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This morning we stocked up on groceries at Wal Mart. After returning our stock to the coach we headed downtown Pagosa Springs. We wanted to eat at our old favorite Tequila’s Mexican Restaurant for lunch. The weather is wonderful so we ate on the Patio overlooking the San Juan river and the Hot Springs. We plan on visiting the springs later in the week. After Tequila’s we walked Maverick along the river and then strolled through all of the downtown shops.

After leaving downtown we looked around at houses for sale just for fun. We play with the idea of retiring some day to Pagosa but we aren’t serious at all. Still, its fun to see if our pretend budget would get us a place we would be satisfied with.

Today we decided to drive through Wolf Creek Pass to Southfork and on to Creede. We took our time walking through the shops in downtown Creede . It is a really beautiful day and the temperature is nice and cool. After walking downtown we decided to drive the Bachelor Loop. We have driven the Bachelor Loop twice before. The first time we rented a Jeep and took our boys. On the advice of the rental place we took the 4×4 extension shown at the top of the map above. The first half was nice but the second half of the 4×4 trail was agonizing crawl down a river-bed. It cured our entire family of ever wanting to hardcore 4×4 ever again.

The second time was two years ago. This time it was just Donna and I and Donna was driving our own Jeep. This time we accidentally took the 502 spur that had a hardcore 4×4 trail at its end. We went ahead and followed 502 until it rejoined the main loop. While pretty, the 502 spur isn’t as interesting as the main loop and the hard 4×4 isn’t our favorite. If I had been driving she might have killed me for taking the detour.

Third time was the charm. This time we ONLY drove the main loop and it was much more fun. The main loop is an easy drive with many old mines to see. The first half follows a very interesting gorge with a beautiful stream next to the road. All three times the route returns to Creede on a beautiful drive high above the town. We really enjoyed it.

After returning to Creede we stopped at Big Dougs BBQ food trailer. The BBQ was really good.

After lunch it was time to head home. About half way from Creede to Southfork however we come to a complete stop. It turns out we were behind a Sheep drive that was taking at least 200 head of Sheep down the highway. Cowboys on horses and sheep dogs were driving them on. It took aobut 30 minutes for the sheep drive to reach the point where they left the road. You don’t see that every day.

We really enjoyed the hummingbirds around the park yesterday so today we went by Tractor Supply and bought a hummingbird feeder so we could enjoy them even more. We bummed around town and ate at “The Buck Stops Here”. We thought it was a BBQ place but really was a combo meat market and restaurant/bar. Donna got a pulled pork sandwich which was the only BBQ on the menu. I got the buffalo hamburger. The food was really good. Donna’s was better and was so big I had it for dinner later.

After lunch we drove to Treasure Falls. These falls are right off of the highway on the way to Wolf Creek Ski area and we have been there many times. We really love it and Maverick loves the short, but steep hike.

After the falls we came back to the coach. Donna did laundry while I did work.

This morning we got up, checked out of the resort, and parked the coach in Chama on a large gravel parking lot. While we are eventually headed to Pagosa Springs, first we were headed back towards Santa Fe to Abiquiu NM. Our destination is the Purple Adobe Lavender Farm. Donna has wanted to visit this farm for years, seeing it as we drove to Pagosa on past trips. We finally got a chance to visit. We really enjoyed the farm where Donna was able to cut her own fresh Lavender, and enjoy Lavender Tea, Lavender Scones, and Lavender Gelato. The visit was really fun.

After the farm we headed back to Chama. We arrived at lunch and chose the Elk Horn Cafe. Donna and I shared the Country Fried Steak and it was excellent.

Our hunger sated, we hooked up the car and drove the one-hour trek to Wolf Creek Run Class A RV Resort. This resort is a luxury resort, wonderfully landscaped, and only accepts Class A Motorhomes. This is luxury living and our coach is the ugly step child here. Most coaches in this small resort probably worth more than $300,000. Of course, the price reflects this upscale locale and double the cost of other nearby resorts.

