It's a Go for Show Low

 Our last hurrah for our summer journey was a stop at Fool Hollow State Park in Show Low, Arizona.  We met up with long time friends, Sherry and Gary MacFarlane and Norm Voight as well as Don's sister Sandy, her husband, Jerry and Don's sister Doris and her husband, Gary.  I could lie and say it was a week for fun and games, but it mostly involved eating and figuring out what we were going to make for the next meal!  We did manage to squeeze in some short hikes in the park and games of dominoes or the card game called Golf.

The Sherwood rig on the left, us in the middle and the Whites on the right.                                                                                  


                                         Norm's truck & trailer and Gary & Sherry's coach on the right.

We moved the meals from site to site since we were all close together.  Somehow, we always had room for a mid-afternoon snack of chips, salsa and dips.  Here we are by Sandy & Jerry's 5th wheel.

In the evening, we moved over to Gary and Sherry's site.  The first 4 days were warm enough for shorts during the day and light jackets at night.

It got dark by 6 PM in the tall pines, but that didn't stop us from partaking some fantastic cobbler that Jerry made in his Dutch oven.  Even Mollie (the dog) was waiting patiently for a little bit of that delicious dessert!

Pat and Joy Wilcox stopped by for a visit one afternoon.  They were formerly camp hosts here for 5 years and we got to know them quite well after camping up here several years in a row.   We had a chance to visit with other long time friends, Jim and Sherian Vanderkolk.  Don and Gary MacFarlane have been friends with Jim for over 50 years.

 On Thursday, the rain and clouds came in, turning the weather much colder.  Even Don changed from his Levi shorts to long pants and a jacket!  That afternoon, our nephew, Greg, his wife, Lori and daughter Cassidy drove up to Show Low.  Greg is Sandy and Jerry's son.  Cassidy decided to help Jerry prepare another batch of cobbler while Norm "supervised".   That night, it was peach cobbler, another hit with all 12 of us.

Greg, Doris and Sherry sample some of Sherry's Jalepeno Poppers.  I think she made them at least 3 times while we were up there.  

Boy were they ever good!

Jerry, Norm and Gary kept warm by donning heavier jackets while they contemplated having another popper.

It took two grills on Thursday night to make enough food for all of us. The menu consisted of grilled vegetables, steaks, fried potatoes, sweet potatoes, chips, poppers, and peach cobbler for dessert.  Our group has a lot of good cooks!  We were lucky....it had rained off and on all day and stopped about an hour before supper.  Right after we ate it started to sprinkle again.  At least I got to eat my steak without being rained on!

One of the highlights was getting a picture of a bald eagle in the park.  Don, Jerry and Norm had driven into town and saw it on their way back into the campground.  They found Sandy and me (we had been taking a walk) and told us to hurry up and get in the truck.  I had no idea of why there was such a rush, but I was glad I had my Nikon camera with the long ranges lens hanging off my shoulder.

 I sure love this camera that is able to take 4 pictures per second!  It came in handy as this majestic bird took off in flight.

Boy, those 5 months went by fast as usual.  We were blessed to be able to re-connect with friends and family along the way again this year.

No Tango in Durango

Don isn't into any form of dancing at all, so there was no way we were doing the Tango dance in Durango (or anywhere else)!  We came to bike and see the sights, and that is just what we did.

As we drove south through Wolf Creek Pass, and Pagosa Springs, we encountered some spectacular views.  The mountainsides were a patchwork quilt of various shades of yellow and green.  There was no place for us to stop as we drove up the side of the mountain, so this picture was taken from my side of the truck, at 60 miles an hour!  I put the window down, started taking pictures and hoped for the best.

After settling in at the RV park, we drove 7 miles into Durango.  The bronze statue of the colts sits right in front of the Durango & Silverton Train station.  As we passed by this later, a girl of about 5 was sitting on the colt laying down, with her arms around the neck.  That reminded me of our two horse-crazy granddaughters.

We strolled up one side of Main Street and down the other and I noticed the sign along the sidewalk showing how it looked over a hundred years ago.  This was the community's banking corner in 1900 and the block building was Colorado State Bank back then.  This was a progressive town, it even had an electric trolley!

This morning, we did a bike ride on the Animas River Trail.  The trail is 7 miles long and basically follows the Animas River, going past several parks, a swinging bridge, a skatepark, Class V rapids and even a museum and fish hatchery.  (Editors correction: I had typed in "swinging bride" and then changed it after re-reading my blog.  Heaven only knows where my mind was for that boo-boo!)

Don rested by one of the bridges as I stopped and took some pictures.

 The trail also runs along the same area as the Durango &Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, although we didn't see any excursion train as we biked along.  Wish we had planned on staying another day or two so we could do the train ride again.

A view of the train trestle just off the biking/hiking path.  There were a lot of  people using the trail today: young mothers pushing strollers, groups of people walking and talking at the same time and we even saw one older man wearing a suit coat, dress shirt and dress pants riding a bike!  

