Kings on the Road

In the midst of a Southwest heat wave friends Marty and Ann came to visit Durango from Pine Island.  We hit the ground running and within 48 hours we rode the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad to Silverton, had a great dinner at Cyprus Cafe and had an all day tour of the high country of the rugged San Juan Mountains above Silverton.  The train ride was spectacular as usual although Silverton was shrouded in smoke from the recent Weber Canyon fire near Mancos.  We were concerned about our four wheel drive tour the next day since visibility was so limited.

Animas River Gorge

Smoky Sunset

The Durango & Silverton Highline

Sunday dawned clear with a bright blue sky and we set off on our Mild to Wild 4WD tour with Shane our driver and guide.   We headed up Cement Creek Canyon North of Silverton.  Then past the old mines of Gladstone, the new Silverton Ski area, California Pass at near 13000 feet, then down California Gulch, the headwaters of the Animas River to the ghost town of Animas Forks and the old mining communities of Minnie Gulch, Eureka and Howardsville.  Our flat land friends did great considering they had traveled from 5 feet above sea level to 13000 in a little over a day.  The high country of Colorado is a experience not to be missed.

4 @ 13000 feet

Four Wheeling Friends

Red Mountain

California Gulch, headwaters of the Animas River

Ann & Di

Animas Forks

Above Treeline

Top of the San Juan Mountains

On a recent journey West from Durango we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere Utah at a place called Hovenweep National Monument.  Hovenweep is a premier example of Ancestral Puebloan architecture.  The structures were built almost 800 years ago and abandoned soon thereafter.  The buildings stand today with no restoration in a harsh environment with high winds and extreme temperatures.

Hovenweep Castle

Square Tower Group

Its amazing to see this village in a small canyon and imagine hundreds of people living in this place

Twin Towers

where no one lives today.  These were skilled architects and builders.  Note the subtle twist in the square tower below.  What were they thinking?

Square Tower

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

We’d been planning this day since early Fall 2011.  We arrived in Durango on schedule and picked up our tickets for the first train of the season from Durango to Silverton on May 5th.  The train runs all year but only halfway to Silverton in the Winter (too much snow).  There is a wye at Cascade so the train can turn around.  The first train is a really big deal as Silverton depends so heavily on the tourist dollars ever since the decline of mining in the region.  Its also a big deal for Durango as it is the largest draw bringing tourists and their lodging and restaurant dollars.

Silverton welcomes the train

For all these reasons the locals turn out for the first train.  The Durango Victorian Aid Society members dress in period costume and tell tales of the historic figures in the early days.  Everyone on the train is encouraged to dress-up in Victorian or Western garb.  There are so many passengers the D&S adds 2 cars for a total of 12 which requires a second locomotive on the steep grades to Silverton.  Double-headed steam is a railfan’s dream!  Perfect weather, a fireman friend on the helper, and a boisterous welcome in Silverton made for a great day.  What a way to start our second year in Durango.

Western Randy

Western Di

Springtime in the San Juans

Durango’s Victorian Aid Society

Double-headed steam locomotives

Welcome to Silverton

Heritage R & D

Our route to Durango took us through a lot of Texas.  Our goal was to arrive in Durango May 3rd, get settled in our site at the KOA, then ride the first train of the season from Durango to Silverton.

One interesting story from the trip came from our visit to Rusk Texas sight of a would-be capital of Texas, New Birmingham.  There is no sign of the once large town named after Birmingham Alabama.  It was a large iron producing town and very wealthy for its time.  Unfortunately a fire destroyed the largest factory just when Texas prohibited foreign ownership of property and the Great Depression of 1893 made capital all but impossible to find domestically.  So very quickly the town disappeared.

An RV highlight of the route was our stay at the Welcome Center in Amarillo Texas.  Texas allows any RV to stay 24 hours at any rest area but Amarillo is the best.  First the staff is very friendly and the volume of information is incredible.  The restrooms are spotless, security is provided all night, parking is level and uncrowded and separate from the tractor trailers idling all night.  There is even a tornado shelter which is important in the Great Plains!

From Amarillo we traveled to Raton New Mexico.  Raton is well known to railfans for its proximity to Raton Pass an early route of the Atchison Topeka and Sante Fe Railroad.  This route followed the old pioneer Sante Fe Trail so folks have been passing this way for a long time.  In Raton we were finally in the mountains.  Not many trains pass through here anymore but Amtrak’s Southwest Chief does stop every day.  While there we visited the Elks Lodge to test our new membership.  Everyone was very friendly and we learned a lot about the current state of affairs in Raton.  The Elks building is classic early 20th century.  We also visited an excellent western store where we learned of the collection of Cowboy hats of those who’ve passed.  Of the hundreds of hats displayed only 6 families have allowed their stories to be shared. Randy bought a hat and Dianne put together a great cowgirl outfit at a consignment store.  More on this in the next post.

