United States
Durango

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    • Day 8

      Day is done. God is nigh.

      June 10, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

      Lake City - Creed - Rio Grande National Forest - Wagon Wheel Gap - South Fork - Pagosa Springs - Nutria - Dyke - Chimney Rock - Bayfield - Loma Linda - San Juan National Forest - Durango

      Top altitude: 3,497 m (xx ft) near Lake City
      Top speed: 164 kmh (xxx mph) near South Fork
      Distance: 288.7 km (xxx miles)
      Duration: 9:15 hours
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    • Day 10

      Day is done. God is nigh.

      August 30, 2023 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

      Moab-La Sal Mountains-Paradox Valley-Dolores River Canyon-Hwy 141 Unaweep/Tabeguache Canyons-
      Naturita/Blondie's Diner-Telluride- Mountain Village-Lizard Head Pass-Bolam Pass-Purgatory Valley-Silver Dollar Hwy-Durango

      408 km / 254 miles, about 40% off-road
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    • Day 24

      Steamworks Brewery Colorado

      August 21, 2019 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

      Staying the night in Durango & just had the best dinner including chocolate brownie done in stout beer with ice-cream & bacon bits on it. Never thought I'd like it. Good trip across from New Mexico with plenty of laughs... mostly at our expense when the people in the gas stations hear us talk! 🤣Read more

    • Day 78

      Day 78 - Giving Thanks

      November 24, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 4 °C

      Happy Thanksgiving! More or less everything would be closed today and so we had very few plans outside of lunch.

      We woke up and started watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. With us being in a different time zone to the parade we got our timings mixed up and only caught the end. Handily, on another channel it was starting again with a time delay. There were lots of floats, including one with a sinister looking Ronald McDonald floating in a static crawling motion. The one thing more sinister than a huge leering Ronald McDonald was someone dressed as Ronald McDonald waving to the crowd in the back of a large red shoe. Yes, I find clowns sinister. I'd say my favourite float was the large turkey and Alice's was Pikachu. Then there were the floats with famous and maybe famous but I don't know them singers, all singing different songs as they pulled up outside Macy's with the word love prominently featuring in the lyrics. It looked cold but everyone was happy. Then there were the marching bands which I enjoyed the most. Dancing in the cold whilst playing and carrying a heavy brass instrument is no mean feat. I'm guessing. And just as we were getting into the parade, the TV station suddenly switched the feed to skijoring! No that's not a spelling mistake, skijoring is 'a winter sport where a person on skis is pulled by a horse, a dog (or dogs) or a motor vehicle' (Wikipedia). We must have been watching the parade on a local TV station as the skijoring was taking place in Colorado. It looked pretty cool actually but the disappointment in not being able to watch the middle of the parade, as we had by now watched the end and the beginning was a shame. Ah well.

      On arrival at the motel yesterday it was suggested to us by the owner to walk to downtown by following the Animus River. We took them up on that suggestion and left with an hour to spare before lunch. It was a fantastic suggestion and we took our time taking photos and reading the small number of information boards along the way. The few people that we saw all greeted us with Happy Thanksgiving and we duly replied. We reached our lunch reservation with time to spare and of course, it was turkey. It was a buffet and Alice and I were both impressed with the selection on offer. We had the turkey and beef with all the trimmings. Alice really liked the cheesy mash, just regular mash for me. It was all really nice but the fresh cranberry sauce really stood out. So that's how good cranberry sauce can taste! We had one of the numerous desserts on offer whilst we continued to sip our seasonal wine which contained cinnamon and orange peel. Bursting at the seams, we left the restaurant and visited the only shop in downtown that was open before slowly making our way back along the river again. Back at the motel, we got into elasticated pants (not the same one btw) and gorged on Thanksgiving TV and Movies.

      Song of the Day:
      Boyz II Men - Thank You
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    • Day 36

      Elche🌝

      October 18, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

      Und dann, nach genau 5 Wochen, entdecken wir sie endlich: unsere ersten Elche in den USA, hier in Colorado. Der Tag war gerettet👍👍👍😊

    • Day 21

      But I' Still just a Cliche

      August 12, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

      Donald Trump zou trots op ons zijn vandaag. We hebben heerlijk het milieu besmeurd met vette vieze stooksel van steenkolen.

      Vanmorgen vroeg stond de Stoomtrein van Durango al voor ons klaar. Een oude locomotief daterend van eind 19e eeuw zou ons 70 kilometer verder en 100 meter hoger brengen. Van Durango naar Silverton. De Denver & Rio Grande Railway startte in 1881 met de bouw op de lijn naar Silverton. In juli 1882 werden de tracks naar Silverton voltooid en de trein begon zowel vracht als passagiers te beginnen.

