It’s traveling time!!

We weren’t able to get tickets for the 2023 Albuquerque Balloon Fest for Todd, Nancy, and us, so we found this bus trip.  (I really enjoy train travel and I thought Ken would too.) It turned out to be a good trip with a lot of great memories.

**Day 1 – Travel to Denver. Jillian drove us up to Todd and Nancy’s. (It was great to have her here to do chores for us. Makes the trip more enjoyable.) Allied sent a car to pick us up and take us to the bus at 84th and Cornhusker Highway. From there we headed to Denver with a stop in North Platte for lunch. We walked across the street to Runza and on the way back Nancy thought she’d ride Dino the dinosaur at the Sinclair station.  After all, he had a saddle on him.

The trip was off to a good start!!

Verla, our tour director, gave us some games to play as we traveled along for the next seven days. One was the license plate game and another was I Spy, which was a list of things to look for along the way.  That evening we got to our hotel in Denver and had supper in a banquet room there. One of the things to look for on the I Spy game was three guys sitting with one girl. Down from the door to the banquet room, was the hotel lounge with three guys sitting at the bar.  While we were waiting in line Ken talked Nancy into going to sit with the three guys. She introduced herself and told them what we were trying to do.  They were up for it, so Nancy sat with them and we were able to check that off our list. 

**Day 2-Amtrak through the Rockies. In the morning we were bused from our hotel to Union Station in Denver.  I’ve been there before with Jillian and I really like the ambience. It has a 1940’s feel about it when train travel was more the norm. It’s beautiful inside with a lot of the old decor.

Us in Union Station waiting for our Amtrak train that will take us through the Rockies.

Amtrak to Grand Junction.

We had a “rest” stop along the Amtrak ride. Nancy and I decided to walk down the road to check out a colorful fence made of snow skiis. Very pretty but we before we knew it the train was ready to leave. We both had to literally run back to the train to catch it before it was ready to pull out. 🙂

Grand Junction depot

Our second night was spent in Grand Junction, CO.

**Day 3 Million Dollar Highway/Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. The bus ride from Grand Junction to Silverton on the Million Dollar Highway was beautiful. One of the towns I remember most was Ouray. A town nestled in the valley with mountains all around. As the bus climbed up the hill heading out of Ouray, it was beautiful to look back on the town. The aspen trees were so gold they almost looked as if they were glowing and the town looked very quaint below.

     

Silverton is a neat old town and we were there in time for lunch. After lunch we walked around the town checking out the gift shops and other tourist attractions.

On the way to Silverton, Betty, one of the ladies on the tour with us got altitude sickness riding on the bus. Verla asked Todd if he would take over for her on the Durango Silverton train since she needed to stay with Betty. Todd did a great job.

All aboard!!

Todd checking with Verla.

More beautiful scenery.

We spent the third night in Durango.

**Day 4 Red Canyon Jeep Tour, Canon City and Mansion tour

The Jeep Tour rides were a lot of fun. The off road was pretty bumpy.

Betty, Jon, Todd and Nancy  

We stopped along the ridge to check out the scenery.

One of my favorite pictures.

Heading back into Canon City and our pizza meal downtown.

The second day in Canon City we got to tour the Gibson Mansion. It was beautiful and we wish we could have spent more time there. The pictures on on the next post.