Long haul travel blog 2. Phew and double phew. You might tell from the fact that this blog is already a day late and could be more if we don’t get our internet connection here at the Air BnB sorted out, that we have been having what might be mildly called a hectic time.
As you know we spent a couple of days in Denver. In a nice hotel and once Michael (hotel staff) had helped me buy an adapter, two actually because I wasn’t sure which was the right one (turns out they both were), I was good to go with the first blog but it’s taken until Saturday morning here in Durango until I’ve got round to writing the second one.
But I’m getting ahead of myself and mucho water has passed under mucho bridges to get us here. Denver was fine, if anything too hot which is ironic because looking at The Weather Channel yesterday it is now 29 degrees C with snow forecast. Albuquerque where we have just been was 90 something and they’re not that far apart.
Interesting place America in a number of ways, the weather being one. The price of things being another, although maybe interesting is not quite the word, probably gob-smacking would be more accurate although that’s two words of course. Long gone are the days of America land of the bargain. The exchange rate doesn’t help at all but as they say it is what it is.
I have bought one cheap shirt – $9 from a discount store in Albuquerque. We went there because my friend who we went to visit insisted on taking me back to the places we used to love back in the day. I hadn’t the heart to tell him, a) I wasn’t bothered about more clothes no matter how cheap they (even if the cashier kept prompting Mrs Summerhouse to ‘say something because I love your accent, not so much of that this trip but still there if you hit the right places, b) because the heat, altitude and my general health meant I was too knackered to do anything. But out we went in his very old, very rattly car.
Our health compared well to the state of the car. He is 82 and if anything more decrepit that I am which of course, as he’s nearly ten years older than me, is fair enough. He said I gave him great comfort with my wobbliness. Hmm, not ideal from my point of view but if it cheers an old chum up then discomfort well spent.
I’ve got, or gotten as Americans would say, ahead of myself again. How did we get to Albuquerque (see above) you ask? Oh you don’t but I’ll tell you anyway. Briefly, we flew from Denver to Durango in a smallish plane. The geographically minded among you will know that means flying over some fairly high Rocky Mountain tops. You know when the pilot says it’s going to be bumpy so the seat belt signs will be on for the whole trip (about an hour and a quarter) and so if you want to go the bathroom, now’s the time before we take off, but then a few minutes later says, actually we’re going to be here a while because the airport has been closed owing to high winds.
Hmm. I’m not one of nature’s born flyers so this was disappointing. And you know what he did not lie. Anyway we got there and then the hard part, picking up our hire car and driving from the airport to our hotel while trying to remember to keep on the right hand aside of the road. In my younger days I never used to find the transition difficult but that was at least twelve years ago, so now a bit more challenging. Mrs Summerhouse’s fine words, prior to the trip that she would share the driving, evaporated into the desert heat.
Anyway we got to our hotel, an old favourite, The Strater, to find that the emphasis in this description, on old, had somewhat segued into a trifle shabby. Not helped by the fact that post (or mostly post) pandemic they couldn’t get the staff. Anyway our room was disappointing and for the first time I began to entertain the uneasy notion that Durango may have changed in the last 15 years and not necessarily for the better. Fortunately the attached bar, The Diamond Belle saloon remain largely unchanged. It still had an annoying pianist although not the same one. She was pretty ancient back then, this guy continued the tradition of unwanted inclusion and jokes. But hey the feel of the place was much the same. So stop complaining.
At 6.20 the next morning we set off to drive in our rental car on the right-hand side of the road all the way to Santa Fe, stopping off for a classic breakfast in Charma, a town despite its name of little what might normally be thought of as having charm, but classic as a small desert town. We liked it and you didn’t need a mortgage to eat breakfast.
We made it to Santa Fe driving past spectacular Georgia o’ Keefe country (look her up if you don’t know her, she’s an artist). DH Lawrence born near where I was born back in the UK, used to live here also, and as we later found out, lots of other famous people – Ansel Adams (photographer) and Stravinsky (musician) and so on.
We drove to Santa Fe to meet up with daughter and son-in-law as a way of meeting up with them – obviously – and breaking up the somewhat reluctant journey to meet with our old friend in Albuquerque (as above). But as I’ve pretty much reached my word limit our continuing adventures in Santa Fe, and onto to Durango and our experiences on our land, will have to wait to the next episode which will hopefully be posted with less difficulty to this one.
Long Haul travel blog 2 summary
So travel a good idea? Maybe that’s all I’m saying for now.