Summer Vacation 2000
Fort Sumner, NM - Durango, CO - Silverton, CO
This year, we went to Fort Sumner, NM to visit with Brenda's aunt and uncle. We went on to Colorado after that and visited several different places there. A day-by-day itinerary follows:
- Friday, July 14
We left around 1:30pm and stopped in Lubbock to shop a little while. After that, we went on to Fort Sumner, NM.
- Saturday, July 15
We visited Brenda's Aunt and Uncle in Fort Sumner and learned a new domino game. Andrea played with her cousins. We took the kids swimming. We also went to the Billy The Kid Monument and Grave and the Fort Sumner State Monument. We got a 'personal tour' by Brenda's new cousin, Paul Fishell (Debbie's husband). Stan, Brie and Bell were also there.
- Sunday, July 16
We ate Breakfast with Brenda's aunt Jeanie and uncle Eddie and Stan and his family. We left about 11:00am, to go on to Durango, CO. At about 1:30pm we ate lunch at the Stuckey's restaurant in Santa Rosa, NM. It was fair. We drove past Chimney Rock on the way to Durango. We ate supper in Pagosa Springs, CO at the Malt Shoppe at 7:45pm. We ate outside on the porch. We had very good hamburgers and shared a huge ice cream cone. We tried to get one of those stamped pennies but the machine was broken. All of the shops were closed by the time we finished eating. We arrived in Durango at about 9:30pm and stayed at the Rodeway Inn until Tuesday.
- Monday, July 17
This morning we went to Mesa Verde National Park. We viewed the Indian Cliff Dwellings "Spruce Tree House" which is Mesa Verde's 3rd largest Cliff Dwelling. We then took a 3-mile hike to see the Indian Petroglyphs. There was lots of tromping and climbing over and around things. It was fun until Andrea tripped about 2/3 of the way through and lost her confidence for the steep parts. We ate a snack lunch and then drove around Mesa's Top Loop road and viewed the scenery and indian lodging sites. We stopped at the Mud Creek Hogan gift shoppe in Mancos on the way back to Durango. We ate supper at Lori's Family Restaurant and then went back to the hotel to swim and turn in for the night.
- Tuesday, July 18: Andrea's Birthday!
We took the 7:30 train ride on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. We've planned on doing this for years when we got the chance. It was a 3 1/2 hour trip to Silverton. We rode in one of the open gondola cars. There was a lot of soot and cinders, but you could probably see better than from inside the closed cars. There was a lot to look at. We ate lunch at the High Noon Hamburger Restaurant in Silverton. We also did a little shopping. At 1:15pm we took the train back to Durango. Andrea slept about 3/4 of the way back. We went to the hotel and played in the pool before supper. We let Andrea choose where we were going to eat supper since it was her birthday, and she wanted to stay in the room, eat snack food and watch a Gilligan's Island marathon. After that we went to Wal-Mart.
- Wednesday, July 19
Today we drove to Silverton and shopped then ate lunch at the Chattanooga Cafe. Later in the afternoon we shared a funnel cake. We drove out to the Old Hundred Gold Mine, took the tour and then panned for gold and silver for about an hour. We spent all afternoon there. It was an informative, interesting and literally cool tour. We paid $1.799 for gas there!. Ugh. We left and drove all the way to Salida and spent the night. We stopped and ate at the McDonalds in Gunnison, CO. We then drove through "Black Canyon" on the way to Salida. It was really "black" since we drove through it from about 9:00 - 10:00pm. We stayed at a Super 8 in Salida, CO.
- Thursday, July 20
We slept in this morning. We ate breakfast at the Country Bounty Restaurant and Gift Shoppe. We also shopped. We drove to the Royal Gorge and entered at the South Rim. We walked across the bridge. We rode the inclined railway down to the bottom. It is the worlds steepest inclined railway. We looked around at the bottom and watched some rafters going down the river. We also rode the aerial tram across the gorge. We also rode the Royal Gorge Silver Rock Railway. Andrea rode the carousel. We ate junk food for lunch - snow cones, ice cream, funnel cakes, etc. We walked back across to our expedition and drove back across to the North side and left from there. We tried to visit the Wildlife Pavilion, but it didn't open until the next day. We drove to Cañon City and stayed the night at the Comfort Inn. We ate at Wendy's then swam for a while. We planned on driving up to Pike's Peak, but Andrea experienced 2 nose bleeds so decided not to.
- Friday, July 21
We woke Andrea up in time to eat and swim, but she had another nose bleed, so did not get to swim. We cleaned up, had breakfast and left around 11:00am Texas time. We stopped at the Colorado City, CO rest area and took a picture at about 12:30 or so. We ate lunch at Burger King in Trinidad, CO at 1:30 and supper at Grandy's in Tulia.
- WHEW!! That's it!
- Lubbock, Texas
- Fort Sumner, New Mexico
- Billy The Kid Museum
- Fort Sumner State Monument
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- Durango, CO
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- Stuckey's
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- Santa Rosa, NM
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- Chimney Rock
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- Pagosa Springs, CO
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- Durango Roadway Inn
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- Mesa Verde National Park
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- Spruce Tree House
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- Indian Petroglyphs
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- Mud Creek Hogan Gift Shop
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- Mancos, CO
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- Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad
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- Wal-Mart
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- Old Hundred Gold Mine
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- McDonalds
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- Gunnison, CO
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- Black Canyon
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- Salida Super 8
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- Salida, CO
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- Country Bounty Restaurant and Gift Shoppe
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- Royal Gorge Bridge
- The Royal Gorge is very impressive, both from the top and from the bottom. They have a lot of different things to do.
- Canyon City, CO
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- Canyon City Comfort Inn
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- Wendy's Restaurant
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- Colorado City, CO
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- Burger King
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- Trinidad, CO
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- Grandy's Restaurant
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- Tulia, TX
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Comments to: Tony Claxton
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