Summer of 2024 – Plans In The Making!

Summer of 2024 – Plans In The Making!

By Marcella S. Meeks

In the summer of 2024 , we’re heading for Colorado Springs for a couple of days, and then over to Canon City, Salida and Leadville before heading up to Lake City where we’ll spend the next twenty two days at The Texan Resort. While we’re there, we’re going to drive through the high elevation of Cinnamon Pass and Engineer Pass in the San Juan Mountains that connects the towns of Silverton and Ouray with Lake City. We started up one year and several miles before reaching the Alpine Loop, we chickened out and turned back. I , of course, was the elected driver! It is considered as the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway. According to what I understand, it will take us 7 hours to drive this way. We may find an alternate closer path back to Lake City before night falls or get a room either in Silverton or Ouray.

I’ve been to Silverton and Ouray many times but not up and over a mountain in a four wheel drive vehicle. It’s only about 65 miles across this way but you have to drive slow because of a rough and rocky road espcially in the higher elevation. Since we have not done it before, it is something I truly look forward to. And I will be taking lots of pictures along the way!

Ouray is such a wonderful to visit. I have stayed there many times. One year, we went to Ouray with our family by way of the Million Dollar Highway and stayed at the old Historical Hotel in town. I wasn’t too pleased with our bed but the experience we had while we were staying there made it all worthwhile. There was a back entrance on the second floor and a window overlooking the roof. My daughter, then in her early twenties, decided she was going to make history and ghosts come alive one night around 11 o’clock. The bathroom was in the hall and was shared by the guests on one side of the wing. After all the kids were done bating and settling down for the evening, my turn rolled around to get a bath, as I was coming out there was a great commotion in the hall. The lights had been turned down with only a couple of night lights down the way. The kids were screaming and the adults all clamored out of the rooms to see what was going on. Outside the window on the room was a figure of a woman ghost kind of floating around (clearly visible to all of us in that hall). An eerie sight especially to all those little kids watching. No one knew that Theresa was our ghost until later. After the kids were settled down and all the adults had a good laugh, we finally got some rest. We had no problem getting the kids back to bed and they didn’t dare get back up that night! Even today, we still get a good laugh about the ghost that peeps in the window on the roof of that old hotel.

When our vacation in Lake City is finally over at the end of June, I have plans to head off to Albuquerque for a couple of nights and then venture off to Las Vegas for three or four nights. I just might get lucky and win some $$$. After that, we may head down to Arizona for a couple of weeks to visit family and friends that live out there. I have never been to Arizona and looking forward to the experience. I plan to write about our trip next year as it unfolds and you can read it right here on our blog page! I will keep everyone posted and have plenty of photos to share.

When we start back home, I plan to stop at Carlsbad so we can all do the Carlsbad Caverns. I’ve only been once several years ago and didn’t get a chance to see the bat flight in the evening. That will be something spectacular to look forward to.

By the end of July, we’ll be traveling back home. This will by far be the longest trip I’ve ever taken in my life. It is a new adventure and one that I hope I can finish! If you have any ideas and and fun stuff in Arizona for families, feel free to drop us a comment at the end of this post. We’d love to here from you.