Amarillo to Forth Worth (Wichita Falls) day 7

Today should have been our final day on the road. We planned to drive from Amarillo to Houston after a quick stop in Wichita Falls to see the man-made waterfall. We ended up staying in Dallas rather than get home after nidnight. (Thanks to those curtains we got a really late start!)
It was hot as all get out when we arrived in Wichita Falls to see the waterfalls.

There was a nice sidewalk that lead to the falls. The kids were glad to have their scooter and "tric-bike" as Emily calls it. And does that girl know how to pose for a picture or what?

It was .43 miles to the waterfall - less than a mile isn't bad but most of the sidewalk was in the sun rather than the shade.

The falls were nice but what you can't tell from the picture is how brown the water was! And the smell... yuck!

Hold your nose. It almost reminded me of Amarillo!

Daniel took this one.

Emily with another wood carved statue!

And another!

When we got to Fort Worth we stopped at the best BBQ place. Neither one of us had heard of this place or knew anything about it. We figured there would be a long wait since it was Friday at 7:00 but there wasn't. This place was huge!!!!! They had great food and excellent service. The patio/yard area out front was great too. If it had been a bit cooler we probably would have eaten outside.

This was the last picture I took....

Before we left, Megan and Charlie challenged Daniel and Emily to a licsense plate game. They had found 34 differnet states on their trip the week before ours. We found 40 and had them beat days before we got back home. However, when we came out of our hotel room this morning we found one more - HAWAII!!! No way. It was a great little ending to our wonderful trip!

Time to Head Home (Durango to Amarillo) day 6

Our time in Durango is over. We knew 3 days wouldn't be long enough but that was all we had. No one wanted to leave. I had to take just a few more pictures before we left. By this point - Daniel is calling me a paparazzi!

Our condo was just 1/2 a mile from this sign. We had an excellent view of Engineer Mountain.

This is the entrance to our area of the resort. It is actually 2 miles up the road from the main resort.

Durango Mountain Resort, main entrance.

Beautiful shot of the scenery heading down the mountain to Durango from the resort. We were actually 30 miles up the mountain from Durango.

Emily just loved posing for pictures with all the bear statues. This was in front of Honeyville. A unique honey bee place. They sold honey, wine and all kinds of other things made with honey.

These signs were everywhere - like the deer signs in Texas.

One last shot of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Train. The track runs alongside the main road into town.

The drive through New Mexico seemed so long! The landscape didn't change much either.

I'm not saying that New Mexico isn't pretty, it's just a long way from Aztec to Tucamcari!

Now this is where I wished we had had our video camera ready. The description of this won't do it justice. I was driving in New Mexico when I say this trailer swaying from side to side. I mean moving back and forth A LOT!!!! The trailer had 3 motor bikes on it and the truck was going about 80 miles per hour. We just couldn't believe he was able to keep control going so fast with that trailed swaying back and forth so hard. I hesitated for awhile before speeding past him!

We arrived in Amarillo about 9pm to the most horrid smell. Apparently the cattle industry is huge there. The smell was unbelievable. Thank goodness you couldn't smell it inside the hotel. We were all asleep by 11:00 and no one got up until almost 10:00 the next morning. The room darkening curtains worked perfectly!!!!!

More adventure activities and 4 Corners (day 5)

Good morning indeed. This is the view from our room. Nice sunrise over the mountain. There was a bit of road noise at night when we had the window opened. I guess the sound was worth the refreshing, cool air.

We went back to Durango Mountain Resort to finish up a few of the adventure things we hadn’t gotten to do the day before. Then we got back on the scenic lift and went all the way up. I couldn’t get a good picture that showed just how high it was but it was way up there. It was ¾ of a mile and we climbed over 1000 feet in elevation.

We had a little snack at the top and then headed back down. Like I said, none of the pictures do this justice because the other ski lifts are right in front of you and there were a couple of dips in the mountain. I’ll try to show the best ones. You can also see Emily and David in front of us.

Nearing the end of the lift. This picture was taken much closer to the bottom of the lift than the top.

