Train ride back into time

Bright and early Sunday, May 31st we boarded a bus for Antonito, CO to catch the Chama bound train. The trip through the mountains allowed us to see deer and elk scurrying away from the roadway. We got to Chama around 10:00 and boarded the train. This is a steam train which

throws out cinders and smoke. By the end of the trip I felt like my hair was full of grit and my eyes were gritty. We were assigned a seat in one of the cars but both Chuck and I spent a lot of time in the open air gondola car where we had an unobstructed view. The train left the flat San Luis valley and chugged its way up to Osier where we had lunch. Lunch is now included in the train fee. It was quite good and we visited with some people from Kansas who were also staying at the RV park. After lunch the train wound up the mountains back to Chama. It was amazing to see the train zig-zag around curves just to gain altitude. Several times you could look back on loops of track you just passed. We arrived in Chama about 4:00 and went to rescue the dogs and the trailer. The dogs did very well and nothing was torn up but were they ever glad to see us. They got an extra long walk. The campground had nice long roadways for us to walk them and lots of chipmunks and squirrels to scare.

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