Grand American Tour

Saturday 10/7 Weather is still not too good and the train to Silverton does not go because of mod slide. So we decided to go to Mesa Verde. Even so it rained here and there and was even very foggy when we claimed up to Mesa Verde, we were compensated with a breath taking view when we arrived on the top of the mountain. Believe it or not but we ran out of gas and couldn’t go to the ruins. But we more than enjoyed the views from up here. The clouds did an awesome play and we shot probably 100 pictures. In the evening we checked in the local Days Inn – it is scheduled to be demolished in 2 days. Next to the motel is a great very local – very nice upscale restaurant called Sweeny – highly recommended.

It is indeed a bid strange. We shot about 1,500 photos so far but one had a strange white shadow. Neither the picture before nor the picture thereafter had any abnormal behavior. We joked: “It looks like a ghost”. After we looked up the Internet, we found out that a German called Tiedeman is known to be a Ghost in the area. So we thought we put it up here for those who believe in ghosts.

Friday 10/6 We planned to take the old train to Silverton today, but it rains cats and dogs. Since Ashville, 2 weeks ago we had no rain. But now we are hit again by a thunderstorm. We decided to stay here for a few days and simply wait until it’s over. We hang out in Durango, and do some maintenance work: write the blog, update maps, hair dresser and other things. One of the things we did was reviewing the pictures we shot. Only one had a strange shadow, like a ghost, it was a picture from Sandusky, OH. After we researched the Internet, indeed a ghost is known in Sandusky, trying to contact Germans… hmmm…. Oh well, unfortunately we don’t believe in ghosts but added the picture to the blog. J We try to get some accommodation for Saturday and then plan to stay here until Thursday when the bad weather is expected to be over. Even so it is not planned but it is actually a welcome stop. We are so overwhelmed with exciting, beautiful and interesting impressions from that tour so far that we ...

Thursday 10/5 Checking the weather forecast and talking with our daughter in California where it is very cold, the next thunderstorm is obviously hitting us any soon. We take I-25 towards Albuquerque. Based on the info’s we had is Albuquerque just an ordinary industry type city and we plan to skip it and go straight to Durango. But as so often, people fly in and out of places without having the chance to uncover some of the beauties. As we are so close to town we decided to make the detour and drove downtown. Old Town Albuquerque is definitely worth visiting. Similar to Santa Fe the old town has a lot of little pueblo type buildings, one of the oldest mission in the country and a very nice plaza. While Santa Fe feels very much like an esoteric Mecca, Albuquerque is just a very cute old town surrounded by a very modern city at the Rio Grande. We liked Albuquerque a lot. We go onto Hwy 550 and drive up to Durango. As we leave Albuquerque the scenery changes quite a bid. The rolling hills...

Wednesday 10/4 We go shopping and leave Carlsbad, another nice village for retirement. We do a picnic at a little lake 5 miles off the highway. The little village is mainly a super modern school building and a few shabby homes. It is interesting to recognize this over and over across the country: No matter how little and poor a community is, the school buildings are just beautiful. Back on the highway we drive towards “Ufo town” Roswell. We enter Roswell from south and pass by a huge air force airport. No wonder that there is a possibility that some test equipment crashed in the field. We skip the wearied down UFO Museum and continue the road towards Santa Fe. It is getting dark and we arrive in Santa Fe after sun set. Also here the town is very busy and the only room we could get was a Best Western a little outside town – everything else was booked. We realize that for cities like that reservation is recommended. We walk through old town Santa Fe which is very nice. Old pueblo style b...

Tuesday 10/3 We get up early and continue I-10 to Fort Stockton, where we take hwy 285 to Carlsbad. While on the road we tried several hotels but Carlsbad seamed to be completely sold out. Our only chance was to get to the Caverns in the afternoon and stay may be in Artesia or so. Luckily we won 1 hour as we got to Mountain time and arrived at the Caverns around 2PM. When drove to the visitor center and entrance of the caverns we were surprised by the breathtaking view from that plateau to the south where it looked like we can view Texas from here. As a lazy elderly couple we didn’t want to walk down to the caverns, so we took the elevator. Wow – 380 ft. down into mother earth in 60 seconds. We exited the elevator and walked a few yards on a self guided tour. After a minute or so we entered the inner part of the caverns. It is hard to explain what we felt. It most be like Armstrong when he left the sphere and stood on the moon. Every explanation is worthless – this experience you have ...

Monday 10/2 We leave San Antonio in northerly direction on I-10 towards Carlsbad New Mexico. After a few miles we toured around some very nice new communities and checked homes and pricing. Like Houston a very attractive retirement area. Homes are about 25% of what we pay in California. We hit the road again and make a detour to Fredericksburg. This is a very cute little German village with German food and a funny German-English dialect. Of course we try a real German lunch. It is amazing how a humans taste can change. The Braten was good but we are just not in German food any more. We drive through the old town of Fredericksburg with its many little shops and restaurants and drive back onto I-10. To our big surprise Texas continues to be so green. For what ever reason we expected a desert scene but there is so much forest and green meadows. Since the sun set and we are tired we stead over in a Best Western in Ozona, a little village on I-10. To our big surprise the motels where almost...

Sunday 10/1 After breakfast at the river walk and a river tour I decided to take some time and update the blog while Marita does a tour through town and some shopping. For us San Antonio is the most westerly European City. We are really up for a good Texan steak. We hesitated a bid when somebody recommended a German steakhouse – “Little Rhein Steakhouse”. But it was the best Fillet on this trip so far. We walked off some calories at the river walk again which we enjoyed so much.