Saying goodby to the warm weather for now! We took another trip to Mexico for fun with friends! I love all the wall art that is spread out all over this area. Tucson has a ton of it and although I have never gone on the wall art tour we have seen many of them from a distance. I see art in just about everything.
We have not driven our big truck for quite a while so I suggested we run it out on the highway for a bit before we tow our house to Colorado. I really wanted to see the cactus blooms in the Saguaro National Park. So very glad we did. They were amazing and this was just the beginning of cactus bloom season so next year I want to stick around the area a little longer and sweat a bit with the Arizonia heat to see all the different cacti bloom. I have seen so many posts from friends of the beauty. Something so prickly is amazing.
So here we are on the road again! I just couldn't wait to get on the road again! Another bunch of stuff to see on roads we have never been!! Adventure is awesome. In all our time on the road we have never driven separate and obviously by this very stupid picture where I could have died taking it, here we are in separate cars. I am quite certain Dick enjoyed the peace of me not saying whoa when he hits the bumpies on the side of the road and I quite enjoyed singing at the top of my lungs to songs Dick has no interest in ever hearing. It was as nice as it was sad. We bought the new truck to drive around in and save the big one for towing. It is an antique after all. A 2004 and still going strong but it needs a break from the townie driving.
Hatch NM. We camped here for our 1st stop and met up with Doug and Rosemary (friends from Las Cruces). They drove up to meet us for lunch at a Sharkys. We had no idea that this was such a famous place to eat. It was awesome and we will stop back if ever in route. Of course there are all the weird things in this little town to take pictures by and of course we did!! Stopped at a brewery in town too. Who would have thunk that we'd stay in a town with a Brewery!!
Another surprise parade!! We have run into quite a few of these in our travels! This one was super short, super colorful and loaded with lots of candy being thrown at us. We were at the beginning of the parade and there was a father and his daughter there watching with us so we collected all the suger and gave it to her. Hopefully it won't rot all her little teeth!!
Out of order picture of Sharkys! Oops.
On the road again. Another near death picture. I couldn't resist. What is wrong with this picture below??? Answer at the bottom of this post.
The new Version of the APPLE watch!
Stopped at a Casino for a free night of camping and of course it cost more than paying for a site but we had fun.
Happened upon this great brewery where there was a band playing an ton of people. You would never have known it was here nestled amongst homes on dirt roads. Super camo but super well known by the crowd and the people order take out pizza to go and the people eating pizza while listening to a great blues band. We didn't eat pizza surprisingly but had some great beer! It was blustery day and it was dirt roads and dry so kind of a dust bowl. Pizza probably would have been a bit gritty!!
Just South of the Colorado boarder we stopped for 3 nights at a little higher elevation to acclimate ourselves before getting to 9318. This Tico Time Park was pretty unique. Set on the Animas River as a water park, all water features/slides/ponds, were fed by the river but not going into the river. Little pools of water that you slide into where the water was constantly turned over by the flow of the river. so cool. In other words.....not piss ponds! Sorry no pictures of these cool fun features. I did get a few pictures of the natural side of the park where they had an 18 hole disc golf course. I picked this place knowing it would be dead this time of year and for the golf for Dick. He played multiple times daily not knowing what Colorado had in store for him.
While staying at Tico Time we drove south to Aztec Ruins National park. These ancient rock structures will never stop amazing me. I just walk about in awe and wonder what life would have been like and how the heck they ever built such wonders. We are not ones to hit up every National Park but if in route we will never pass up. AMAZING !!
A side trip to Durango from Tico Time to check out the Railroad Museum. Who knew that turkeys could drive tractors and sheep were hood ornaments!
Yes I know this has nothing to do with railroad but an amazing piece of art showing what colors come from what plant to dye fibers in 1st Nations weaving!!
Maybe all these stuffed animals were hit by trains!!
Maybe these cars and the airplane took passengers to the trains and all the kids backpack on the bench were from absent minded children who already boarded the train on their way to school and forgot their homework!
More animals that were hit by trains!
This must have been the Coke truck that delivered the fizzy beverage to the hoity toity passenger train car.
Yup, that is the train!! We will see that later in action!
I just know this is the food truck of the past. Chuck wagon where the passengers would probably get there tin lunch pails filled before boarding the train.
This is the building that houses all this fabulous stuff.
This is the parking ticket for $25 dollars that we got because we spent to much time looking at fabulous stuff. AARG!
Well, this is the last leg of travel so I thought I might just take one more I almost died picture! The snow-covered mountains are getting closer, and the weather is getting chillier. Not the highest elevation we have ever been but high enough for us to see snow for quite some time.
