Life on the road. You could say without fear of contradiction that the picture above is what this trip is all about. It’s the land we bought many years ago and have now gifted to the children. So this adventure is about the four of us making our way to this spot. We’re revisiting it, but this is the first time for probably about 15 years and our daughter and son-in-law for the first time ever.
So you might say there’s quite a lot riding on this visit. Will we still be as well-disposed towards this piece of terra firma that has been in the family for so many years? And more importantly, since the gifting, how will the children feel about it? Will they be keen to take the cabin-building project into the future?
Anyways let me report on this bit. The good news is that they loved the land and I think they will be predisposed to take the cabin-building on to the next level, quite literally given the steepness of the slope. We even discussed how they might move things forward even though technically it is now none of our damn business.
Just as an aside, although a nice one, let me reference the place we went to Weimuche Bar and Grill on Lake Vallecito, after the visit to the land. As pleasant, friendly, good food and drink and hospitable serving staff, as our first restaurant visit in Durango was poor, but I’ll come back to that. Once again I’m out of sequence. It’s life on the road that’s disorienting.
So with that bit out of the way, at least for the present, let me bring you up to speed on the rest of the trip. I believe I left you in Santa Fe, in the previous blog, a town we’ve visited before because my friend in Albuquerque and his wife were big fans of a visit when we stayed with them. But I confess I didn’t really recognise the place. The perils of a long absence. But we did what we could, a couple of meals one on the balcony and one not.
The thing I noticed about Santa Fe was that there was an awful lot of grey hair, very white, very rich and, as an inevitable consequence I suppose, very up itself. The first place was fine but the second I mean, get over yourself, you’re a bloody restaurant not a Harvard or Yale. We want a meal not an honorary degree. Oh and Santa Fe was also irritatingly difficult to find your way to the centre if you hadn’t been here in a while and somebody else was driving the last time you were.
Anyway back to our hotel which was nice enough but nothing compared to the hotel where the children were staying – The Inn of the Turquoise Bear – where famous people stayed. That was exceptional but then, to be fair, as was the price. So the children in the posh hotel and the old folk in a cheaper option down the road a piece.
I’m a bit out of sequence with the trip details, so I’ve already mentioned the Albuquerque bit. We took the train there and then back again next day to this same Santa Fe. But we did not stay this time just took off on the four hour road trip back to Durango.
There was a time when the wide-open, desert spaces used to thrill me in that classic American road trip kind of way. Now, not so much, but hey, we did it and got to Durango about 5 o’clock for a well-earned beer in the good old Diamond Belle. We should have stayed there and had a light bite but I made an executive and very wrong decision to go out for a proper dinner in a proper restaurant at a beyond proper arm and a leg and another arm restaurant.
It had been, many years ago, one of our ‘go to’ restaurants, good steak and reasonable prices. Today, neither. The steak was OK, no more than that, the prices were, as they say, eye-watering, The steak itself was $60 odd and then you had to buy side dishes and potatoes and don’t get me started on the price of the wine, well $90 if you insist on knowing. And very, very up itself as personified by irritatingly young and smart-arsed serving wenches. And the really annoying thing? It was all my idea / insistence, after a very long drive. Of course it led to arguments. Live and learn, live and learn.
After this mistake we enjoyed, sensible and pleasant eating and drinking in Durango with a heads up for an excellent little wine-bar called the 4Leaves. We bought three bottles of very drinkable for the astounding bar price, by American standards, of $21 a bottle. Trust me when I say this was a veritable bargain.
The famous Durango – Silverton steam, train trip next day, not so much. We’d done it before but the children hadn’t so, not unreasonably, wanted to do it for the first time. So here’s another example of experiences we used to love but didn’t quite stand up to a repeat performance. Oh, and the cost had more than doubled in price since the last time. But if I’d thought about it I would have realised that this was always likely to be the case. What was great though was the old mining town of Silverton at the end of the journey. True, a little more developed, but not a lot. Not quite a tumbleweed experience but close and just stuck out there at 9,000’ plus in the Rockies, miles from anywhere. We all loved it. Does that make us all perverse? Maybe.
Life on the road summary
I posted my last travel blog only Saturday or Sunday, and that with a struggle, and yet here I am posting the follow-up only a couple of days later. And the reason is that we’ve been in one place for 5 or 6 days. True the Air BnB wifi (which was generally excellent) didn’t work which didn’t help but now we’re in hotel so, fingers crossed, it will take to the airwaves with ease.