was uncovered. Those people were covered in black soot from the coal blowing back on them from the front of the train. We were told that a bear and her cubs had been seen by some people in the back, but we had missed it...Dad was CRUSHED. He has longed to see a bear in Colorado for as long as I can remember. I felt SO bad for him.

We got to Silverton and mom, dad, and I had lunch at a little restaurant where we ate outside on the back porch. It was SO NICE....Eating lunch outside with mountains surrounding us, 73 degrees with NO humidity! Once we finished lunch, we shopped around for awhile at the little shops there and each had a dish of ice cream (chocolate chip cookie dough for me). Once that was over, it was about time to board the train for another 3 and a half hour trip BACK to Durango!

This was a LONG trip back. The highlight was when Dad FINALLY saw his bear! A cinnamon colored bear walking back into the mountains after getting a drink from the river....I think that made Dad's ENTIRE trip! It was AWESOME! His eyes were GLUED to the mountain from the second we pulled out of Silverton so I was so thrilled it payed off!

Once we got off the train, 3 and a half LONG hours later, we were WORN OUT! Don't get me wrong, we really enjoyed it, but the trip back was not near as fun because it was the same territory we saw coming. I think everyone in our car took a nap on the way back. Once we got back to our car we were hungry for pizza so we searched and searched and SEARCHED...We were about to give up (Dad was looking for a place to turn around) when I finally spotted a Pizza Hut! So we ate and went back to our hotel room and showered and I think we were all in bed with lights out by 10:30.


Tuesday was our dinner theatre night. We had breakfast at this adorable little cafe...Some of the best french toast and hash browns I've ever had! We enjoyed it so much, that's where we had breakfast for the remainder of our trip! We spent most of the day just taking in the sights. We headed up to go see the ruins but when we got to the entry point we were told it would take at least 2-3 hours to see everything. We didn't have that kind of time so we turned around. We ended up going back to the hotel and just relaxing before changing for the dinner theatre.

Our dinner was served in a very fancy restaurant. We were given a menu with three different choices for our first course, three choices for our second course and the choices for our dessert course. I kid you not, most of these things I couldn't even pronounce! So, I just ordered exactly what Mom did...Let's just say that dinner was the worst part of the trip. We were SO glad when it was over.

The theatre part of the evening took place right across the hall from where we ate. It was a tiny theatre but very intimate. Tables were set up with a small menu on each where you could order popcorn and other snacks and drinks. The play we saw "Dames At Sea" was SO cute!!! Definitely made up for the awful dinner! The cast was a small group of AMAZINGLY talented college students. It was a musical/comedy with a bit of romance mixed in! I loved it!!!! Made my heart swell for the entertainment industry once again! And in one of the songs the lyrics included the line, "He may not be Dempsey, but she loves him anyway!" My mouth fell open and I almost fell out of my chair! LOL! The play was great though....We left feeling good!


Wednesday Dad played golf so Mom and I had the afternoon to shop. It was a perfect day to shop....78 degrees and breezy. We walked into a candy shop to get suckers for Lexi and Austin and my beloved Jelly Belly Cotton Candy jelly beans were there!!! I was SO excited! I can't find them anywhere near us! So...I bought a ridiculous amount! They're SO good...I've missed them! We had dinner at a little Mexican restaurant, and then I grabbed a mocha at the Starbucks there.

After we picked Dad up from golf and went back to the hotel for a few minutes, we had planned to go to a BBQ dinner that had a live band. However, we couldn't find it! So, we eventually decided to turn around and have dinner at an Italian place we had seen. It was...Interesting in the fact that spaghetti and meatballs was NOT on the menu. So Mom and I split fettuccine Alfredo. It was pretty good! After that, it was back to the hotel to shower and pack so that we could begin the return trip the next morning.

Thursday morning after breakfast at our favorite cafe we hit the road but decided to come back another more scenic way than we came! And scenic it was! Coming down some of those mountains was downright scary! There came a point where mom and I stopped commenting on how beautiful the view was because it was so nerve wracking. TONS of twists and turns. We stopped at one point at a little station for a bathroom break and our brakes were smoking...And they stunk! Dad said he didn't realize he was riding them so hard. We eased up after that and it just seemed more tense because I had a fear of the brakes going out. I've never been so relieved to get DOWN those mountains! And then Dad said that Monarch Pass was going to be worse!

I can say that Monarch Pass was indeed high (over 11 thousand feet) and the view going up was INCREDIBLE! We stopped at the very top for a bathroom break and to stretch at a little gift shop that sold shirts that said things like "I Made It To The Top...."

Going down Monarch Pass was NOTHING compared to our earlier adventure. I think I actually breathed some going down this time! Dad admitted that night that he had been REALLY nervous.

We found a hotel room in New Mexico Thursday night. It was NOTHING like any of our other rooms (not even handicapped accessible), but it gave us a place to sleep. We were up by 5:30 Friday morning and had made a breakfast stop at the McDonald's drive through and were on the road to Texas by 6:09. It was a LONG LONG LONG ride home! We stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Wichita Falls for lunch. It felt like Heaven to get out and stretch! Then we stopped at a Taco Bell in Fairfield and Dad ordered our food while Mom and I took a bathroom break and we ate Taco Bell on the road. We pulled into our driveway around 9:15 that night! Tazzie, who had been dropped off a few hours earlier by Kimberly greeted us at the door! She didn't know who to go to first so she just ran back and forth between the three of us!

It was a really great trip! There are more mobile pictures on my Facebook page if you are interested! Thank you all SO much for your prayers for our safety and wellness. I drank a ton of water so I never experienced any altitude sickness. Lexi and Austin had a BLAST with Landon and we were told that Tazzie just made herself right at home with no problems.

We had such a great time but are SO glad to be back home with everyone and be able to sleep in our own beds! Going away is fun, but the old saying is true...There's no place like home!