March 30 – “Searching the cliffs”

Well, we woke up yesterday to … no snow.  Just rain.  Cold rain.  We were still a bit hesitant to go to the national park in that weather, so instead we headed into downtown historic Durango.  They have a railroad museum that is supposed to be worth the look, even if you don't ride the train to Silverton and back.  We had already decided against the train ride, so train museum it was. 

 

Actually, I think we made a really good choice.  The museum was way more than we expected.  For one thing, the building was huge, some kind of railroad warehouse, I think.  It was more of a random history museum, almost like somebody set up an antique shop and decided to change its name and add some exhibits, and the whole thing got away from him, so he gave it to the railroad depot to manage.  I said, “almost like.”  As far as I know, that’s not what happened.  The exhibits were intentional, and there were a lot of them.  We were only there for twenty minutes or so, but we could have stayed much longer.  There was a full-size replica of the Wright brothers’ airplane hanging from the ceiling, just like at the Smithsonian.  Three or four antique cars - fully restored - (way more antique than my truck, by the way) were in there, as was an old fire engine from days gone by.  Two entire walls were lined with display cases.  And inside were tiny little army men.  You know, like the kind you played with when you were a kid.  Except these represented each of the armies of the world from the United States Revolutionary War down to the present.  I mean, detachments from each Civil War general and the World War II German army.  And when they reached World War I, they included model airplanes from each period as well.  Caleb, you would have loved it.  But that was not all.  One room was set up as an old office.  Even had an antique typewriter on a table.  And of course, there were two or three train cars.  You could even walk inside the caboose.  They were next to a massive display as big as my living room of the terrain followed by the train on its usual run.  And there were two of those model trains chugging around the track!  On the other side of the room, the displays included a full-sized stuffed elk and a few bears.  They also had a head on the wall that they were passing off as a moose.  Didn’t fool me.  Everybody knows there is no such thing as a moose. 

 

We made our way through the gift shop where Chris found a thimble for her collection.  I also discovered why trains kind of died out.  A tiny little hedgehog caught my attention.  How?  Well, he was wearing a train engineer’s hat, for one.  He said the reason trains were dying out is because they can’t find any engineer hedgehogs willing to work the hours that he did “back in the day.”  Sounded like a kindred spirit to me, so I invited him to join us.  He said his name was Harvey, but he was such a kidder, I’m not sure that was right. 

 

On the way back to the car, Chris discovered and found her way inside a Christmas store.  Yep.  Just Christmas stuff.  And lo and behold, what should she find in there?  A Christmas ornament!  Actually, it was perfect, because we try to get one from every key place we go to on our vacations.  This one was a metal train with “Durango 2022” on it.  All in all, it was one great way to spend a few rainy hours.

 

But we came up with another.  We decided to drive on up to Mesa Verde National Park.  It was only twenty or thirty miles away, and the weather forecast was looking better.  I took my turn driving, as I usually do when we are running around locally.  As it turned out, there was nothing “local” about this trip.  It involved a tough drive through several mountain passes over wet roads and some rain, but we made it to the park in time to … drive another 45 minutes up further into the mountains to check out the cliff dweller dwellings.  That would be 45 minutes to drive about 15 miles.  Switchbacks and wet roads and – finally – snow.  Oh, and sleet and rain, too.  Sometimes pretty heavy.  But it was very much worth it, especially to see Chris’ face light up when she took pictures.  And anybody who knows Chris knows … she takes lots of pictures.  Lit up the car like a bolt of lightning once she got rolling up there.  The cliff dweller ruins were amazing to behold.  One set of apartments held as many as 125 rooms, all carved into the side of a cliff.  It was the fascinating stuff you usually just see in a dusty old history textbook.

 

On the way out of the park, a Cacomistle jumped into the car with us.  What’s that, you say?  Another name for it is Bassarisk.  Still not helpful?  How about Ring Tail Cat?  Best I can do.  She said her name, but I couldn’t really pronounce it.  Sounded like Cacobassy, or something like that.  She said to just call her RTC for short.  All her friends do.

 

Back in Durango for the night, we went across the street from the hotel to Zia Taqueria, a Mexican food place – on the recommendation of the assistant general manager.  Zach said it was like Chipotle’s, except it was better than Chipotle’s because, well, it wasn’t Chipotle’s.  Interesting.  We’ve never been to Chipotle’s, so we tried it.  Very bland quesadillas.  I had beef.  Chris had chicken.  No grilled veggies within.  No special sauce.  Just meat and grated cheddar cheese.  And no queso to be found in the entire place. We aren’t in Texas any more, Toto.  Back at the hotel we found that they had set up a popcorn machine and a table of cookies for an afternoon/early evening snack.  Great perk for travelers.

 

Last night we watched the Texas Aggies win their NIT semi-final game easily.  They play in the championship on Thursday night.  Well, at 5 p.m.  I have to remember we are now on mountain time. 

 

Psalms 68:5 says, “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.”

 

Father, thank you for your protection up in the mountains through all that snow and sleet.  And thank you for the people with the foresight to preserve the dwellings we saw up there.  Truly amazing.  Amen.