Riding the rails

People of a certain degree of maturity (old) remember the chug of a steam locomotive and the wail of the whistle. There are a few places in this country where you can still experience steam rail. One of the very best is the Durango – Silverton railroad.

As the name implies this line runs from Durango to Silverton. Trains leave in the morning, run to Silverton where you have time for lunch and maybe some shopping then back to Durango. The line follows the Animus River which is a whole lot of river.

Denver brags about being “Mile High”. Silverton is at 9300’ so nearly twice as high. Like the railroad which serves it Silverton is a bit like stepping back in time. The biggest change in the past 50 years is the wares sold in the shops.

Tom & Carol

Day–2 Price to Durango

As we left Price a low hanging cloud deck was trying to obscure the nearby mountains

As we drove past Moab we started passing cliffs of red sandstone. So typical of central and southern Utah.

We wanted to stop at Mesa Verde National Park. Our GPS tried to take us on a short cut which would have bypassed the park but fortunately we try to keep tabs on how the GPS is routing us so we adjusted and got to the park as planned.

Mesa Verde contains several old Anasazi cliff dwellings.

Tom & Carol

Day –2 Price, UT

mWe’ve been on the road 2 days. Yesterday we drove from home to Mountain Home, ID. That is a comfortable drive and there is a motel in Mountain Home where we usually stop so it’s all comfortable for us.

Tonight we’re in Price, UT. Price is about 3 miles off Rt 6 which takes off to the Southeast just south of Provo, UT and picks up I-70 near River, UT. It is a great cutoff from Southbound I-15 to Eastbound I-70 so is marvelous road with moderate traffic even on a holiday. Gorgeous country as it goes through the rockies.

For those of us accustomed to the hustle and bustle of suburbia being in a small town where they roll up the sidewalks on holidays is something of a culture shock.

Price is not all that large and is relatively new so not much in the way of historic buildings but there were some with character.

Tom & Carol from Price, UT.

Our last day in Phoenix

we visited Old Town Scottsdale.

As in most old town areas there are shops galore. We went into a woman’s wear resale shop

Where many of the dresses had designer labels and all of the price tags were 3 digit numbers.

We also visited a Museum that discussed the history of Scottsdale including a couple of dioramas.

When we left old town Scottsdale we visited a museum of old warplanes. Their prize is a late B-17.

They don’t have a lot of planes but they are all in beautiful shape including this late WWI German fighter.

Today we’re on our way home. We will arrive home Saturday afternoon.

Tom

Art

Yesterday we viewed an astonishing collection of contemporary Western Art. This was assembled by Eddie Basha of the Basha foods company in Phoenix and is exhibited at their corporate headquarters. There are over 3000 pieces in the collection which includes paintings, sculpture, Indian art of many types and cowboy art. As photography is allowed I came away with some images. These few images hopefully will give a sense of the breadth of the collection.

No violence here. The indians and cowboys largely aren’t shooting at each other but going about their day to day lives.

Hopi and Navaho Kasina dolls.

Hopi and Navaho Kasina dolls

Tom

Dolls

Carol and I collect dolls. Carol has a large and varied collection. I have a few Asian Ball Jointed dolls that feature in some of my photography. While visiting here, we went to the doll and toy museum.

Antique Dolls

The Toy and Doll Museum has this early Sasha in their collection. We couldn’t tell if it’s a Trendon or a Goetz Carol has several Sashas so we always like to see if there is one in a museum we visit.

This is a kitchen in one of the dollhouses in the museum.

Finally here is one of my boys I brought along as a travel doll. Here he is out by the pool.

Tom

Cave Creek

is a Western themed collection of shops a bit North of Phoenix/Scottsdale. This sign alerted us that it was time to stop.

and another sign to tell us just where “here” is.

It’s an interesting shopping district with several old buildings and other vendors under canvas. They offered everything from cheesy cowboy hats

to high end art.

Carol looked at some Navaho jewelry but we didn’t find anything we needed badly enough to purchase.

We ate at a restaurant there and were on our way home at sunset.

Tom