In the Old West

May 20, 2018

We have friends, Carol and Jerry, that are slightly older than us, that bike 35 miles a day several times a week. We had dreams of getting “in shape” this year. But first we made the mistake of bringing only a bike rack for the RV and not for the car. Left that one in storage. That meant we could not bike unless  we started from the RV park. And only in Everglades City was that possible. So the bikes went unused and we stuck to walks and hikes.

While we were in San Antonio, Steve bought a new bike rack for the car.  He ordered it online and had it sent to the RV park.  Logistics is a little harder when you are constantly traveling.  Despite estimated shipping times, it is not always possible to have packages arrive where we are.  Steve has learned one of the worst ways to have something shipped is to pay for expedited delivery.  He has done this twice and each time the delivery took longer than standard delivery.  Our advice is to not mess with a company’s routine.

One day while I was in North Carolina Steve used the bike rack for the first time.  It broke within the first 5 minutes of use.  This was not a cheap bike rack.  It was a Thule and cost $150.  The plastic tabs that engaged the elastic straps broke.  They sheared off like they were made of putty.  His bike almost fell off the back of the car while he was going 65 down I-40 west of Albuquerque.  What a mess that would have been.  It would have made for a more exciting story but it also could have resulted in tragedy.  That rack went back to the seller and we ended up with an old bike rack found on Craigslist.  Should have gone that route from the beginning.

So in Santa Fe we biked about 6 miles one direction on Sunday afternoon. We attributed my inability to go further to the change in elevation. On Monday when we started in the other direction, at first it was exhilarating because it was mostly downhill and flying downhill for 3 miles with blue sky above and mountains in the distance was fun until you remembered you had to return. Those 3 miles back going uphill were really hard on me. I am blessed at my age to not have joint aches and pains but I was reminded that in the past few years I have sat too long in front of the computer too many days. Spent most of the next couple of days just resting and sightseeing in Santa Fe.

Driving from New Mexico into Colorado the scenery starts changing fairly drastically. The mountains are higher with snow tops. Everything is greener. There’s even lilacs blooming along-side

the road! We drove into Durango Thursday evening to this RV park out of town that is next to a babbling brook. The sound effects of it are really soothing.

Friday morning we drove to downtown Durango to catch the bus up to Silverton and then to ride the steam engine railroad back down. Several of you had recommended it and we are glad you did. Taking the bus had some scary moments. The driver- a woman who had to be over 70- talked the entire trip giving history and stories of the railroad. Sometimes we just wanted her to shut up and concentrate on driving because we were on roads that were just shelves with deep canyons below and the bus seemed to be hanging out over the canyons sometimes. But she managed to get us up to Silverton in one piece. The scenic mountains around us were so amazing.

The river is 400 feet below the level of the tracks.  The full name of the river in Spanish translates to River of Lost Souls.  The name was given by Spanish explorers who lost two men in the river.  Their bodies were never recovered.

Silverton was a mining town for many sorts of ores: silver (mostly), gold, zinc, manganese, and the railroad was built to aid the transport of the ores to Durango and to Denver for smelting. Silverton had many saloons and bordellos and some of them are still standing. We ate lunch at an old saloon that had many taxidermy animals of all sizes on the walls. Bear, bobcat, deer, elk, beaver, turkey, snakes, etc.

The first shop I went into in Silverton was a shop selling quilted items of all sizes. I had a good time talking to the woman who owned it and who had made most everything in the shop. She had a modern computerized Singer Sewing machine and one of those huge computerized embroidery machines. She has a long-armed quilting machine in her home. She lives there only April through October because “the winters up here are too hard”.

Winter up in these mountains can bring around 300 to 400 inches of snow. And the train only goes halfway to Silverton in the winter. So the barely 300 residents have to be well-prepared. In the summer the population grows to around 1200 with the staff hired to serve people like us who come to shop and eat.

We boarded the train for the 3 ½  hour trip back to Durango. The train sways a bit and the cars are part of the originals. Even the steam engine locomotive was restored from the junk pile in the 90’s. Again the scenery is spectacular and the stories of men dynamiting into the sheer rock mountainside to make the shelf for the railroad were fascinating. Again, our guide and story-teller looked older than us, dressed like the railroad’s founder, General Palmer, so we are beginning to think tour-guiding is a favorite job for retirees.

The photo shows the train running along a rock ledge about 400 feet above the Animas River.  This terrain goes on for miles.  The ledge was not a natural feature of the canyon.  It had to be blasted out of solid rock with dynamite.  Most of the workers hired to lay the track made $2 a day.  The men who worked with dynamite made $4 a day because of the danger. 

The dynamite had to be inserted into holes cut by hand into the rock.  The standard pattern for blasting was a center hole surrounded by four holes in a diamond pattern and an arc of 13  holes above and below the diamond.  The holes were all made with hammer and chisel.  The rock debris was then shoveled over the ledge into the river. 

That's a real steam engine, not a diesel dressed up to look like a steam locomotive.  The fireman shovels coal from the tender into the firebox.  His shovel is the fuel pump for the engine.  A steam engine does not respond immediately to an increase demand for power.  If more power is going to be needed to climb a steep grade, the fireman needs to start adding coal about 1/2 mile before reaching the hill.  

The train had to stop for water on the way and on the way back. The train needs 6 tons of coal and 10,000 gallons of water for a roundtrip.

If you ever are in the Durango area you must take the train to Silverton and visit the railroad museum.  It preserves an important and impressive bit of history of the old west. 

This train has been serving Silverton for 120 years.  The track was laid with brute force from men and animals.  Many died in its construction.  Specialized mechanics and carpenters renovate the engines, passenger cars and rails to keep the rail line authentic and operational.  

Thoughts today:  Today there is a memorial service for an old friend back in Virginia. I last saw him at our wedding in September. Many good memories of good times in the past. I think we are at that age where we realize every day from now on is a gift to treasure.

Edited by Steve - as usual.