The Road to Home

We finally got our pictures taken with the Mesa Verde sign as we were leaving the park on Thursday morning.  We'd been too busy to do it earlier.  Wesley and I wanted to take a different route home than the way we had come out there, so we decided to keep going east when we hit Durango instead of going south back toward Albuquerque.  We drove through some nice Colorado towns with lovely names like Pagosa Springs, Monte Vista and Alamosa.  My favorite leg of the trip was driving through the San Juan and Rio Grande National Forests.  We drove through the snow-capped Wolf Creek Pass which was beautiful.  It's not often that you see snow in June if you're from Texas.  One of the major reasons we chose to take that route was because we would be able to drive through Southfork, CO.  Both of our dads (as well as uncles, cousins, etc.) have hunted elk up in Southfork.  It's one of those places we'd both heard about but never seen.  My dad told us about a restaurant called The Hungry Logger that was pretty much a tradition for them to eat at whenever they went to Southfork.  We thought it would be fun to stop in and have some dessert there, too.  While driving through town, we didn't see any signs that said The Hungry Logger.  However, the icon of the restaurant is a 24 ft carved logger that stands out front, so we were able to spy him.  Apparently, the name of the restaurant was changed to Biggins a couple of months ago.  Thank goodness for that tall logger to point us in the right direction.  The three of us ate some chocolate cake and then got back on the road.  After we drove back down into desert country again, we passed a field of dirt that appeared to have sculptures sitting in it.  We made a u-turn and went back to check it out.  The sign explained that the stone carvings were there to commemorate the Old Spanish Trail that went through the area and eventually ended in Los Angeles in the 1800s.  We drove for twelve hours that day (including pitstops) and stayed the night in Amarillo.  We drove the rest of the way home the next day.  I love vacations, but there's something comforting about sleeping in your own bed.  We're happy to be home, but it's tempting to start daydreaming about our next destination!

The little turkey snuck my burrito into her lap when I wasn't looking.  The rustling of the wrapper gave her away!

 Wolf Creek Pass with snow in June.  Love it!

 Having cake with Daddy at the Hungry Logger