25. Apr, 2016

25. Apr, 2016

25. Apr, 2016

FRIDAY 16-5-08 

This morning was a nice bright, sunny start to the day. I threw my clothes on and walked to the railway track so that I could video the train coming through. There are in fact two trains a day, 45 minutes apart. The first I videoed and the second I photographed using my SLR camera. This is such a nice location. It’s a great shame that the campground doesn’t have an approved station or halt for the railway; if it had we would be spared the hassle of getting ourselves in to town on the 07:00 shuttle bus for 07:45. Leaving Durango at 08:15 the train passes within 150yds of our RV at about 08:35. 

The bathroom block here is very good the showers are nice and clean and there’s plenty of powerful hot water. 

Once we were organised we walked about 250 yards to the Transit Trolley stop and caught a ride in to town. The total single fares for us both was just 75 cents, about 40p, and it’s probably about a 5 mile journey. Once in town we had a look along Main Street which is the historic district. It’s a pretty place and clearly geared to tourists. Just off Main Street is Durango railway station and so we popped in to pick up the tickets for our train trip to Silverton on Monday. While we were there we had a look around the station and its museum which was interesting. 

We managed to locate a store where we could buy a kettle and a liqueur store where we could buy a box of wine. As we were on foot we intended to return and buy them at the end of our visit before catching the trolley bus back to the campground. We had lunch at the Shanghai Pearl Chinese restaurant. I enjoyed my meal but Rosina wasn’t too sure about hers, still for a bill of $20 including drinks it filled a gap. 

We then went for a walk alongside the fast flowing Animas River on which they have white-water rafting. Higher up the river the rapids are grade 4 & 5 out of 6 which is pretty hairy stuff, but down here at only 6,500ft the grades are 1-3. We quite fancy having a go at it, especially around here as it looks pretty safe. That way if we enjoyed it we could look to do a more challenging trip at a later date. Tomorrow will be the only day we could try it here, as apparently there is no trolley bus service on a Sunday, forcing us to stay local to the campground, and on Monday we are on the Durango to Silverton railway trip. If we don’t manage it, then not to worry, I’m sure there will be other opportunities. 

We’d decided to have a barbecue this evening as the weather is improving, but we needed to buy fresh meat as the meat we intended to use was still in the RV’s freezer. We had a lucky find in a shop called ‘City Market’. There on a shelf was Weetabix – The Chef's favourite breakfast cereal. We hadn’t seen any since we left Texas and she was about to run out. Inside the 'City Market' store was really nice with some good quality items included some crusty bread, though Bisto gravy granules still elude us. We know they sell them over here as we’ve seen them for sale in a Publix supermarket in Florida on an earlier holiday over here.

We bought a few bits and pieces, then popped in to Kroegers hardware shop for the kettle and the liquor store for some wine, after which we made our way to the trolley bus stop. Thankfully there were bench seats to sit on whilst we waited as the sun felt quite hot. On arriving back at the RV I looked to have caught the sun on my face, especially my poor old nose, I must look like an alcoholic. 

This evening I did some hand washing before we had our barbecue. I got a bit behind schedule as a fellow RV’er came past and had a lengthy chat. These American folk always seem to get around to politics and they all seem to hate George W Bush and can’t wait to get rid of him and get out of Iraq. 

LOCATION TONIGHT: United Campground, 1322 Animas View Drive, Durango, CO 81301

25. Apr, 2016

25. Apr, 2016