Los Flemings

We reached Durango, our western most destination, on Tuesday much to the delight of Sam's great grandmother. The stay in Denver was pleasant but our baseball plans were foiled by dreary wet weather and a stomach bug that I caught in the middle of the night Saturday. The one small bright spot was that I got to watch the World Cup final our friend Chris while Mame and Sam explored the Denver Childrens Museum. I recovered in time our departure on Sunday and the good news is that no one else got the bug but me.

From Denver we drove southwest to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park to a spectacular campground down in the canyon and by the river. The rain stopped as we arrived and the clouds rolled away. We took a nice walk upriver in the evening and then explored the rim the following morning. If you're ever in the neighborhood of Montrose, CO we highly recommend stopping to see the canyon.

In the afternoon we drove up and over the mountains through Ouray and Silverton, CO on our way into Durango - another scenic (and white-knuckled) drive in time for dinner with Grandma Adelle. Yesterday, we stayed in one place for the most part out at Aunt Reba and Uncle Dale's house in the country. Sam got to climb on all the tractors and at the end of the day even got to drive one of the diggers. This morning we came into Durango in time to watch the 9:45 departure of the steam engine. We positioned ourselves on the edge of town on the bike path and raced the train for about 1.5 miles on our bikes until dad's legs gave out and the train headed up into the mountains. It was great fun at one point we were right next to the engine with just a chain link fence and a few feet separating us.

Tonight we're headed out to the Bar D Chuckwagon for cowboy chow and cowboy music. Tomorrow we're planning on a family friendly float down the Animas River through town. Sam saw some rafters today and said he was ready to give it a try. We'll see what he thinks of the cold water!