      De lijn werd eigenlijk gebouwd om zilveren en gouden erts uit het San Juan-gebergte te halen, maar passagiers realiseerden zich al snel dat het uitzicht uit de trein spectaculair was, dus zijn ze ook passagiers gaan vervoeren. Die wagons rijden nog steeds en eentje was er voor ons. Couch nummer 20. Een open wagon met bakjes overdwars, zodat je een constant mooi uitzicht hebt. Wel een beetje smerig, want werkelijk in alle poriën vinden we nu nog roetdeeltjes.

      Met veel geweld van sissen, machinelawaai en stoomfluit vetrekken we om 9.00 uur richting Silverton. Ondanks dan de trein hier dagelijks rijdt, leek het wel of heel het dorp was uitgerukt om ons uit te zwaaien. Gedurende het hele eerste uur van de rit stonden er mensen en kinderen langs de kant van de weg fotograferend en zwaaiend. Nog opvallender waren de volwassen mannen van tussen de 40 en 60 jaar die volgepakt met foto-apparatuur ons stonden te fotograferen (ons als “de trein”) alsof het ding maar 1 keer per jaar langs komt. Zullen waarschijnlijk mannen met een modelspoorbaantje zijn.

      Eenmaal de stad uit wordt het spektakel om ons heen steeds groter. Het zijn allemaal clinches, maar het werd mooi, mooier, mooist. Eigenlijk gek, want de beelden ken je min of meer uit Disneyland, maar nu is het in het eggie. We rijden langs diepe afgronden, door nauwe doorgangen tussen rotsen, over houten bruggen, over weides, langs watervallen en meren. Tweemaal onderweg moet de Loco water bijvullen anders haalt hij de tocht naar boven niet. Zuchtend en steunend, krakend en sissend trekt hij het oude materieel naar boven. Drinken en ontbijt halen in de antieke restauratiewagen (consession-car with the happy consession man) was een avontuur op zich, omdat alle wagons los waren en slechts gekoppeld door een kleine metalen brug. Dus als in een Hully Gully op naar de consession man. En dezelfde weg terug en nu met handen vol koffie, limonade en een smerige breakfast-burrito)

      Na 3,5 uur komt 1000 meter hoger Silverton in zicht. Silverton is een westernstadje dat bestaat in de basis uit 1 grote kruising, onverharde gravelwegen, houten rekken om het paard aan vast te binden en daaromheen westernhuisjes, saloons, bars, gokhuizen en huizen van lichte zeden zoals we die kennen uit cowboy-films. Ook een enorm cliché, maar zo leuk.

      De Stoomtrein rijdt zo de hoofdstraat van Silverton in en stopt piepend en fluitend vlak voor de kruising midden in het dorp tussen de winkels en saloons.

      Daar mogen we 2 uur door Silverton slenteren en een hapje eten (wat in dit geval letterlijk een hapje was. Voor het eerst in deze drie weken waren de porties zo klein dat wij ze zelfs te klein vonden).

      Na 2 uur begint de weg naar beneden. Nu aan de andere kant van de trein, met dus andere vergezichten en plaatjes.

      Na 7 uur zijn we helemaal door elkaar gerammeld en zit het roet werkelijk is alle groeven en gaten. Met zeemansbenen lopen we nog snel even door de straten van Durango.

      Dit was een dag van clichés. Alles was (zoals het Amerikanen betaamt) tot in de puntjes verzorgd en aangekleed. Personeel (echt iedereen) liep in aangepaste historische kleding, enthousiaste verhalen onderweg van de wagonverzorger (uiteraard weer met de flauwe grappen) en punctueel als altijd. Elk beeld voelt als een fragment uit een film waar je net even niet op kan komen.

      De beelden waren spectaculair, betoverend en soms ongelofelijk van schoonheid. Dus een dagje niksen op een treinbankje, bruin worden en toch veel beleefd.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mnv19g5NQW8
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    • Day 77

      Day 77 - Actually Really Good Day

      November 23, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 -1 °C

      Durango is a fairly small city and has a pleasant and relaxed feel to it. It is busy in the summer as temperatures are not too extreme and in the winter local skiing resorts ensure that as long as there's snow, there will be visitors. Our motel owners, Nigel and Tammy, were incredibly friendly and welcoming and told us all about the area in general and activities to do.

