A hike around the land, and then home

After a nice breakfast fixed by Gail, we went for a hike around their 35 acres. From above you can see their house, in the shape of a Y.

After lunch, we bid farewell, and headed home. The drive home was smooth, no problem, three hours.

All in all, a nice trip.

Drive to Glenwood

We left the lake around 10 AM, and drove to Silverton. The town had lots of tourists, brought by the train. We had a nice lunch at Romeros mexican restaurant.

We continued north over the Million Dollar highway. A very beautiful drive, especially since the ground cover is starting to change color. Some of the peaks had a dusting of snow. Always impressive to see the shelf road with huge dropoffs. We passed the monument to the snow plow drivers that have died there.

After a gas stop in Montrose, we headed up to Delta, and then east through Paonia. We stopped and bought some apples from a fruit stand. On the way up to McClure pass, we passed several working mines. On the other side of McClure pass, we started to hit rain, including very heavy rain and hail. Charlie told us that the bridge that we planned to use was closed, so he directed us on country roads to his place. A pretty and rural road, going past a huge ranch.

We arrived at Charlie's and Gail's place around 5. It was good to see them. Their house is amazing, very modern and very large. Gail fixed us a nice dinner.

A quiet Sunday in Durango

After breakfast, we headed down to Durango. Eileen needed to get to church early to practice with the musicians, Marianne had breakfast with the old grade school gang. Richard went off and ran errands.

We all met at St. Columba's, where Marianne and Eileen went to grade school. Eileen was playing the violin for mass.

After mass we stopped by the Wholistic, Metaphysical, and Ecological Expo, at the Durango fairgrounds. The booths were a strange array of crystals, chiropractic, people offering to take a photo of your aura, tarot cards, psychic readings, you name it. One man was playing the didgeridoo right next to someone's head, as a "brain massage". They were selling bumper stickers saying "I'm pagan and I vote". Karen seemed like one of the few normal people there. She said that the psychics were doing a land office business, with the economic uncertainties.

We headed back to the lake. Richard worked on the trim around the door, and then we had dinner.

Reunion Picnic

Saturday morning, Richard got up early and headed down to to the lake. He managed to get the start the motor on the boat, and headed out on the lake. Nice to be out on the lake, I was on the first boat on the lake that day.


After breakfast, we headed into Durango for the reunion picnic at the Rotary Park behind the VFW, alongside the Animas River. Harris S. played his guitar and sang old country songs, nice to hear. CJ's delivered great barbecue, and people sat around in the shade and chatted about old times. Don S., although not in this class, drove up from NM.

Joanne N. invited a bunch of the old grade school gang to her house for more conversation. We sat on the front porch of her nicely remodeled house, and chatted some more.

After that, we went up to the cabin, and then had a nice dinner with Karen M., who was in Durango for a healing expo.

High School Reunion

In the morning, Beanie came over to chat. Like us, he is in town for the reunion.

Most of the day, we hung out at the cabin, with Richard doing various chores and repairs, including working on a door and splitting some wood.

We all got dressed up to go to Marianne's high school reunion.

There were about 50 people at the reunion, not bad for a class of 150. They were able to find all but a handful of the 150. About 33 people have died. Marianne enjoyed seeing people that she has known since grade school at St. Columba's.

Perhaps the most amusing part of the reunion was when they sang the old school fight song. On the more serious side of the reunion, we remembered the deceased and ill class members, as well as those who lost their lives on 9/11, exactly 8 years ago. One of the people at the reunion said that their son had been working at the Pentagon that day, and some of his co-workers lost their lives in the attack. A reminder of an important part of our national history.

Off to Durango

We left Boulder Thursday morning to head for Durango Colorado for Marianne's High School reunion. Richard had a class wednesday night, got home late, and ended up cleaning up some of the painting mess Thursday morning. Richard has two painting projects going on, one was the deck, finished Wednesday afternoon, and the other his Mobius, which he is struggling with a bit.

We stopped in Fairplay at the Brown Burro Cafe for brunch, and then headed south to Del Norte, over Wolf Creek Pass, and into Pagosa Springs. Richard went to a blacksmith shop in Pagosa to buy a tool that he saw on Craigslist. Marianne was not too enthused about having a heavy tool in the trunk of her car, nor was she too enthused about a half hour stop for a tour of the shop, but it is done.



The drive from Pagosa to Durango went well, light rain on and off. We stopped in Durango at the "Bread" bakery to buy a loaf of bread, and then headed up the hill.

Eileen was happy to see us, and cooked us a good dinner. Richard hauled some wood for her new fireplace.