Two Are Better...

Durango Train Ride


Link to Durango Pics

The train ride was fun. We rode for 2 hours and then they let us off in the middle of no where. One of the staff people told us they would blow the train whistle and then we would have 10 minutes to get back to the train after that they would leave. No head count check or anything like that, so if you weren't there you'd get left. He said, "and you don't want to get left" It would be a 26 mile hike back so unless you were prepared for a marathon following the train tracks back you probably wouldn't want to do it. :) We got to talk to the guy who shovels coal into the train engine and come up on it and look around. He showed us the oven where he shoveled coal in and we looked behind us in the coal car and saw the huge piles of coal there. He said they use 2 tons of coal to go up and half a ton going back down. They had a concession car with lots of good things to buy to eat. We bought a couple of hot Chai teas and a trail mix snack. There was also an observation car you go to that had no walls. It was easy to see out everywhere from that one. We could walk from car to car, but they told us not to linger in between cars. There were bathrooms on all the passenger cars. Lisa said she thinks the contents of the toilet just drains down onto the tracks... I don't know though.

Later we went walking around Durango and looking at various shops. Lisa was excited about the possibility of buying an authentic Navajo rug, but unfortunately they were extremely expensive so we weren't sure about it. Even the smallest ones were over two hundred dollars. We ended up not doing it. Later we ate at a Chinese restaurant that was pretty good. They had a lot more selections than what we were used to. I ordered a mushroom duck entree and Lisa got her usual chicken with broccoli. I almost ordered a "wor wonton" soup instead of plain wonton soup, but I got confused when the waiter was explaining to me what was in it and thought he said something about a fish swimming around in it. So I passed. Lisa told me I misunderstood him later... Then we went to see the movie, "The Last Mimzy". We liked it, although we thought it was a little flaky in parts.

-Will