Colorado/New Mexico Vacation - 2015

Day 9 - Saturday, October 3rd

This was departure day for everyone to head home, and most of the gang met early for breakfast. I declined and slept-in for a bit. I'm not really a morning and/or breakfast person anyway. I had plans for lunch in another city along the way and wanted to save room.

I got all cleaned up, packed, and loaded the car, then began saying goodbye to everyone. We had a great time together, made some new friends, and we all look forward to our next Chama adventure. I'm not actually sure I'll go next year though. This is the first time I've done this annual trek two years in a row, so I might skip a year so as to keep it fresh.

Driving north out of Chama I passed that day's double-header steam train. That means there are two engines on the front, which they do on weekends when there are larger crowds and more passenger cars. The small steam engines can only pull so much up a mountain, so longer trains means more steam engines. They have actually run triple-headers before, and that would be so cool so see!

Over the mountain passes I go, the highest being 10,300 feet, and make my way into Antonito, CO. I stopped and took some pictures, then proceeded north to Alamosa, CO, which is where I had my planned lunch. Three years ago I was there and discovered this excellent Italian restaurant called the Rialto, which was actually the name of the old movie theatre it is housed in. Although the piped-in old Italian music was cheesy and unnecessary, the food was excellent. I enjoyed a pasta dish with shrimp, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms, all in a delightful cream sauce. Yummy!

I headed east on Highway 160 from there through the open plains to later arrive in Walsenburg, CO and the entrance to I-25 north towards Denver. I passed through Pueblo, Colorado Springs, and eventually into Denver. It all took about 6 hours with lunch, photo and potty stops. I'm staying at my friend's apartment while they are out of town. I started some laundry and took what was supposed to be a brief nap. I woke up two hours later! I guess I was more tired than I thought. It was dark outside, and I was ready for dinner. Luckily, the place I've been wanting to go to is only about 6 miles from the apartment, and that's Helga's German Restaurant, which is where we tried to go last weekend, but Octoberfest was in full swing and I wasn't going to wait two hours. Surprisingly, being a Saturday evening, I had no wait and sat right down. I ordered the Rouladen, which is a rolled-up beef dish, along with spätzle and red cabbage.

Back to the apartment I go to fold laundry and get ready to fly back to Houston tomorrow from DIA. With that being said, this will be my final entry for this trip as tomorrow is just a travel day. If anything unusual happens that is newsworthy, I might make a brief entry, but don't count on it. I look forward to getting home as I have missed everyone a lot.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments about my daily posts. I enjoy doing this not only because of the necessity of it (my very bad memory), but to hopefully give you something different to read and enjoy as well.

So far, no more trips planned for the rest of the year, but that could change. Lawrence and I and the dog may just take a long weekend and go somewhere. That means more stories to write!

See ya next time.....