Our one plan was to get back to Dallas as soon as possible today so we could turn in the rental car and then relax. It took a while, but we didn’t hit any more large traffic jams along the way. We got the rental car returned with no issues. At least I’m home now. I feel bad for Mom who still has to drive back to San Antonio tomorrow. It was another great vacation!
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By the time I woke up, Mom already had the car loaded and was ready to go. She was ready to get on the road since we had agreed to leave early. So I quickly got dressed and packed so we could hit the road. We had a long drive ahead of us. We decided to head straight south through and go through Albuquerque on the way home this time. There are 2 national monuments around Albuquerque. The first one we stopped at was Aztec Ruins National Monument. When we got there, we went inside so I could get a stamp for my book. The rangers told us about the self-guided tour through the ruins. As we got to each stop, we stopped to listen about the history of the place. The ruins were built and occupied over 900 years ago by the Ancestral Pueblo. It is the largest Ancestral Pueblo community in the Animas River Valley. We got to see buildings such as the “great kiva”, which is a large circular ceremonial chamber.
Our next stop was Petroglyph National Monument. The place the map took us was just a building. Due to covid, they weren’t allowing people inside, but I was able to get a map and my stamp outside. According to the park ranger, there were no actual petroglyphs located where the building was, but there were several walking trails in the area where you could see them. They also had a video playing outside about the sites. We stayed for a little while to watch the video. The video talked about the history of the petroglyphs. They were carved long ago and the meanings of the symbols have changed over time and have been lost to history. They went through some of the current meanings, but I don’t remember what they were.
That was the last stop we made to tour things. We got on Highway 40, and then it was a straight shot to Amarillo. In one spot we hit a ton of traffic and crawled along for over an hour. It led to us not getting as far down the road as we wanted to before we stopped for the night, but we knew we would have to stop at some point. While we were in traffic I scouted ahead and found a Hilton for us to stay the night.
When we got to Silverton, we decided to break for lunch. We went to a little restaurant and had Philly Cheesesteaks, which were very good. It was the first time Mom got one. Though she had some difficulty because her meat kept falling out without the cheese to hold it in. After lunch we went to the Old Hundred Gold Mine for a tour. We arrived just in time to catch the tour. They were loading up to leave when we got there. It was also lucky that Mom had cash because their credit card machine wasn’t working. They gave us rain ponchos and helmets and then we joined the rest of the group in the mining carts.
After we were back outside, I showed Mom how to pan for gold. Basically, you have 2 bowls with ridges and you pour the mud back and forth until all you have left is the gold flakes. Gold is naturally heavier than dirt, so it settles to the bottom. After we finished at the mine we decided to go back to the condo to get packed so we can leave early tomorrow. Since I enjoyed the view on the way to Silverton, I offered to drive so Mom could also see it all. She created videos to send to her siblings and panned the camera down to capture the steep drops. But then she had to stop because she felt like she was going over the cliff when she watched the videos. As long as she didn’t look down, she was fine. When we got back to town we went back to the condo to get ready for our long drive tomorrow.
One of the reasons I wanted to go to Durango was to visit Mesa Verde National Park. I have a National Park book, and I’m trying to go to all of them. It was about a 45 minute drive to the park from where we were staying, but the views were beautiful. When we got there, we went to the welcome center so I could get my stamp. There were a lot of people waiting in line to go in. They were only allowing a set amount of people to be inside at a time because of covid. After waiting in line for a while, one of the rangers told me a separate table was set up with the stamp, so I went over there and then we went back to the car to go to our hiking spot.
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June 2022
AuthorThese are details from my adventures around the world. |