Hats of Cowboys Passed

The Elks, Raton NM

ATSF Station, Raton,NM

Now we head into Colorado.  We set our sites on Alamosa and Great Sand Dunes National Park.  From our hosts at the Alamosa KOA we learned of another natural attraction, Zapata Falls.  After a short drive we took our Saturn up a sometimes rough gravel road to a trailhead leading to the falls.  At first we were un-impressed, then we hiked up the stream, around the bend and Wow!  a tumbling stream of multiple cascades pouring over and under ice left from the winter.  Then came the Great Sand Dunes.  The largest dunes in the United States in the middle of Colorado.  Its an amazing natural phenomenon  but the wind was blowing so hard we got sandblasted just approaching the dunes and the river that makes it all happen.

Medano Creek and High Dune -650 feet

Great Sand Dunes, Colorado

Zapata Falls near Alamosa, CO

We can’t explain how we’ve missed Lafayette in all our trips across the South but we knew we wanted to visit this time.  We had heard of the Longfellow-Evangeline State Park in some RV blog or article and we have had an interest in Acadian history so this was a start.

Festival International du Louisiane

On arriving in Louisiana we stopped at the Welcome Center.  Lafayette was having the Festival International du  Louisiane for 5 days starting the day we were to arrive.  We checked into the RV park, ran across the street to the Visitor Center in Scott, LA and found that yes there was a huge festival with over 600 musicians from 16 countries playing for 5 days and it was FREE.  We got directions to the FREE shuttle to the closed off downtown streets and saw music from Louisiana, Canada, Niger, France and more with thousands of friendly people and juried food vendors.  And it was on Thursday!!!  Wow.

The next day we explored Bayou Teche and Acadian Louisiana.  Old small towns, low country, huge live oaks dripping with moss and a slow easy lifestyle.  We had a great history lesson at Longfellow-Evangeline State Park, a preserved Acadian homestead.

a Raised Creole Cottage

Acadian farmstead

In nearby St. Martinville we saw the Evangeline Oak from Longfellow’s epic poem “Evangeline” which told the story of the Acadians expulsion from Nova Scotia and their arrival in Louisiana.   Our park guide led us to perhaps the best all-time Crab Cakes at a tiny place called St. John Restaurant.   Our route then took us through New Iberia where we looked for signs of the author James Lee Burke.  Then on to Avery Island and a tour of the Tabasco Factory.  Still run by the family on the small island, this one facility supplies every Tabasco product world-wide.

The music continued on Friday night with a Cajun jam session at the Scott visitor center.  On the front porch musicians from 8 to 80 got together each week and just played.  Fiddles, guitars, accordians, Dianne was given a triangle to play along.  Lots of instrumentals and vocals all in French.  It   reminded us so much of the Irish sessions we have enjoyed.  Everyone welcome, everyone friendly.

No visit to Cajun Country is complete without experiencing the FOOD.  We happened to be in the heart of Boudin (pronounced bo-dan) country.  As far as we could learn, boudin is a sausage made from rice and pork and various spices.   Some are fried, some are link style, some are fried balls.  They were very tasty but we couldn’t help but think “we shouldn’t be eating this stuff”.  Low fat, no!  High flavor, yes!  We bought some other “specialty meats” including andouille and a marinated Boston butt pork.  Its no secret the Cajun’s can cook.

Next trip across the Southern US, we’ll definitely spend more time in and around Lafayette but we had to get on our way to Durango.

Scott Louisiana Jam Session

Tabasco – Avery Island

St. Martinville’s Best Crab Cakes

Our journey from Saint James City begins with a visit to Jacksonville FL to see daughter Ginger and her family.  Granddaughter Bailey staring in her middle school production of “Annie”.  She WAS Annie.  Singing and acting like a pro.  She and classmates did all the sound, lighting and set changes too.  And we saw grandson Hunter starting out as a BMX racer.  Bailey also showed off her new mermaid tail.     
Ginger’s friend Randy let us park our rig on his property – we thought it was the nicest RV site in town.  Beautiful setting, peaceful and quiet except for the frequent CSX trains passing a grade crossing nearby.  Of course we love to hear trains in the night.

What a great way for Mimi and Grandpa to start the RV adventure for 2012.

Dianne and Randy

FRED – our 35′ Holiday Rambler Motorhome

Welcome to the Kings new WordPress blog.  Thanks to Ron Mayhew – http://ronmayhewphotography.com for helping get us started.  We hope our WordPress blog will be easy to follow and post your comments.  We love feedback and want to hear from you.  Eventually we hope you will be able to click “follow” and receive automatic notice when we post a new blog.

The purpose of our blog is to share our adventures living in our RV while traveling to various places.  Our interests include Photography (there will be many photos), Trains (riding, photographing and chasing), History (we find fascinating stories everywhere we go), Food (we love to eat, grow herbs and veggies, discover new local foods and sources), Music (we are  especially fond of Celtic music), Nature (we love to find and share discoveries of beauty in nature), and of course Family and Friends (expect to see yourselves) .

Our one bedroom rolling apartment has afforded us opportunities to live in Washington, Virginia, Kentucky, Montana and Colorado.  And we’ve been able to visit so many places and meet so many people along the way.  We hope you enjoy our stories and photos and find this a good way to keep in touch.