      We actually had plans for the morning and afternoon, and that involved getting on board a steam train. The Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railway has run continuously since 1881 and although it is now a tourist and heritage line hauling passengers, it is one of the few places in the U.S. which has seen continuous use of steam locomotives. Enough with the facts, on with the journey. We left bang on time and the train slowly started to gain momentum as it pulled out of the station and made its way to the mountains. There was a number of families around us who in typically American fashion began conversing with each other in a matter of minutes and before long were swapping stories and histories. Alice and I were mainly spectators and joined in a few conversations but we were pleased to sit back and admire the view. The train progressed very slowly and the views on either side of the train increased in drama and beauty. At times we slowly crept over bridges where some passengers were too afraid to take photos. It took two hours to reach our destination, Cascade Canyon, which consisted of a cabin hidden in the mountains, surrounded by a river on one side and a mass of trees and a rising mountain side on the other. We had under an hour to wander around or eat our lunches in a covered area with a log fire. Alice and I had both ordered the sandwich box from the concession carriage which contained a sandwich, sweet potato chips, a cookie and an apple. A topic of conversation heading to the canyon was the incredible value of a refillable cup of soda for eight dollars and on the journey back our fellow passengers were initially skeptical about the unbranded chips, but there seemed to be a unanimous reversal of opinion as they were now deemed actually really good once eaten. Alice and I agreed on both these points but we didn't opt for the refillable drink.

      On the journey back some of us noticed an eccentric looking woman waving a stick of ribbons as we passed her near the lower ground after Canyon Creek. About twenty minutes later, there she was again, enthusiastically waving her stick of ribbons and we all began to laugh as we realised that she must have driven up ahead of us to wave again. Then one of the passengers spotted her again, this time in her car as she passed us on a parallel highway. Yet again further up the line there she was waving away with a wide smile on her face. She changed the side of the train on which to wave this time, adding some variety to the exercise at least. Some of us laughed in a head shaking kind of way, whilst others stuck their hands out of their window to clap at her dedication to the cause of waving at a steam train. I think she was spotted another two times until we reached Durango. And of course she was there at the platform on arrival. I'm sure she was disappointed that today's journey was at an end, although there is always the next day's service.

      The journey and experience of the whole trip was memorable. It was long as well and by the time we left the train station it was already late afternoon. We had a look at the shops around downtown and admired the picturesque setting of large mountains as the backdrop. We were getting tired by now and decided to head back to the motel, have a rest and then go for a quick and easy dinner. We went to Dennys which was just what we were after. A quiet diner setting at night with attentive staff and comforting food was another reminder that we were still in the U.S. Having been here for so long, it is easy to get complacent and forget how amazing this whole experience has been. With that in mind, we both relaxed in our booth seats and talked over our day's adventure.

      Song of the Day:
      Bob Marley and the Wailers - Stop That Train
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    • Day 8

      Durango --> Silverton --> Chama

      October 20, 2022 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

      Mostly pictures of sedimentary and igneous geology in the mountains. Nice view of Silverton descending out of the mountains. There was a tourist train from Durango to Silverton which pumped in the tourist traffic and bucks daily to support the restaurant and tourist shops. It was the last day of summer tourist season on the day I was there, so most of the shop and business owners were closing up until next year. The tourist train ride cost about $120 according to one of the passengers I asked.
      videos:
      https://youtu.be/5fCE0MWoU4A
      https://youtu.be/LrHiBlD743k
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    • Day 4

      Hopi perspective [Hovenweep]

      April 2, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

      Today we visited two more of the Hovenweep pueblos-- Hackberry and Horseshoe. While these are certainly impressive strctures the highlight of the hike was chatting with a Hopi Indian who does stabilization work for the Park Service. He took us behind the barrier chains and talked about how NPS hires Native Americans to use modern materials (an acrylic resin) to stabilize their ancestor's pueblos. Herschel said his people have mixed feelings about intervening in how nature returns these structures to the Earth. But he personally thinks it's a good thing that future visitors will be able to appreciate the work of his ancestors. He also showed us pictographs, a spring seep and structures not accessible to the public. A real treat.Read more

    • Day 50

      Take a Hiatus [Durango]

      February 11, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 1 °C

      Last week we arrived in Durango for a stay of several months to check it out as a possible retirement locale. So with this post the mobile adventures will abate and resume sometime in the spring.

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Durango, دورانغو, Дуранго, دورانگو، کلرادو, DRO, デュランゴ, डुरांगो, Kin Łání, 81301, ڈورینگو، کولوراڈو, 杜兰戈

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