David was able to go back up the mountain on the lift and then ride his bike down. It was a short trip but he said it was very difficult even though it was down hill. Lots of controlled braking; and fast, sharp turns. He loved it but he is sore now!

Four Corners is the only place in the United States where you can stand in 4 states at once. (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado) There is some controversy now about the accuracy of this spot but we are going with this spot! My parents took us here when I was little and I remember being so disappointed. I thought it was going to be like Old Town Spring for some reason. I had fully prepared Daniel for what to expect so he wasn’t disappointed. He was just excited to say that he had done it.

We saw some great scenery again on our drive today. We also got stuck in some road construction and had to sit for a long time - thank goodness Granny's van has A/C!!!

Elk are common in Colorado even though the only one we saw was on an Elk Farm.

More pretty views.

We had dinner in town at Tequila’s and then did a little more window shopping.

David really wanted to check this store out but they were already closed.

On the way back to our condo we stopped at this roadside hot spring. It was warm; not hot like I expected.

Total Adventure Ticket (DMR) day 4

This would be our playground for the day! Durango Mountain Resort has wonderful activities for the summer. Today we will do the ski lift, the alpine slide, the bungee tramp, and even gold mining. We have tickets for 4 hours of fun. Let's see if we can fit it all in...

The line was kind of long we when got to the ski lift but it would prove to be worth the wait.

I was so nervous about getting on the lift with Emily. My mom would die if she could see what we were doing. The attendants at the lift were great about getting her on and off. She hardly moved the whole time we were going up. She said, "Mom, why do you have to hold me on my leg?"

Yes, we came from way down there! It was a gorgeous view.

This is a view of the Alpine Slide. You sit on a little scooter and coast down the mountain. Well actually you go pretty fast.

See, fast! And it hurts when you crash! Don't worry, Emily was on my slide!

Daniel, Emily and David have all done this before but it was nothing like this. At the mall they don’t tighten the ropes as much and the attendants don’t pull you down and bounce you like they do here. IT WAS AWESOME!

Attempting to flip!

Flipping is so much harder to do than it looks.

Emily absolutely loved it. I never thought she would like being that high but she asked to go even higher! She was the hit of the crowd. Two people came up to ask how old she was and everybody was cheering her on. What a star!

Dave looking cool in his harness.

I loved this shot. The girl would pull him down several times and then he would fling up in the air. All the girls love to hang on my husband - haha!

The common noontime shower came through right on schedule so they closed everything down. The only thing left to do was go mining. Daniel was very excited to find an arrowhead in his first tray full. They found 6 other arrowheads and lots and lots of colorful gems. The resort gives rain checks so we will back tomorrow!

A little tennis. More like, ball chasing!

Emily looks like a pro!

I didn’t think it was a good idea but you know Dave, he insisted on a hike. Rain or not. He wasn’t gone too long but he was disappointed that he didn’t see a bear.

The kids and I headed to the pool for a swim. It was freezing cold even though it was an indoor pool. There was even warm water flowing through the jets but I was shivering. Emily's lips were blue by the time we got out. (Daniel wanted to try on Emily's floaties for fun - easy swimming but man they hurt coming off of his big arms!)

We went right down the road from the condo for dinner tonight at the Sow’s Ear. (Don’t ask – I didn’t read the history of the restaurant to figure out where the name came from.) The view at our table was great too even though this picture doesn't show it well.

I did, however, notice the price of the kid’s meals - $8 each for mac and cheese (Emily) and two chicken tenders with fries (Daniel). Oh well, we all enjoyed it!

I just had to take a picture of the food! (This was mine.) The asparagus was delicious.

Dave had salmon too.

We headed down to Durango after dinner for some ice cream. The kids were very impressed with the parking meters. They had never seen those before.

After our ice cream, we did a little window shopping. We were able to see them making candied apples at a popular chocolate factory.

When we finally made it back to our condo tonight it was 52 degrees outside. It felt wonderful. What a change from Houston. Tomorrow we are headed back to finish up our adventure ticket/rain check. Then we are off to 4 corners!