Today we decided to drive the Cumbres Pass through the mountains. This is the same route that the train takes from Chama to Anonito CO. The drive is super scenic. Sorry we didn’t take more pictures. Donna browsed around the train station gift store in Antonito before heading back. Its about this time we figured out just how long the train ride would have been. You see, the train departs Chama at 10 AM and arrives at the summit of the pass (1/2 way) at about 1pm. There a bus meets the train and returns visitors to Chama. The train then returns to Chama with those who purchased a round trip ticket. The train arrives back at Chama at around 4:30 pm. The train from Antonito follows essentially the same schedule. So by driving we saw both routes, and arrived comfortably back at the Chama for lunch at around 12:30. I think we got the better of the deal.

Once back in Chama we ate at the Boxcar Cafe and this time didn’t have to wait too long. I just got a burger and Donna got the local specialty of a Frito Pie. The food was quite good. We spent the rest of the day just chill’in by the river at the coach.

We got up this morning to 48 degree temperatures, super nice. We even had to run the furnace last night. Today was our first day to explore Chama. It took us 5 minutes. Ok, just kidding. Chama has a cute but very small downtown and a handful of restaurants. The main attraction is the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad with steam engines. Its a lot like the Durango-Silverton railroad. We headed downtown from our RV park and stopped first at the railroad depot. We watched the train depart at 10am. Pretty cool. At a little past 11 we packed the rig for the 2 mile trek to our new RV park. The Rio Chama RV Resort was my first choice but didn’t have a place for us last night, but we were able to reserve the next two nights. We parked the coach on a gravel lot in town so we wouldn’t arrive before check-in. We were going to eat lunch at the highest rated Boxcar Cafe but we got there at just past 1200 and the wait looked too long. We ended up eating at the Chama Grill which is just fast-food with burgers and the like.

After lunch we headed to our new RV park. The park is very scenic with very large trees. We were guided to our riverfront site. This site is super nice. It is a “pull-in” site that puts our large windshield about 20 feet from the rivers edge. The weather was beautiful and after setup we sat underneath our awning and simply enjoyed the sites and sounds of the river. I enjoyed watching many hummingbirds flit around and at one point a beautiful doe deer slowly walked across the river. Very cool. About 5pm, the train returned from its round trip and we could watch it cross the old tressel bridge from our living room. After dinner we watched a movie and enjoyed a nice 65 degree walk with Maverick around the park.

Travel day to Chama, NM

Today was travel day to Chama NM. This is a longer trip than we prefer but it wasn’t too bad. We stopped in Santa Rosa NM for Diesel and Donna drove to Santa Fe. We ate lunch at the Upper Crust pizza place on the outskirts of town and it was a convenient stop but just fair food. It had location in its favor. I drove the rest of the way to Chama. The coach engine got pretty hot on the long uphill through the mountains but never overheated. I didn’t recall seeing it get that hot before so I need to monitor for a while to make sure its OK. Our first night in Chama is at Lil Creel. This is a nice wooded park and we have a back in spot backing up to the Rio Chama. Really nice. The weather is much cooler here and this evening, walking Maverick I would even say “chilly”. Boy, that’s nice after 100+ deg weather at home and so far on this trip. Tomorrow we will check out the town of Chama. We have always turned at Chama on the way to Pagosa but have never actually seen the town. It has a variety of restaurants and a steam train similar to the Durango-Silverton train. Donna checked today and its about $200 per person round trip so we won’t take the train ride. Instead we will just check it out at the depot. The river here is beautiful and lots of kids were playing in the water earlier. Maverick cooled his paws in the river earlier but that was all. We’ve kept him out of the ponds/lakes around McKinney this summer for a variety of reasons and I think we’ve conditioned him to avoid the water. He will probably recover pretty quick. Tonight we watched a movie in the coach. Tomorrow and the next day will be about exploring this area.

Today was a chill day in Amarillo. We started by going to the Amarillo Space and Air Museum. The museum was pretty minimal but has much bigger aspirations. The cool things at the museum included the Gulfstream 200 Space Shuttle landing trainer. We were able to crawl throughout the aircraft and visit the cockpit. Very cool and significant airplane. There was a very nice DC-3 which is wasted on me since I have spent so much time in DC-3’s for work.

