Driving to Durango

Sunday, August 22, 2021
Durango, Colorado, United States
Finally!  We left Albuquerque for three nights away from home.  We booked this trip in June thinking this would be a good time to be away.  Durango, Silverton, and Taos should be cooler than Albuquerque giving us a break from the heat.  When we booked the trip, COVID-19 was abating in most places and businesses were starting to open up again.  In the last few weeks, the Delta variant has grown rapidly making this not quite the perfect time to be out and about.  However, we decided that the risk is still low and we are fully vaccinated so we have proceeded with our trip.
This morning, we left home about 11:00.  There are not very many places to stop on the route we took, so we made a rest stop in Cuba and a gasoline stop in Bloomfield before getting to Durango about 3 p.m.  The highway was four lanes wide for most of the way which was a nice surprise.  It has been a long time since we have driven this direction.  We were able to check into the Doubletree right away.  The room is on the city view side, but it is one of the few that have a sitting area in the room.   For this trip, I want to have someplace to sit besides on the bed while Philip is at the desk teaching.  He got a little bit of grading out of the way before we headed out to dinner.  Driving in, we saw Seriously Texas BBQ on the highway and decided then to go back for an early dinner.  It was okay, but not the greatest.  The meat was tender and well-cooked, but the sauce was watery and weak.  
A little before 7:00, we drove to the meeting point in front of the old high school for our evening tour with Ghost Walk Durango.  It turned out that we were the only people on the tour tonight.  We had a chance to ask all the questions we wanted as we walked around.  Joe Nelson, the owner of the company, was our guide for the night.  He did a great job of describing the history of the town and its oldest neighborhoods.  We saw homes, churches, hotels, businesses, clubs, and schools that host residents who don’t yet realize that they are dead.  
At the end of the tour as we were walking back to our car, I noticed a few animals scurrying around one corner.  They did not look quite like cats or dogs, so I asked Joe about them.  He explained that they are raccoons that live in the sewer and come up at night to forage.  There were at least seven of them in the gaze.  (A groups of raccoons is called a gaze.  Who knew?)
We are back at the hotel for the night getting ready for our train ride tomorrow.  I have had to finish my steps in the room tonight.  I am so close to going a full year without missing a day of 10,000 steps that I do not want to give up now.  

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