Silverton narrow gauge railroad.We took the 9:45 a.m. train for a 3.5 hour ride up the mountain through the San Juan National Forest following the Animas River as it winds its way down the mountain from points north of
Silverton. We were in coach 40 and received a warm welcome from Mark the brakeman and Stella the concessionaire. Steve the conductor punched our tickets and we watched the scenery roll by outside our open windows.We purchased a refillable souvenir mug at the train station and by the time the trip up the mountain was done, we had paid for it several times over. The snack coach was two cars up the train so I’m not sure if the boys were that thirsty, or if they just wanted to walk to the snack car several times.
We all took turns taking pictures out the windows. Otherwise, it was a noisy but relaxing ride as the train rocked back and forth on the track through some of the most photographed and filmed scenery in the United States.
We got off the train at the old mining town of Silverton now turned tourist trap and decided to eat at the Shady Lady Saloon and Café. The “family” restaurant was a converted brothel and bragged that it was the last brothel standing on the famous Blair street. The brothel’s reign
ended in the 1940s when the last madam left, complaining that too many local gals were “giving it away for free” following World War II.Since its close as a brothel, it would appear that the Shady Lady has lost a bit of its hospitality. We were bustled in and out like cattle, fed an OK lunch, and received very few smiles until we left. I guess they wanted to get us up and out quick so that we would spend more time – and money – in little Silverton.
After lunch, we headed down the street to Professor Shutterbug's to get an old time photograph taken of the family. Here, we were treated very well. After looking through the displays at the front, the boys decided that they wanted us to be “an outlaw family.” Professor Shutterbug himself took us on as his personal charges and got all of us dressed up in hats, chaps, shirts, ve
sts and bandanas looking like we were in town for a raid of some kind. Ross and I got pistols to wear and we all got rifles to hold while Mr. Shutterbug took our picture. The boys decided that we shouldn’t smile. They were in seventh heaven. We got the pictures matted with Wanted Poster mats and headed out.While we were walking back to the train station, Sam sidled up to me. “Mom,” he said. “I’ve made a decision. Instead of sports stuff in my room, I think that I want outlaw stuff.” The town had made a big impression.
Our tickets had us taking the 3:30 bus back down the mountain. This cut one hour off the trip and we felt beforehand that this was about the most the boys could stand on a passive activity like this one. We were happy about this decision. All the way back, the bus driver did an impressive continuous monologue weaving together stories, local folklore and factual information.Ross wasn’t sure about the wisdom of some of the driver’s topic choices after listening to some of his stories at one point in the drive. We were driving through one rather scary stretch of road in this bouncy, weavey, humungous bus when he decided to tell all of us about the one thousand ways people have died on the roads up in this part of the mountain. I made the mistake of saying that this guy was one quarter information and three quarters B.S. in front of the boys. This prompted a philosophical family discussion about words, word choices and whether or not it is cussing if you abbreviate a phrase to its first letters. My sincerest apologies to anyone who suffers the consequences of this family discussion in the future.
When we finally landed back in Durango, we were ready to get back to our beautiful cottage. After a quick stop at Walmart to refill our food supplies and get a present for our soon-to-be 8-year-old, we returned to rural Mancos.
As it happened, we planned our vacation on the very weekend that the 6th Harry Potter movie opened world-wide. This was a serious problem indeed. When Sam and I got back to the cabin we changed out of our jeans, grabbed some food to eat from the fridge and headed to Cortez to get our tickets for the 9:00 p.m. show. Meanwhile, Ross and Isaac set up Isaac’s birthday i-pod, went for a canoe ride around the lake and watched a little TV while relaxing in the cabin.
We couldn’t decide if it was the rocking of the train, the carbon dioxide produced by the burning coal, the lack of physical activity, or the altitude but we were all ready for bed when we finally got there.
