Colorado/New Mexico Vacation - 2015

Day 4 - Monday, September 28th

Unlike the past few days of sleeping in, that's not the case today. I had a train to catch!

After cleaning up, packing and loading the car, and grabbing a bit of breakfast at the hotel, I was off to ride the Royal Gorge Train, which by namesake rolls through the Royal Gorge Canyon along the Arkansas River out of Canon City, Colorado. It only goes about 12 miles, then reverses and heads back. It takes two hours for the entire journey.

I always ride in the open-air car so I can take good pictures and enjoy the view. Other passengers sit the entire journey in their coach seat, while others pay a lot more and ride in the full length dome dining cars and have a full gourmet meal served to them at their table, all freshly prepared onboard in each car's own kitchen. The frustrating part of that is while in the open-air car, we can smell the delicious food being cooked from the car in front of us!

The weather was beautiful with temps in the low 70's and blue skies, and it's always windy in the gorge. We encountered a number of white water rafters plying their skills along the way, and some decided to "moon" the train. Everyone got a kick out of it.

After we got back to the depot, I immediately headed out of town and began driving to Taos, New Mexico, which is about 300 miles and almost 5 hours away. I was winding through the mountains cutting through tight canyons on winding roads and stopped in Salida, CO to grab a burger at Sonic. The girl at the drive-thru speaker was absolutely clueless of what she was supposed to do. She would take an order at the speaker, the car would move up, they would pay and drive off, and THEN she would take the next car's order. There's room for four cars to stack up, but nooooo....one at a time. She's an idiot.

In this town, I also ran across one of the many marijuana retail stores along my route. Looks like any other business...big sign out front, everyone welcome, come on in, etc. With me working in law enforcement, it's just really strange to see that.

After my mountain driving, I eventually ended up in a huge open plain of very flat land as I headed south. There was a mountain range to my left (the one I just went through), and another to my right. The air was so clear and the ground so flat, I could see mountains 100 miles away in front of me. Really amazing. This is the third time I've driven this route, and I love it every time.

I passed through Alamosa and Antonito, Colorado, and soon crossed the border into New Mexico. 45 minutes later I pull into Taos and look for my hotel, another Super 8. Driving through Taos is interesting. It's very "artsy" and cool and hip. Lots of craft stores, art galleries, pottery stores, and of course the beautiful mountains in which this city lies at the base of. I checked into the hotel and immediately notice the hallways to the rooms are painted red on one side, yellow on the other, with a weird color of orange and brown carpet. I affectionately call the look "Early Mexican Brothel". Thankfully, the rooms are normal with white walls and decent decor.

I had dinner at a restaurant about a mile from the hotel called El Taoseno, as recommended by a friend. Although it sounds like a Mexican restaurant, and they indeed did have Mexican food, they also had chicken fried steak, burgers, chicken sandwiches, etc. I had the hamburger steak with onions and gravy, corn, mashed potatoes, and a side salad. Very delicious, and inexpensive. My kinda place! I'm meeting a new friend I met on Facebook at the same place tomorrow morning for breakfast, then we're going for a hike and doing some looking around. My new friend is from Houston, and he and his wife retired to Taos, and has the same outlook on politics as I do, so the conversation should be fun. We've never met in person, but I look forward to doing so, and meeting his dog Buddy of which he posts daily updates as to Buddy's daily hikes and romps in the river.

If I'm lucky, I'll become a FOB.....Friend of Buddy.