It turned into a long travel day today. We drove from Estes Park to Antonito, CO. The traffic around Denver was backed up for about 60 miles west of Denver. Stop and go traffic for almost 100 miles of the trip. Makes the trip seem very long.
We dropped off some left over refrigerator stuff and said goodbye to Jim’s brother and his family at 8:00 this morning. We went back to the cabin and finished loading the car and were on our way by 9:00.
We stopped in Leadville for lunch at a local cafe. The food was so so but we had a very good waitress. The restaurant was jam packed full and running understaffed. I left her a big tip as she really did her best to serve us and the things that weren’t good were out of her control.
We went to the Sand Dunes National Park. What a treat that was. We waded in the stream of water that is on the edge of the sand dunes. The sand dunes were amazing to see but the wide creek was worth the trip in itself. We must have waded around for over an hour. The water is only ankle deep and was very warm. Lots of families were there and the children and adults were having a grand time.
We stopped in Alamos for dinner. The food was outstanding and we had another wonderful waitress. It was one of the better managed restaurants I have eaten in. Service was outstanding, food was outstanding, it was clean and I could see lots of teamwork happening.
We drove on into Antonito after dinner. We walked over and checked out the train we will be riding tomorrow after we got checked in. The hotel is old fashioned but clean. It will do for a one night stay.
We have to be at the train station at 9:30 in the morning. We are a two minute walk from it so that won’t be a problem. The hotel advertised it has a breakfast but found out they don’t provide breakfast on the weekends. There is a cafe in town so we will go there in the morning for breakfast.
After the train ride to Chama we will be driven back to Antonito in a bus. We have hotel reservations in Raton for Saturday night and then will drive on to Stillwater Sunday.
The drive after dinner tonight was breathtakingly beautiful. The sun was lowering in the west and there were enough clouds to create beautiful color in the west and beautiful shadows and light on the mountains. I love this part of the country. Wide open spaces yet mountains in the background.
We drove through mid to high 90’s today and low to mid 70’s. We would gain elevation and it would cool off and then drop down into valleys and it would heat up. It was a pretty drive today but the heavy traffic made it a long day.
Grateful for a safe journey through very heavy traffic today, grateful for the fun we had wading in the sand and water, and grateful for excellent waitresses that provide great service.