 Don had already turned the corner when I stopped to take another picture of the river.  As usual, I am lagging behind because I am stopping to snap more photos.

 At Santa Rita Park and near the Visitor Center, was the Emma Sweeney Train.  It was used  in the 1950 movie filmed in Durango called "A Ticket to Tomahawk".  Walter Brennan & Rory Calhoun were in that movie, and one of the dance girls was a then unknown Marilyn Monroe.  The train was also used the the Petticoat Junction TV series.

Tomorrow we head for Show Low, Arizona to meet up with friends and family.  We are looking to spending a whole week with them in Fool Hollow.  It's almost the end of the summer RV traveling season for us.

St. Elmo

Day two in Buena Vista found us heading 20 miles southwest to the ghost town of St. Elmo.  It was a gorgeous day, perfect for driving up the mountainside to the mostly abandoned town.

The mining town was in its peak in the 1890s.  I found it a little odd for it to be considered a ghost town since there are still some people who reside there.  The store below had a sign hanging it it stating, "We are closed for the winter.  We will reopen May, 2013".  I'm guessing it was put up on Sept. 30th and we missed the cutoff by only a couple of days.

A sign showed that Tincup Pass was only 6 miles further up the road, but it is narrow, rocky and probably can only be used by Jeeps or ATVs.   Definitely not our type of road.

Even though all the buildings look deserted, numerous signs say they are all privately owned and stated for visitors to stay on the dirt road.  I obliged.  Most of the people who lived here during St. Elmo's prime worked in the mines.  The Mary Murply Mine alone recovered over $60 million in gold during its operation.  This was once a booming town filled with a bawdy, boisterous, and mostly male population.

 Tourism still draws people to the town, even though the last 6 miles of road to St. Elmo are unpaved.  We were both surprised at the amount of traffic that came up the mountain, supposedly all people like us, seeking out historic or unusual places.

The little house below is the Heightly Cottage, built in 1881.  Most of the buildings here have small wooden plaques stating the name and year they were constructed.  The fence looks a bit newer than 131 years old.  It sure could use some straightening.

 Looking down the street, the wooden sidewalks conjured up thoughts of how useful they were when the streets were mired in mud and the best  only place to walk was on the boards.

A view of the town, looking down from the far end.

This little cabin had a sign on it that it is available to rent.  Looks pretty small to me, and I doubt if it has indoor plumbing, one thing that is an absolute must for Don and me. 

 But it comes with its own fresh water supply!  A pump right on the front porch!  No need to bring your own bottle water.....just lean forward out of your chair and start pumping!

As we wandered around, I did find some cabins occupied, and one had fireplace going.  It would be interesting to see what it looked like on the inside.

 As we drove back down the mountain, we had a nice view of blue waters of  Alpine Reservoir and the glorious foliage.

Bueno for Buena Vista!

After spending almost a week at the homes of our Colorado children, we were once on the road again on Monday morning.  The Denver area and Front Range had gotten some rain during the past week, and above the 10,000 foot level it snowed.  We could see the snow capped mountains in the distance as we headed south on Colorado 285 towards the town of Buena Vista.

Buena Vista is a beautiful, quaint small town situated close to the Arkansas River.  Even though it sits at 8000 feet, the seasons here are mild and average summer temperatures are in the 80's.  

After settling in and eating lunch, we were off to explore.  One of our first jaunts was to drive through the old Midland Railroad tunnels, just north of town.  They are definitely one-way and I sure wouldn't even think of driving through them with our 5th wheel!

By just looking at the picture below, you can tell that the unique visitor center was once a church.  It was built in 1879 and in continuous use for 90 years.  However, it had reached a point where it was slated to be demolished and the fire department wanted to use it for practice and burn it down to the ground.  Fortunately, it was saved, restored and even got a new coat of pain inside and out this year.

More walking around the town revealed an old courthouse for the county seat.  It is now the Buena Vista Heritage Museum since the county seat is now in Salida.  Even though the buildings in the main part of town are old, they are all occupied and in good repair.  This would be a great town to spend a week since there are so many different things to do and see in the surrounding area.  We have seen more deer here in the past 2 days than the rest of the summer.     They lounge in people's yards during the day, stroll across the downtown streets and both nights we have had a least 5 deer in our campground.  I guess they feel right at home!

 After talking to the lady at the Visitor Center, we decided to head up Highway 306 to Cottonwood Pass.  It was just the right time of the year to catch some fall color, and we weren't disappointed.  Don drove while I looked for spots for him to stop so I could get out of the truck and take pictures!  Trust me, he did a LOT of stopping!

 I even managed to get a view looking up through a stand of Aspen trees.  My camera just kept on clicking away as I snapped one picture after another.  I was one happy camper!

Cottonwood Creek closely follows this highway and I was able to climb down the hill to get photos of the river and colorful trees.

Fall leaves floating on the water captured my attention and I clicked off another picture.  I just love fall!