Cowboy Poetry and Music - Day 1

On Thursday, October 3 we left home at 3:30 in the morning and headed out for Durango, CO with Chan and Brenda. Tim and Marcia were already in Colorado and were heading down to Durango to meet up with us. It is about a 14 hour trip from our place to Durango so...

In Bailey, CO we stopped for some brunch. 

We all felt safe with our security guard along.

This was my view for 14 hours...a dirty windshield and someone driving. Unless I was reading but it was a bit hard to read on the winding curves of the last 6 hours. It wasn't really too bad just long!

The scenery was amazing and the colors are all changing. Plus it was a beautiful day and from the sounds of the weather further north we were very fortunate! Bobbi and Travis were supposed to go to Montana to see family but there was a massive blizzard in Wyoming and northern Colorado that prevented that. I felt so bad for them.

As we were coming down the pass toward Pagosa Springs this truck started to pour out smoke and very nasty smells and finally he pulled into a turn off. We were a bit concerned there would be a burning truck in front of us. 

Beautiful

and we counted on this for getting us where we needed to go. Thank goodness for GPS.

We arrived at about 6 p.m. Durango time. As we were walking up to the Strater Hotel we had to pass the windows of the restaurant they have on their first level, I am pulling my suitcase and glance at the windows and see a lady waving madly at me. I sort of smile and nod in acknowledgement and she smiles really big and just keeps waving at me. We go in and for the life of me I can't figure out who she was or why she would have been so excited to see me. Still have no idea. You thought this was going to be some big reunion story, didn't you? Nope just welcome to my mysterious life. We got checked in, and went to our rooms. Look this hotel up. It is done in period antiques and is so beautiful. It has been here since the 1800's and has the distinction of having had my dad as a bellhop and elevator operator. Maybe that is why the lady waved at me, she knows I'm the daughter of a famous bellhop... It is rather fun to be where you have some history even if you weren't around when it was happening.

Pictures of hotel rooms never do them justice. But take my word for it the room is cool. Not big, but just right for what we needed.

We cleaned up and met in the lobby. Tim and Marcia had arrived and we all went to supper at a pizza place called "Fired Up" it was delicious. 

When I got back to the hotel room this warning was on my phone 5 times! I guess they meant it since the storm made national news. It went just behind our place. So far the girls haven't reported anything out of place at our house so we were very fortunate. Others near Hickman were not. 

And so we came to the end of a very long travel day.