Strater Hotel Vaudeville Show

Wednesday July 29, 2012

Lazy morning, feels good. Up at 8 a.m. Ready to leave at 11 a.m. Feeling OK. Took Tylenol for aches and pains.

We go sightseeing and about 4 p.m. we change and head out for Durango where we have dinner at Randy's, a very nice restaurant. Then we meet our friends at the Strater Hotel, where we see a melodrama and vaudeville show. It's great. Alot of talented young people.

We get back to our condo about 12:30 a.m.

The Strater Hotel is located in a historic Victorian building and is celebrating its 125th birthday this year. The vaudeville theater has been performing for 50 years. Sounds like great fun!

Durango-Silvergon Narrow Gauge Railroad

Tuesday July 28, 1992

Up at 5:30 a.m. to leave at 6:30 for Durango. We arrive at 7:40 and board the Silverton Narrow Gauge train for a 3-1/2 hour ride to Silverton, Colorado, an old mining town. Our square dance friends are on the train with us. It's a long and beautiful ride through the mountains and canyons along a beautiful raging river "Animus."

When we arrive we split up in couples. Frank and I have a nice lunch and wander around town buying a few items. We return to Durango via a bus. We go by Purgatory where we skied about 12 years ago. Back in Durango we wander the town and have a great Mexican dinner, then return to our condo in Pagosa Springs. I am very tired physically. My feet really ache. I guess the arthritis has spread to my feet.

This is the ski trail map for Purgatory Ski Resort in Colorado. Mom and Frank enjoyed many years of skiing together at various resorts all over the country. In 1986 I even went with them to ski in Innsbruck, Austria. Those last few years of her life, even before she got cancer, she had to give it up because of arthritis in her knees. My husband and I had to give it up last year as well. He also has knee problems. Mom and I learned to ski together in a dry-land skiing class in 1974. That's where she met Frank. I liked him right away and encouraged her to date him. She had been single for two years by then. I was 21 and she was 40.

I'm not sure what kind of pain Mom is having here in her feet. She is probably at her heaviest at this time, so it is possible she had plantar faciitis in her arches. When I was 40 pounds heavier, I had that.

Fairfield Pagosa Springs

Sunday July 26, 1992

Up at 5:30 for a 7 a.m. breakfast with our friends. At 8 a.m. we board a tour bus. We have a great tour guide "Cynthia". We tour the Indian ruins of Mesa Verde. There are many many ruins. There is a hike down to enter some old ruins. I decide it would be too much for me coming back up, so I stay in the lookout. I have an excellent view. We visit the museum.

By 3:00 we have had lunch and are on our way. We arrive in Durango about 5 p.m. We follow our friends to their dude ranch. It looks interesting. We then go on to our Fairfield condo in Pagosa Springs. It's really lovely, like new in Southwestern style. Large living room, dining room, large bedroom and a jacuzzi room. We have a nice dinner at the lodge after orientation.

I have alot of funny heartbeats on the drive today.

Oh my gosh, so far they are visiting the same places Ric and I toured in June 2011. Not only that, but they are staying in the same resort, formerly known as Fairfield Pagosa Springs, now known as Wyndham Pagosa Springs, pictured above. The condo she is describing is exactly like the one where we stayed, right down to the separate room with huge jacuzzi tub.

I didn't realize until now that the friends they met in Laughlin are driving with them to Colorado. It's probably a group of friends from their square dancing club who rented a tour bus and guide to see Mesa Verde. Almost all the trails to the ruins are down a steep path from the plateau to the cliff dwellings in the natural caves. Too bad Mom wasn't feeling up to the hike.