2001
They'll give anyone a ticket on this train. Chamaman has become
a part of our family reunions. When he isn't at the reunion , he
can be found herding sheeping near Chama NM.
We departed from Durango at the station early in the morning.
We got onto our asigned car and line up for a departing picture.
The scenery was postcard pretty.
It looks like a toy train from a electric train set, but it really is the way it looked that day. This was taken from our car as the train went over the tressel.
Uncle Ken said he had always wanted a daughter. He got his chance to see what it would be like to have a third child. Melanie and Ken seemed to hit it off together during the train trip. As you can see Melanie felt safe and comfortable in her Great Uncle's arms.
Dad enjoyed looking at the engine. Trains , tractors they're all the same to a farmer. He looks at the train like he looks at an old combine in Branson. The country was beautiful and the day was a perfect day to take the train. You can almost smell the pines and the suet from the train.
Haven't we seen that hat before? Yes....Aunt Tomi had the same
visor on at the first reunion on the train. I made here flip
the bill up again and take a fun picture. She was a good sport and
a model.
Just like the train speeding along, so does one generation to the
next. When they are apart you don't notice the similarities, but
when they are together you notice many similarities.
picture one-- Future chamaman in waiting. picture two- The lone accident we had during the reunion wasn't Melanie. It was David waiting for the restroom. All that shaking and bumps were too much for David's bladder.
After a long morning on the train everybody was hungry
in Silverton. The bad thing about a long table is it is hard to get
a good picture of everybody and that includes the guy on the right holding
Melanie.
Raising a little girl and going on vacation are two expensive hobbies. Benita and I decided to get Melanie started early in earning her keep. Here she is panning for gems in Silverton. She found lots of neat gems including a topaz the size of a golf ball.
A fitting end to a fun day on the train. We took a bus back to Durango from Silverton. The bus driver was a very entertaining man giving us a comical history of the area.. It would have been better had not someone been snoring so loud we could barely hear the driver.