We woke up in our tree-covered campsite. The inside of the tent was entirely bug-free, but the outside of the tent was crawling with bugs. It was a creepy sensation to see all the little shadows moving across the tent. Packing up went quickly. We've got it down to a science now. I think the only thing that encourages David about going home is that he won't have to roll up our beds and house every morning. As we were leaving, the parking lot was filling with people coming to fish. It's exciting to finally have caught one!
We rode west on Hwy 50 to south 550. The sky was clear and you could see the huge mountains we were heading to in the distance. The "million dollar highway" turned out to be a lot of fun. At first we were following trucks going about 20 miles an hour so David just pulled off at a lookout point. There turned out to be a huge waterfall going underneath the highway. We got back on to some pretty clear road. When we did hit the traffic, David made some incredible (and safe) passes and we had lots of uninhibited twists and turns. The highway cuts right through the mountain and has great views, lots of switchbacks, and big drop-offs. We made a quick stop in Silverton to check out the town.
When we got into Durango, we headed straight for the Durango to Silverton Narrow Gauge Train ticket office. A phone call a week ago told us they were sold out and our only hope was to get a standby number a day ahead. They recommended getting there at 10am, but it was already 1pm when we arrived. We walked up to the ticket counter and ended up getting standby #1 for the 9:45 train tomorrow!
For lunch, the woman at the ticket counter had recommended Gazpacho, a Mexican restaurant around the corner. We haven't had much luck with Mexican food, but we both love it so we decided to give it one more try. This time the food was excellent! From there David found a bike shop to change the oil in the bike and I took a nap out on the lawn.
Then, it was the search for a campsite. There weren't any public campgrounds nearby, but there were a few private ones from which to chose. We had seen a couple on the way into town and they were just parking lots. At the other end of town there was another campground we went to see, but it was awful. The tent sites were on top of each other, there was no place for a fire (our favorite evening activity), and it was expensive. We decided to aid in our early start and for doing laundry, we would find a motel in town. It turned out to be a great choice. We checked in and David drove around to our room while I stayed to buy a postcard. By the time I walked to our room, David was sharing a beer and talking with the five motorcyclists hanging out on the porch. We did laundry and tried to swim but couldn't because of the lightning storm. Just another fabulous day :-)!
janet.
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