Day 3 - Durango

We got up a little after 6 and went and had a good hot shower before heading to the train.  It took us almost an hour to get to Durango and get parked for the train ride that left at 8:30 am.   I had booked the tickets on Sunday and decided to go “Presidential” class on the way up,  and we took a different car and went first class on the way back.   The Presidential car was the Cinco Alamas.  And the Car on the way back was the Parlor car.  The Presidential car was built in 1888 and many Presidents actually rode in this car.  It was the last car on the train so we could see out the back and down the tracks.   The Car had a back deck with a couple of chairs and the foot stool and could fit about 5 people.  It was like a small balcony on the back of the train. … Very nice.    Dot was our server/guide and she did a wonderful job letting me know when the best pictures were coming up.  I took way too many pictures, but it was a lot of fun.  The car was great because we had lots of room and only about 20 people in it ( compared to 40 or 50 in the other cars).    Our small section had only 8 wonderful people to spend the train ride with.  They were a lot of fun.  We also got to move around a lot… front lookout, back porch, out the windows etc…..  Well worth the upgrade price.

We got to Silverton about 3 hours later.  And on Dot’s recommendation we ate at Grumpy’s saloon.  We had a hamburger and a buffalo burger as well as split a Durango brewery beer called Ten Pins Porter.  It was really good.   They also had a ragtime piano player that was really good and I bought a couple of her CD’s.  Lacy Black’s CDs are also available through her website at www.LaceyBlack.net  

After lunch we walked around a bit and then caught the 2:30 train back.  The Parlor car was nice, but not as nice as the Presidental  car.   The back deck you could not sit on, and would only hold about 3 people.  We were at the back of the car so we could see out the back of the train from our seats.  Still a wonderful way to ride being able to look out the back of the train.

We arrived back in Durango,  tired, but lots of fun and needed to find a campsite close.  We found campsite in the National Forest called Junction Creek.   It was a great campsite.  National Forests are the way to camp,  and not many neighbors this time of year.  Our site was D1.   I had good 3g coverage and tried out my mobile hotspot on the Droid 4.  It was pretty amazing to sit there in the middle of a National Forest and have internet connectivity!    Tomorrow it will be up early to make the trip to the Grand Tetons,  up through Silverton and over to Wyoming.   Over 600 miles.  We will see how far we get.