Durango etc.

We stopped here to get wireless and to walk around the city. Now this is a place that we both liked. Brad described it as a larger Boone with happy hours. It was a little more commercialized than Boone was, but I think that is only because it is bigger. Once/if Boone gets bigger it too will become a little more commercialized. It seemed like a pretty cool place to live and/or visit. There are a number of outdoors things to do here and it also has a pretty cute city scene. We had an appetizer and the beer sampler at Steamworks Brewing Company. Their beers were pretty good. Brad’s favorite was the stout or the lager. There Steam Engine Lager was their award winning beer and it was pretty good. If you see their beers in stores, which we are not sure they outsource - you should try it. There was a cute coffee shop, Durango’s coffee company that we hung out in for a little while. Walking around town we saw a few musicians on the street. Brad decided that he really wanted to play on the street because he has never done that before. He said he was nervous, partly because he is shy and partly because he said he felt guilty asking for money. I told him not to ask for money then. He didn’t make one of those ridiculous begging signs and he didn’t open his guitar case to the street. Although he did leave it open sideways, I guess just in case someone wanted to throw money at him. He asked me to go with him because he didn’t want to sit on the street by himself. I guess he wanted me to be a beggar too. He played a few songs. He didn’t get in anyone’s face like the other panhandlers do. He did attract a girl who sang along to one of his songs with him. At the end of his four songs he had made one dollar, that I put in his case. Not a lucrative day but I think he enjoyed it. When he was putting his guitar back in his case he said, "Now I can say I have done it." After leaving town we camped at a campsite on the lower Piedra River. There was a pretty nice river rushing beside the camping area. From our camp you could not see it but you could still barely hear it. It looked like a pretty fun one and we thought of Mom and Tom paddling down it. I think of you guys usually when I see rushing water and Brad usually says something like, "Your Mom and Tom would love that one." Or, "Your Mom and Tom wouldn’t want to go down that one." There must have been a million mosquito’s here. I was on mosquito watch for Brad. I probably killed 7 mosquitos off of his back. Those crazy little things were biting him through his shirt. I taught Brad how to play Gin Rummy the other night and we played Rummy, I think Brad is addicted to this game now. There was a sign at the campsite that warned us about Bears, I suppose we have officially entered Bear country! Somehow I have separated one of my toenails halfway from the toe and it is pretty painful. I kept thinking about Jonathan and how awful that must have been. Mine is only a little bit and it hurts really badly where the skin has torn. I hope your feet are better Jonathan. After camping we drove through another really cute town in Colorado, Pagosa Springs. We only drove through it but we both really liked the feel of the town. We are on our way to the Great Sand Dunes. We just finished the third book of the Chronicles of Narnia - I loved it. We miss you all but we are currently driving aside a really pretty river where people are fly-fishing. There was just a gofer across the street and there is still snow beneath the pines. So, we are loving where we are. There is no crying at high School!!!