Our views for the next couple months are going to be amazing
360 degrees of gorgeousness! DAILY
We are at Silverton Lakes RV and Cabins in Silverton, Colorado. The park is visited by thousands a year to ride the trails in Jeeps and OHVs. Trails are accessible right from the park which apparently makes it the go to place in Silverton. A couple years back they ban the riding of off road vehicles in town which probably kinda pissed off the other RV park but is great because there is one paved road in town and it was most likely a super dust bowl everywhere. We are parked at the South Park campground which is the smaller of their two camps and 2 blocks from town. OHV can not drive here which is awesome. I won't have to spend time dusting my camper daily. The bigger of the two parks where the office is located allows OHVs and is noisy and dusty. So glad they planted us at South Park. We do have a little 15 minute walk to and from work but walking with these viesw won't get old.
This is as far as I got on the disc golf course that is 2 blocks away. Dick has gone many time since we have been here to what he calls a challenging course. MOUNTAINS! I guess when you throw up hill and it rolls back down that can be pretty frustrating. I am happy not to walk this course.
Thought you may want to see where we wash our dirty clothes. It is nice to have free laundry and so close. Just a short wagon roll away.
Downtown Silverton. It looks very much like an old timey mining town & with elk on the roof...who wouldn't love this place.
We got to Silverton in time for the 1st of the season train arrival. Man this is a cool place.
We came to watch it from the old train station where it used to leave off the passengers. Now with extended tracks, it heads around the bend just a bit and drops off and picks up in the business area of town so passengers can spend their 2 hour eating, drinking and shopping. Lots of shops and eateries for passengers to visit. I believe this train is what keeps this town alive. I do not know what the heck these people do in the winter when they are snowed in. Yikes!
The arrival of the 1st train in town is quite an event. People all dressed up in their old garb and a brass band to welcome all.
This place cracks me up. Dirt roads but paved sidewalks!
Dick took a couple pictures from the disc course! Our house is in the middle of this picture and you can see it where I zoomed in in the second picture.
More pretty! We took a drive up the dirt road to an old mine that you can tour. We will do this later in the summer but for now it was just pretty and peaceful.
The only brewery in town also has wood fired pizza!! Yippy for us!! Amazing pizza and the beer was good too. We will walk here often. I maybe mentioned that we are 2 blocks from town and have walked to it many times. The grocery and liquor stores are on the other end of town but the town isn't all that big as you will see in later pictures that we took when Dick made me almost die walking up the mountain.
I love signs. If assholes could fly, this place would be an airport!! That is funny!!
Another snowy day has brought wintery beauty. Good thing it warm enough to melt it but cold enough up there to see the beauty.
The views from the mountain! Zoomed cause I was looking for our house.
Our 1st waterfall for the season. Apparently, there are many around here so more to come in another blog
Still a ways to go up. I let him!
We were much higher waiting for the train to come around the bend here into town but got tired of waiting so started walking down. It eventually came and we got to see it from a little height but found out later when we walked into town that it had to stop two time for rocks on the tracks, so it was a little off schedule. I cannot wait to go on this train in a couple week when we have our yearly visitor (Glen and Cathy) come visit. From our campsite we can hear and see this train come and go daily. Dang loud whistle. Good thing it doesn't run at night, or I might not like it so much.
Love this river and the creek by the camp. Something about running water is so peaceful. On the other hand, it really does make me want to pee more!!
Mothers Day walk to town probably will put on the 5 pounds I lost since arriving. OH MY GOODNESS, the Rocky Mountain Funnel cakes are the bomb. Raspberry Cheesecake for me and Cinnamon Roll for Dick. They have so many flavors that I do not think we will get to try all but will certainly try. We had to take home half of each for later (still amazing later). We will probably share so we don't gain back all we lose.!!
Snoop wine!! Crazy guy even has his picture on the cork!! Pretty good wine though. Just thought you should know.
Another snowy day. It melted quickly but it is just a bit to chilly out to be painting in my little crafty tent so the camper is getting a bit crowded with crafty crap.
We have begun our camp duties and Dick is busy building and fixing things for what is sure to be the busiest campground we have ever worked in & I am and office person learning all the ins and out of how to be nice to people on the phone and in person as well as learning the computer reservation system that is kind of overwhelming. Point of sale crapola and all the mumbo jumbo of office stuff. I now remember why I always went for hands on jobs.
Life is still good and as always ignore the typos. Who has time to proof read when you are in Gods country!!
