September 24, 2015

Hi everyone.

A little bit of catch up from yesterday.  We took a short drive to see Chimney Rock.  Over a thousand years ago the land surrounding Chimney Rock was home to the Ancestral Puebloans.
In 2012, the site was named a National Monument, run by the Forest Service.

 We took the guided tour that was done by Sue, who did a great job and also made sure we were made aware of the Cholla Cactus,  for good reason.  Jumping Cholla Cactus 

 Below is a Kia, which was a room built for religious purposes.  This one was 40 feet in diameter.

Today was another rest easy day. The temperature was in the high 70's and it was a sunny day.  Grammie finished the 1000 piece puzzle.  It looked like it was going to be easy, except there were books everywhere making one piece look similar to the many others.

A look out the back window of our week's resting area.

From out the back door, one can see many mountains.

 

Getting closer to sundown, the mountains turn different shades.

Tom got another round of golf in today.  On the 4th tee, the group had a visitor that kinda looked interested in what we were doing, but maybe it was waiting to laugh after Tom hit the ball in the water.

September 20, 2015

After a day of settling in at the Pagosa Springs Resort, we went to a presentation on Wyndham International and had a relaxing 1 1/2hours listening to the spiel and it wasn't pressured.  In the end, sitting around at $40 an hour drinking coffee was good except Grammie has the card...go figure.

Right out the back door is the 7th fairway of one of the 3 nines at the golf course.  This one happens to have a watering system in the fairway...and a unique fertilization system also.

 There is a small mall right next door to the resort, but the town of Pagosa Springs in named after some hot springs that are down in the town.  The Hot Springs have been commercialized which adds to the town's attraction. 

There are several springs that are constantly bubbling.

This view is the commercial part.One can enter for a daily fee ranging from $26 to $53...just for the hot springs.  To see more... Pagosa Hot Springs

Where's Grammie... Drew will know... she is the ________

The Hot Springs Resort.   Pagosa Springs Hotel history.  The building is 100% heated and 100% cooled through ground water systems.  100% of the electricity used is from green resources and 75% of the building materials comes from recycled materials.  Energy is saved by occupance sensors to control temperatures when the occupants are gone.

 More hot springs

Native American Proverb...makes sense.

It wasn't a really sunny day, but still beautiful nevertheless.

Thanks for keeping an eye on Grammie.

Bonus picture... what town are you in if you are looking at this sign?

 

September 20, 2015

 Last night after finishing the blog, Alice mentioned that I didn't include the name of the Cafe. Tom said that he did that intentionally so people could either guess or Google it.  This morning I decided to post the picture of the cafe.  John Wayne

This morning we left Ridgway, but before we left, on the way out of town at Dave's urging, we went to the Dennis Weaver Memorial.  Dave was a good friend of Dennis.

The Bronze Eagle weighs 2800 pounds.

Hitting the road for  the 2nd time we headed up towards the Red Mountain Pass that has sections of it that are being worked on.  In some areas, almost half of the passenger side is being replaced. In most instances, there are no guard rails.

The Red Mountain Pass is just a small portion of what is known s the Million Dollar Highway.  Million Dollar Highway It works through another one of many National Forests that we have been through.

The views were truly awesome.

The object ahead was built to deflect rocks that were falling into the road.

The lake was almost near calm.

At the top of Red Mountain Pass, the altitude is 11,018 feet.

 This is the week for color.

On the way to Pagosa Springs where we will be for a week, we stopped in Durango where there was an Art Walk going.  Grammie couldn't resist seeing if her credit card still works.  We learned that the e-mail address is imbedded in the magnetic strip on the back of the card.

Cold Stone Creamery...always good

We finally got settled in at the Pagosa Springs Resort and already Grammie is working on the 1000 piece puzzle that she brought.

Today was another great day on the road through the mountains....and as always, listening to the best of John Denver, just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before.

September 19, 2015

Hi everyone.
Today was a great travel day.  We left Monticello, UT and  headed to Ridgway CO through the mountains by way of Telluride. 

The first part of the ride was through the San Juan National Forest which included places along the way to do some camping if anyone is interested.  Again, the beauty of the scenery was just great today.  Even though we spent all day above 6500 feet, it was still a shorts kind of day.

Part way through we came upon a camping area with Priest Lake in view.

We stopped in Telluride where the Blues and Brews festival is happening. Blues and Brews Festival The parking right near the gondolas was free and anyone who had bought a pass to the festival enjoyed the beer tasting from about 30 different vendors. Brews vendors We enjoyed the ice cream.

The town of Telluride is on one side of the ski area and Mountain Village is on the other.  The Gondola is free and you can ride up over the mountain to the other side.

 Although the town appear to cater to ski types who are well off, others enjoy the area also.

No one said that you had to be rich to ski.

The scenery from the goldola was amazing.

We finally made it to Ridgway where we met Dave who graduated from Winthrop High, class of 65.  It has been over 51 years since we had seen each other. 
We enjoyed dinner at one of the scenes where a John Wayne movie was filmed and there is now a Cafe with the same name as the movie.  One of the walls is included in the scene.

Hope you enjoyed the scenery.