After the museum we stopped by the Big Texan Steakhouse for Donna to visit the gift shop. This restaurant is the home of the “free” 72 ounce steak. After the gift shop we ate at Texas Roadhouse for lunch. After lunch Donna shopped Wal Mart while Maverick and I walked and got gas in the car. We returned to the coach where Donna checked out the store located in the RV park and I actually did work. Yes, I am working occasionally while on the road. I had good connectivity and was reasonably productive. I haven’t decided how many hours I will try to put in but not too many.

After my work and some chill time all three of us walked around Gander Outdoors. Apparently Camping World purchased the old Gander Mountain. Gander Outdoors seems to be a mix of Camping World and Gander mountain.

Travel day to Amarillo TX.

The trip to Amarillo was pretty easy except for the GPS routing us by the RV park. We discovered the GPS stupidity after only 2 miles of the GPS 10 mile shortcut. The RV park is pretty nice. Our spot in the park was awesome. We are on the end away from I-40 and next to the exit. Also next to a nice fenced grassy area for Maverick. We are here for two nights. Our new A/C’s are working pretty good in 100 deg temperatures. We ate a late lunch at Rosa’s cafe and it was pretty good food. Afterwards we went to the free RV museum.

The RV museum was really good. All of the displays were open for you to explore which is unusual and nice. The museum contained a really nice collection of vintage trailers and motorhomes. It made us thankful for ours.

First day on the road. It feels great to be travelling again. We departed McKinney this morning about 8:30, topped off on diesel, and headed out. In keeping with our desire to keep daily travel down to small legs, we headed for Quanah TX, about ½ way to Amarillo. Research said there should be some decent restaurants and a backup state park in case the RV park wasn’t great. We ate lunch in Wichita Falls at the Love’s Subway. Even at Love’s, parking was a challenge but lunch was fine. We arrived Quanah about 2:30pm. The Ole Cotton Gin RV Park is nice enough with 50A electric so we can run both A/C’s. We have reservations in Pagosa Springs CO starting the 20^th and departing the 30^th. Our plan was to stay overnight in Amarillo, and stay a few days in Santa Fe, NM before arriving in Pagosa. After setting up the coach I spent the next 3 hours trying unsuccessfully to get reservations in Santa Fe and instead secured 2 days in Amarillo, 3 nights in Chama NM. It turns out Santa Fe has a Indian Market Festival going on and end of summer tourists and there was nothing within 100 miles available for the weekend we needed. Even Chama was nearly sold out. Donna pointed out that if Santa Fe was booked solid, we had better secure a place over Labor Day weekend now. After a little digging I booked the 30^th through September 3^rd in Durango CO. Durango wasn’t easy either. Finally we have a place to stay from now through the Labor Day holiday weekend.

After I finally wrapped up reservations it was dinner time. We checked out all of the Trip Advisor restaurants and everything we thought was available appeared to either be open only on the weekend or shut down entirely. As a matter of fact, the entire town seems to have fallen on hard times. It seemed like nearly all of the local businesses had gone out of business. Quanah has a neat old downtown square that appeared mostly unoccupied. We ended up eating dinner at Sonic. After dinner we headed to check out Copper Breaks Texas State Park. This park was our backup spot for the night and would have been pretty nice. The park had lots of open, spacious RV spots with electric and water. While there we explored a 0.7 mile loop trail that was nice but hot with lots of fairly steep vertical climbing and descending. The trail was fairly scenic with interesting rock formations. We were glad to make it back to the air conditioned car. We finally made it back to the coach about 0830pm.

A word about Quanah. Like many towns in this part of Texas and nearby Oklahoma, Quanah is named after Commanche Indians. In this case, Quanah-Parker. Quanah-Parker was the Commanche Chief during the transition from free roaming Commanches to being consigned to a reservation. I highly recommend the book Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History. It is a fascinating, but gory, history of the Commanches.

Overall a nice start to our new adventure. Tomorrow, we head to Amarillo and the Fort Amarillo RV Ranch for a few nights.