Durango

Way back when we were planning our Pagosa trip and thought we'd need to plan activities for the four days we had alone (hence the trip to Manassa), we planned to take the Durango & Silverton train, spend a night in Durango, shop on Main Street and eat at a new restaurant.

That was before we realized we still had so many projects back at home.

I still wanted to go to Durango and look for some fun things for our home 

(ranch? cabin? lodge? camp? The jury's still out on the final name. 

I think when we say "ranch" people imagine cattle and cowboys.

In fact, the guy at the ATV store said just that. What do you think about fishing cabin?)

I didn't calculate how much time running a few little errands in Durango would take.

(I did calculate the day before, of course I did. I'm always making some calculations.)

Starting with three hours just to drive there and back. And an hour for lunch and an hour for grocery shopping once back in town. A five hour excursion and without counting the fun stuff 

(mirrors and art and fun things for the ...whatever we're going to call it.)

Thankfully Marty was willing to babysit Kershaw again, even though Kershaw cleaned his dinner plate when he looked the other way when he watched him on Sunday. We had a nine-hour day ahead of us just to look in a fun antique store and go to HomeGoods. 

Note to self, we didn't find enough treasures to warrant a special trip to the antique store

 and HomeGoods is just TJ Maxx, so a very slimmed down version of Home items.

We did stop at Home Depot and got things we needed, but Ace in Pagosa has just as much.

sooooo... remember this the next time I get a hankering to see what Durango has to offer.

However, it's a beautiful drive, Dan and I enjoyed being together for the day.

We listened to our podcasts so the time went quickly, had a nice lunch, and bonus,

saw the garage door store outside of town on our way back to Pagosa and got our

new garage doors all figured out with a super helpful sales woman.

In all honesty, that made the whole trip worth it.

What I did find: 

Route 66 sign which I couldn't get off the wall, but think I'll look for it on ebay.

Discovered my Grandma's old pencil sharpener collection which I have in a box, has value.

(But where and how to display? We loved playing with these little miniatures.)

One of my favorite books as a child.

First thing I did was look at the back inside cover to see if it was mine.

But it was blank. Not mine.

On mine, I'd written in blue ballpoint pen,

"Help! We're being kidnapped!

And Michelle and I held it up to the back window on a long road trip

because we thought that would be funny.

Unfortunately we didn't get any responses.

Thai food for dinner in Pagosa (a great spot near the store--

delicious food and gorgeous presentation). Then grocery shopping

for when our friends arrive and finally home.