Sorry I've been lagging on writing the blog and it is a long one!
We arrived in Chama on Monday afternoon in time for dinner with the group that had arrived early. Since then we have been on the go!
On Tuesday the past President and another couple made breakfast mac muffins for all. They were really good and got us off to an early start. We visited the town of Chama and specifically the group met up at the Foster's Hotel. Foster's hotel is the oldest commercial structure in Chama. It was constructed in 1881 to accommodate travelers riding the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad from Denver to Silverton or Santa Fe and is right across the street from the railroad. It was the only commercial building that did not burn down and was saved by the railroad employees. Of course they were saving their rooms, the saloon and the brothel, a little incentive!!!! One of the employees gave us a tour of the upstairs rooms which are not in use nor are even safe! She told us stories of a couple of ghosts that still haunt the hotel!
Then we went and toured the Chama Cemetery for the view and some of the history! The Traveling Supremes take us to all the nice places!
On Wednesday a group of twelve of us visited the museum at Los Alamos. One of our members, Dave and his wife Deanne worked there for a number of years. Los Alamos is best known for building the Atomic Bomb. The museum was interesting.
When in town we stopped at a burrito joint and picked up lunch. We drove up to the Bandera National Forest to the Valle Caldera, over 10,000 feet up. We had our picnic lunch at the ranger station. A storm blew in and we got lots of thunder and lightning but not much rain!
After lunch we drove through the park and visited the Hunting Lodge. It was an interesting building, an octagon shape with bedrooms around the outside and a large living room in the middle!
We drove on through the park and visited one of the vacant homes of the ranch hands. There was a spring for the water supply. It is very remote and most of us decided it wasn't for us! Finally on the way back we came upon two herds of Elk. They were large herds and were far enough from us that they were not worried about us!
It was a long an interesting day and we were all exhausted when we got back to the campground!
On Thursday James and Gail Smith and Ted and I drove out to see the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Train. It was built in 1880 and is a narrow gauge rail (3 feet wide instead of the traditional 4 feet 8 1/2 inches). The train continues to take passengers on scenic rides. We drove up past the first stop at the 10,000 foot Continental Divide and hiked from there through a wooded area out to a point where we could watch the train in the distance! And then we walked back!
In the evening we all car pooled out to the Cliffview Restaurant. We had a delicious dinner and then we fed the deer. Les and Ida bought a 50 lb bag of deer food and gave each of us a baggy full. They are taking the rest home to their horse. It was in the back of their car and in the night a bear came to the car and put his muddy paw prints on the roof and the side windows. Fortunately, he didn't break anything on the car but they decided to put the food inside the motor home for the rest of the trip! It was a lot of fun feeding the deer and one car load in the group actually saw and got a picture of a bear!
On Friday we packed a picnic lunch and a group of us drove down to the town of Abiquiu, New Mexico. We stopped at the Echo Amphitheater to have our picnic. As you can see, it is beautiful red rock and very massive! In the middle picture you can get a little idea of how big just the amphitheater part is!
We left there and visited the Ghost Ranch. It is an Education and Retreat Center. They have rooms to rent and a small campground. It is best known because the artist Georgia O'Keefe who lived there, painted landscapes and flowers of the area. They also discovered
Illuminates Ancient Lineage
Tawa hallae, a new species of small carnivorous dinosaur. It is the oldest North American dinosaur known from almost complete skeletons. This discovery provides new information on the evolution of early dinosaurs and their dispersal across ancient continents.
From there we visited a Benedictine Monastery. We drove 13 miles on a one lane dirt/rock road along side the Rio Chama River. It was beautiful but a very scary drive! There are 24 monks in residence from all over the world. There were only 18 in residence while we were there. We were fortunate to hear them chant a prayer, Friday None. There were two that actually spoke with us. One was a priest and blessed things that some of our group purchased in the gift shop. He also showed us their kitchen and told us how once a week two of them drive out to a store for groceries. They do not speak after 7:00 at night and start their day at 4:30 a.m. We asked about their garden and he told us the ground is terrible for vegetables but they grow hops and have a brewery for making beer. They make Monk's Beer and Monk Wit Beer. They didn't sell it there but one in our group picked some up in town and said it wasn't bad! It was such an interesting experience!
We had to hike to the Monastery from their parking lot.
We were there for quite awhile and when we got ready to go, there was a very black sky behind us. Fortunately we made it the 13 miles to the road and then it started to pour on us with lots of thunder and lightning and wind! We had people coming in on the road who about ran us off the road a couple of times but we made it out without incident!
On Saturday Linda and Polk Brian made french toast and sausage for everyone. Ted and I took off about 11:00 to drive over to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, about 45 miles. It is a cute town and I made a nail appointment for next Tuesday. We looked around town and had lunch at Tequila's alongside the San Juan River. We enjoyed watching the people play in the river. We didn't figure out what colored the rocks but some sort of minerals have discolored it all.
On the way back we saw a bear cub run across the road! They have been seeing more bears because of the drought!
Last night we had a group dinner. We each brought our steaks and then everyone made a dish to share! It was a lot of fun and delicious! After dinner two local musician's came, had dinner and performed for us. James and Gail had seen them perform a couple of times and asked if they wanted to play for us and they did. The woman sang and played guitar and the guy played a mean harmonica! It was a lot of fun.
Today has been a rest day...
"Ain't Life Grand!"
